Secrets Behind Senator Bukola and Toyin Saraki’s 27 Successful Years of Marriage

This love story is quite unusual. Both are from
wealthy backgrounds—Toyin’s parents Otunba
Kunle and Erelu Ojuolape Ojora, while Bukola’s
father is the late strongman of Kwara politics and
Senate leader in the Second Republic, late Olusola
Saraki. But their pedigree never hindered their
building a wealthy union for their kids to emulate.

For Nigeria’s Senate President, Senator Bukola
Saraki and his wife, Toyin, marital life has been on
a roller-coaster. They have been together for
almost 27 years and still counting.
Revealing in an interview to Kemi Ashefon, Toyin
Saraki, who is the founder of the Wellbeing
Foundation Africa said even as the Kwara State
Governor’s wife, where she spent eight years at
the Governor’s Lodge, she never felt superior to
others.

She said, “I never for one moment felt like ‘a
governor’s wife’ because when my husband and I
got married, he most certainly was not a governor
and I reminded myself of this whenever I felt
things were getting out of hand! Being a
governor’s wife then and now a Senate
President’s wife, was/is a responsibility, not a
lifestyle, for a finite term of years, and with it, for
me, came huge sacrifices which I was honored
and humbled to make in support of my husband’s
political leadership. I have always defined myself
as exactly what I am— a woman, a human being,
with rights and obligations, who cares about the
people around her, the environment she lives in,
the community with which she interacts.

There is no level, no matter how high one may
attain that will ever shake my conviction that one
must cling to the basic truths of life. With blood in
my veins and a heart that loves truth, I have
absolutely no hesitation in defending myself on any
matter of personal integrity. I was brought up, as
an Ojora, to face battles squarely, I don’t run away
from issues. Of course there were times that I was
under attack because often, people judge by their
own standards and misconceived assumptions. The
fact is that while position may protect, position can
also render the occupant more vulnerable.”
Amazingly, the duo still share gifts and a bouquet
of flowers the Senate President sent to his wife
during a Valentine’s Day rocked the Internet.
How is a day in the life of the Sarakis?
Toyin replied, “My daily life has always been an
interesting mix of contrasts, the daily challenge of
balancing my purpose as a mother and wife with
the derivative duties imposed by marriage to a
spouse in high office.”

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