HOUSTON, USA — Former Senate President Bukola Saraki has alleged that his tenure as head of the eighth National Assembly was marred by harassment and obstruction from the executive arm of government due to his refusal to “cut deals” and rubber-stamp requests from then-President Muhammadu Buhari.
Saraki, who led the Senate between 2015 and 2019, made the claims during the 2025 Reunion Gala of the King’s College Old Boys Association (KCOBA) in Houston, Texas, where he delivered a candid reflection on his time in office.
“The legislature is an institution created to make laws, oversee the executive, and represent the people,” Saraki said.
“A legislative leader must have character. He must be bold to speak truth to power.”
He said that boldness came from confidence built over time and lamented what he described as the widespread silence that greeted attacks on the National Assembly during his leadership.
“We were like orphans. The elite and ordinary people kept quiet, were nonchalant, and stayed aloof,” Saraki said.
“Now, years after we left office, subsequent leadership of the National Assembly would rather be a rubber stamp and play dumb because they do not want to go through the harrowing experience that Saraki went through.”
Saraki accused the executive of deliberately frustrating the passage of key legislation, particularly during the build-up to the 2019 general election.
“We were not successful because the bill got caught in the politics leading to the 2019 elections, and thus, did not get the required attention from the House of Representatives,” he said, referencing a major legislative effort he did not name.
He suggested that had he been more accommodating to the demands of the presidency, the narrative around his leadership would have been drastically different.
“I could have agreed with everything the Presidency under Buhari wanted and cut deals with them all the way. I would have been a good ally,” Saraki stated.
Instead, he said, his insistence on legislative scrutiny — especially of executive loan requests — made him a target.
“Why would I be a Senate President and could not lead the Senate to ask questions on what the loans the executive branch is seeking approval is meant to be spent for?” he asked.
The former Kwara State governor said his experiences highlight a deeper institutional weakness in Nigeria’s democracy.
“These sad developments are indications that our institutions are weak. Instead of building institutions, we are building strong men and women,” he said.
