He was a tribal nobleman who was a Senator of the Nigerian Second Republic (1979-1983). Before his death, he served as the erstwhile Waziri of the Ilorin Emirate.
Sola Saraki was born on the 17th of May, 1933 at Ilorin, Kwara State.
He was educated at Eko Boys High School. He attended the University of London, and St George's Hospital Medical School, London. He worked as a medical officer at the General Hospital, Lagos and the Creek Hospital, Lagos.
He first entered politics when he ran in the 1964 parliamentary election for Ilorin as an independent, but failed to win. After the election, he returned to his medical practice in Lagos, only returning to party-politics in 1978/79.
In 1977, Olusola Saraki was elected as a member of the Constituent Assembly that produced the 1979 constitution. In 1979 he was elected a Senator of the Second Republic, and became Senate Leader. In 1983 Saraki was re-elected into the Senate on the National Party of Nigeria (NPN) platform.
In 1998, Olusola Saraki became a National Leader and member of the Board of Trustees of the All People's Party (APP), contributing to the APP success in Kwara and Kogi States.
He assisted Mohammed Alabi Lawal in becoming Governor of Kwara State. In 2001 he was head of a team from the Arewa Consultative Forum, a Northern cultural and political group, sent to meet and discuss common goals with Northern state governors and other leaders.
Later Saraki switched allegiance to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and in the 2003 elections supported his son Bukola Saraki as candidate for governor of Kwara state in April 2003, and his daughter Gbemisola R. Saraki as senator for Kwara State Central in April 2003.
He will be buried today according to Islamic rites.
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