Saraki, who had earlier hinted at
running for the highest office in the land, told Bloomberg in an interview that
he had been consulting widely.
In the last one week, the senate
President has visited ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo and former military
President Ibrahim Babangida.
Saraki said he would need to win
the ticket of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to actualise his objective of
leading the country.
He defected to the PDP from the
All Progressives Congress (APC) two weeks ago.
The senate president accused the
APC of not managing its victory well, saying his new party could make a
difference.
“I am consulting and actively
considering it… I believe I can make the change,” he was quoted to have said.
“The PDP has learnt its lesson
from the loss in 2015, and I think unfortunately the APC did not learn from
their victory.
“While negotiating with the PDP,
we listed a number of issues. We talked about how to sustain and improve the
fight against corruption; the issue of providing more powers to the states;
inclusion and having a more nationalistic approach on things we do; to continue
to improve the environment that will ensure investments.
“We listed a number of items
during the discussions with the PDP, and there is a written agreement to that.
We trust that we can hold them to that.
“We would ensure that the party
is strong on security. The APC too have not done well on the issue of security.
We have the opportunity with the right kind of presidential candidate and
president to provide the leadership for the party. The party has a good
opportunity to lead the country in the right direction.”
He also spoke of the Department
of State Services (DSS) blockade of the national assembly, wondering what would
happen during next year’s elections.
“If a government can go and lock
up an arm of government — and it’s never happened in our history — we should all
be very concerned… we should not be surprised that they would use security
agencies for elections,” Saraki said.
“There has been a persistent
disregard for due process and a lack of neutrality for some of these issues.
For you to have credible elections, you must have safe elections. Security
agencies are actively getting involved in the politics.
“The fundamentals of whatever we
are going to develop is going to be based on sound democracy, credible
elections, freedom of choice of Nigerians. If we don’t have that as a
foundation, then everything else cannot happen.”
Saraki alleged that investors
have lost confidence in the Buhari government, criticising the current
administration’s handling of fuel subsidy.
“Most of the inflows that have
come in are merely hot money, and that is because the oil price has gone up,”
he said.
“Investment in the real sector is
not seen. The private sector, in my view, has probably taken a position that
the confidence is not there in the government. The country requires a
government that is truly pro-business, and a president that sees himself as a
chief marketing officer.
“If we are going to have a
subsidy, we should have a budget for subsidy. Because once we have a budget for
it, the private sector can also play a role in the importation of petroleum
products. And if the private sector plays a role, definitely the cost of the
subsidy will go down and there will be more efficiency in the delivery of
products. But in the environment we are in today, where it’s only the Nigerian
National Petroleum Corporation that’s doing that, it’s going to be inefficient,
it’s not going to be transparent.”
Stop condemning Saraki let him exercise his human right, he can run for presidency why not that is why Buhari is after him and beside we don't want old man again as the President of Nigeria
ReplyDeleteWho knows he can be better off than this old man
ReplyDeleteBuhari knows Saraki's vision that is why he wanted to kill it in order for it not to come to pass, but is Buhari God? nobody can change the mind of God and anything God want to do he do it without anybody's permission
ReplyDelete