Saraki “consulting and actively considering” running against Buhari in 2019

Bukola Saraki

Senate president Bukola Saraki has said that he’s “consulting and actively considering” running in the 2019 presidential election.

Saraki made this known in an interview with Bloomberg at his Abuja residence.

“I believe I can make the change,” Saraki said, adding that investors and citizens have lost confidence in President Muhammadu Buhari.

On the DSS invasion/blockage of the national assembly last Tuesday, Saraki said:

“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.”

On his new party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Saraki 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.

Read the rest of the interview on Bloomberg