{"id":63629,"date":"2018-08-15T19:58:26","date_gmt":"2018-08-15T18:58:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/?p=63629"},"modified":"2018-08-16T13:01:08","modified_gmt":"2018-08-16T12:01:08","slug":"saraki-considers-running-for-president-says-i-can-make-a-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/exclusive\/saraki-considers-running-for-president-says-i-can-make-a-change\/","title":{"rendered":"Saraki Considers Running For President, Says &#8220;I can Make A Change&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<div dir=\"ltr\">Nigerian Senate President Bukola Saraki is considering running against<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">President Muhammadu Buhari when Africa\u2019s top oil producer holds elections<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">in February.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">\u201cI am consulting and actively considering it,\u201d Saraki, 56, said Tuesday in<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">an interview at his residence in the capital, Abuja. \u201cI believe I can make<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">the change.\u201d<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">After recently defecting from the ruling All Progressives Congress, Saraki<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">said that if he decided to run, it would be under the banner of the<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">People\u2019s Democratic Party, the main opposition group. He would need to win<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">the party\u2019s ticket during primary elections in October.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">At odds with Buhari ever since he emerged as the senate leader against the<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">president\u2019s wishes in 2015, Saraki is a former member of the PDP who<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">despite joining the APC, often went against the party line.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">His defection last month back to the PDP came amid a wave of such<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">departures from the APC, including dozens of senators and at least two<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">state governors. After security operatives surrounded Saraki\u2019s home last<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">month for undisclosed reasons, the secret police temporarily blocked<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">access to the National Assembly on Aug. 7, in what Saraki said was an<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">illegal attempt to impeach him. The head of the State Security Services<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">was dismissed over the deployment.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">Confidence Lost<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">\u201cIf a government can go and lock up an arm of government &#8212; and it\u2019s never<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">happened in our history &#8212; we should all be very concerned,\u201d Saraki said.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">\u201cWe should not be surprised that they would use security agencies for<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">elections.\u201d<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">Investors and citizens have lost confidence in the president, according to<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">Saraki, the nation\u2019s third ranking official after Buhari and his deputy.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">Buhari\u2019s election victory in 2015, which marked the first time an<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">opposition party won power at the ballot box and put an end to 16 years of<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">PDP rule, came after he pledged to fix the economy, improve security and<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">fight corruption.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">While Buhari\u2019s administration has raised record amounts of money in<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">oversubscribed Eurobond sales and increased revenue to boost investments<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">in roads, rail, ports and power, poverty remains widespread in Nigeria and<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">the nation is still dealing with deadly violence in several regions.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">To win the PDP ticket at the party\u2019s primaries on Oct. 5 and 6, Saraki<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">would need to beat another presidential aspirant, former Vice President<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">Atiku Abubakar, who also defected from the APC last year.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">Saraki said Nigeria needs to be governed by a genuinely pro-business<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">administration that will be able to tackle recurrent security issues.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">Bloomberg<\/div>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Related Posts generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Nigerian Senate President Bukola Saraki is considering running against President Muhammadu Buhari when Africa\u2019s top oil producer holds elections in February. \u201cI am consulting and actively considering it,\u201d Saraki, 56,&hellip;<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Related Posts generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":59016,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-63629","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.8 - 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