Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki has said that the leadership of the All Progressives Congress, led by President Muhammadu Buhari, lacks the vision, capacity and the patience to develop the country.
A statement by the Special Adviser to the Governor of Bayelsa State on Media Relations, Mr. Fidelis Soriwei, quoted Saraki as having made the comment when he led his campaign team on a courtesy visit to Government House, Yenagoa on Thursday.
Saraki tasked Nigerians to replace the current leadership provided by the All Progressives Congress, which, he said, had caused disunity in the country.
The Senate president stressed that the country was in dire need of a leader like him with demonstrable capacity to unite the deeply divided country and create a sense of belonging through fair distribution of appointments in the country.
Saraki argued that it was indeed impossible for anybody to give what he didn’t have as shown by the leadership inadequacies of the APC leaders.
He stated further that the country was in need of a young vibrant leader with the capacity to withstand the rigours of governance at all times.
He stressed that running governance must be accompanied with the inseparable willingness and capacity to give 24-hour attention to the demands of the job.
According to Saraki, the Asian Tigers were respected to have developed their countries because of their painstaking commitment and patience in dealing with issues of governance, which was lacking in Nigeria.
Saraki appealed to PDP delegates to consider him for the candidature of the party to make the requisite difference in the governance of the country.
The Senate president who also spoke on the raging debate on restructuring stated that it would be wrong to perceive restructuring as a move to develop a few states.
Saraki said that restructuring would create opportunities for the respective states of the federation to actualize their developmental potentials and ensure national growth in the interest of the future generation of Nigerians.
He said, “2019 is a very crucial election for this country; we are at the crossroads in this country today. We have never been so disunited as we are today.
“Wherever you go, people ask questions: where do you belong? We need to address the issue of unity in this country; it is time for everybody to have a seat on the table, a time for everyone to have a sense of belonging in this country. It is not about me.
“There is a new order in the world today, wherever we go, we see leaders that have vision, that are ready to develop their country. A lot of us talked about the Asian tiger, but they did not come by chance, or trial and error, they became tigers because they have visionary leaders.
“They are leaders that are ready to defend their countries, that have an idea of what they want to do. As I keep on saying, you cannot give what you don’t have.
“Where we are now, we have a leadership that has no vision for us. We must bring visionary leadership to the presidential level so we can move this country forward.”
In his remarks, Governor Dickson said that the time had come for the country to move away from the evil of bigotry and indeed a leadership founded on feelings of sectional superiority.
He called for a regenerated Nigeria where all Nigerians could be trusted and appointed into sensitive positions irrespective of ethnicity and region.
He stressed that Nigerians were truly deserving of a country where anybody could be Director of the Department of State Service or Chief of Army Staff and other sensitive positions irrespective of region, ethnicity or religion.
He restated the position of the elders and leaders of the Niger Delta that the 2019 election would be a referendum on restructuring.
Dickson said that the people of the Niger Delta who had made costly sacrifices for the sustenance of the country, with their sweat and blood but treated with disdain, for the past 60 years, were passionate about the demand for the restructuring of the country.
He called on the presidential aspirants of the Peoples Democratic Party to show restraint in their utterances and to be committed to the pursuit of the objective of electoral victory in favour of the party in 2019.
“I agree with you that our nation must move away from bigotry. We must work together and build a new Nigeria for all Nigerians, a nation for the few as well as a nation for the many.
“We need a nation of all Nigerians and not a nation for one ethnic group, religious faith or one geo-political region in Nigeria.
“We must get quickly to that point where we build a new Nigeria; where to be appointed as Director General of the Department of State Service or the Chief of Army Staff, the Inspector General of Police, the Chief Justice of Nigeria and to be whatever you want to be, you don’t need to come from a particular tribe, or someone who worships one type of God or another.
