Saraki speaking to journalists in Abeokuta, Ogun State after meeting with PDP delegates

ADEJOKE ADELEYE/Abeokuta

Former Senate President, Dr Bukola Saraki has said Nigeria need a president who is strong and has the capacity to unite the country.

Saraki, one of the 2023 presidential aspirant on the platform of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP gave the advice at the Secretariat of the party in Abeokuta, Ogun State.

The former senate president who spoke while appealing to the state’s delegates for the PDP presidential primaries, however said he has all the qualities needed in the next Nigerian president.

According him “When I was Special Assistant to President Obasanjo you saw what Nigeria was, how investment was coming in. We need a courageous president, we need a president that understand medical services. If you elect me, I will ensure that Primary health care is free for all. I am a man of my words and actions.

“I am a Muslim, my mother is a Christian, my wife is also a Christian so there will be no religious bias. You need a Nigerian for all Nigerians not a man who will further divide Nigeria.

“In the coming elections, we don’t have the luxury of just electing anybody. The situation of this country is worsening everyday. The situation is such that you cannot easily travel from some states to another. Within this first quarter,
over 1,800 people have been killed, some have been kidnapped. There is even the case of a woman who have birth while in captivity.

“During the time of PDP, there was nothing like that, even during the civil war. Insecurity was not this worse under PDP but now there is banditry, there is kidnapping. In the North Central, farmers cannot go to their farmers. People are dying everyday in the north east, South South is in unrest. These are what we are facing.

“In 2015, unemployment level was about 8 percent, today it’s about 34 percent. In 2015, the exchange rate was less than 230 but now is hitting up to 700. We cannot say we want to vote based on sentiment. This country needs a president that has the capacity and knowledge, not a president that is waiting for people to guide them on what to do.

“We need a president that can unite Nigeria because the unity of this country is very fragile now. There is nothing we can do without unity in this country. Let’s look for a leader that can unite Nigeria. I have the capacity to do what could not be done for over a decade if given the chance to unite Nigeria. We need a president that is courageous and strong. You all know that my four years as Senate President, I stood for this country.

“Today, 80 percent of revenge is going to service loan. If that about is being used to services loans, we cannot build schools and that’s why the country is backward. the only way to change this is to have a president that the people can trust.”

Saraki had earlier visited the former president Olusegun Obasanjo at his presidential library in Abeokuta where he revealed that his visit was to canvass for vote from delegates, but he can not just do that without seeing his former boss.