TheCable

The All Progressives Congress (APC) says the aspiration of Senate President Bukola Saraki to be the country’s number one citizen is a huge joke.

Saraki, who dumped the ruling party for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), had declared his intention to run for president in 2019.

Accusing the ruling party of falling below expectation, Saraki promised to turn the country around for good.

But APC described Saraki as a failure who has nothing to show for his years as governor of Kwara state and president of the senate.

“Saraki’s presidential aspiration is a huge joke and should not be taken seriously,” APC said in statement released Wednesday and signed by Yekini Nabena, the party’s spokesman.

“By virtue of Saraki’s antecedents, he is an abysmal failure and is totally incompetent to offer himself as a candidate for leadership of Nigeria. Saraki was a two-term Governor of Kwara State and Senate President in the last three years. What were his performance records in these two assignments? As Kwara State Governor, was his Shonga Agricultural Programme not a white elephant project in which hundreds of millions of State funds was sunk into?

“The infrastructure, particularly roads network in Kwara State in which the present administration remains under his tight grip and political machinations long after leaving office, remains deplorable while state resources is mismanaged through corrupt enrichment. A Presidential aspirant who promises to create jobs and turn around the economy at the national level, must have done so in a state he served as Governor for eight years. We challenge Saraki to give the nation his scorecard as a Kwara State.”

The party accused the senate president of using his position to “superintend over budget padding, sabotage of the executive by frustrating confirmation of presidential nominees, stalling legislative approvals for election budgets and his recent shadow boxing on the Electoral Act.”

The APC said Saraki has been moving from one court to another over charges of forgery of senate rules, false declaration of assets, and being linked with armed robbery case in Offa.