Saraki: 'The Talk Of 2019 Now Is Stupid And Ungodly' [ Exclusive Interview]

Senate president, Bukola Saraki talks on Nigerian economy and the 2019 presidential race in an exclusive interview with Naij.com's Chinenye Ugonna in his Abuja office on Friday October 2.

Here's what the Nigeria's number 3 citizen had to share with the publication.

''Therefore, for us in the Senate, we need to do all at our disposal to provide appropriate legislation that will help the economy to grow, generate employment opportunities, make foreign direct investors to prefer our country to others,'' he told Naij's Ugonna of job creation in Nigeria. ''That is why we are bent on reviewing all laws that relate to creating investments and ensuring that trade disputes are handled in line with world best practices. We want investors to look at our laws and say yes we are confident that our money is safe here.''

On his ambition for Presidency:

''I have said it on record that the talk of 2019 now when we are yet to deliver on the mandate we received just last May is stupid and ungodly. My focus and attention is on how to ensure that the eighth Senate under my leadership work with our colleagues in the House of Representatives to ensure that we partner with the executive arm to solve the problems of insecurity, unemployment, economic crisis and collapse of national infrastructure.''

On National Assembly:

''...We also want to concentrate on exercising our oversight powers very often, efficiently and effectively. This will keep all MDAs on their toes and thereby improve on public service as well as service delivery to our people. As you well know, we were elected to deliver service and improved standard of living of the people.''

On salary cut, if RMFAC (Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission) slash is out:

''We know this is a time that calls for sacrifice and we are ready to co-operate with the executive to genuinely salvage the situation. Remember the NASS budget was slashed from N150 billion to N120 billion, which is part of the sacrifices we are making in response to the state of the economy.''

Nigeria at 55:

''In 55 years, a lot of developments have taken place in our country. This is a country that at the time of independence had only two universities, one television station and just about a thousand telephone lines. Today, we have about 100 universities, federal, state and privately owned. There should be about 40 television stations now. Over 60 million telephone lines now exist in the country and Nigeria was last year named the largest economy in Africa.''

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