Senator Bukola Saraki in this interview with newsmen, suggests what he feels would be the best way to resolve the issue of who the party should back to become president of the 8th Senate.

Some say it is because you are perceived as having a presidential ambition for 2019 that some APC leaders do not want you as Senate president. How will you react to that?

That is the problem; a lot of our politicians still live in the past and you may ask why do I say that? I think it will be pretty much irresponsible for any politician, after going through what we went through in winning election in 2015 to start talking of 2019. The only reason why you will do that is because you are still living in those days when if you are in the seat of power, it is automatic that your party will continue to sit on that seat.

But this is part of the mistakes our politicians make; they do not see this change that some of us talk about. Any politician today that is thinking about 2019 and does not think about how this 2015 government will perform is missing the point. The point today is that the same way you came in on the argument that the other government did not perform and the Nigerian people agreed with us to say that government did not perform and to say we need a new one; if you do not perform, forget 2019.

So, honestly, anybody talking about 2019 is not realistic. For someone like me, I contested in 2011, but I did not contest in 2015. I made those sacrifices because I believed that it was not proper. So, 2019 is not my focus. My focus is that I have come out and was one of those that came right up there to say we needed a change in the way government is done. That I have put my integrity and my name out there, I must perform to satisfy Nigerians who have faith in us (in APC), and to do that is to start working from now so that we can deliver. It is not taken for granted that APC will continue to be in a position in 2019 to even be talking about producing a president if we do not talk about how we are going to fulfil the promises we made to Nigerians about change, about addressing the major issues of corruption, security, unemployment. And that is where my focus is, and my concern is for a lot of us to begin to see that the real work is just starting. It is easier for some of us to talk because when you campaign and promise, it is talk. Now is the time to act. Expectations are high and so, if we are committed, it is a period for us to be very worried that we hope we can meet the great expectations of Nigerians.

Will it be correct to say you are more in support of leaving the senators to decide their leaders?

That is the best way. That is the way you will ensure stability. We saw in 1999 what happened, there was no stability. The only time that the Senate and House of Representatives have been stable is when they were allowed to pick who they want. Now, the news is in the Senate and House of Reps. But after June 9, you are all going to move to something else like cabinet and leave us to our own issues. So, if you now leave us and we are in a situation where this is not what we want, there will be crisis. So it is better that the senators or members of the House of Reps pick who they want because they will be better composed and there will be stability and it is that stability and cooperation that the National Assembly needs to be able to perform properly in giving support to the executive and pushing some of these agenda that we want to give to the Nigerian people. So definitely, it is in the best interest of everybody, the party can advise and guide.

The feeling out there is that you are making this case because if it is zoned, the party will zone you out...

Why should the party zone me out? From the two attempts to resolve the zoning, the first one by the NWC, whether it is formal or not, what we heard was that the NWC zoned it to the North Central. When the governors met as well, what was recommended was the North Central. So, from the zoning point of view, why should I believe I will be zoned out when the two attempts were both recommending the North Central?

Why I am saying it is not because of being zoned out. I'm talking about the stability of the National Assembly, I'm also talking about what happened in the past. If you look at the past Senate presidents that did not survive, how was their emergence? If you look at those that survived as well, how was their emergence? And if you go through that, you will see that stability comes largely when the National Assembly is allowed to choose. The latest one is what happened in the House of Representatives. Despite all the issues, the speaker survived the entire four years because he was their choice. Same with David Mark, same with Ken Nnamani. History has shown that it is always better to allow them to choose and not whether it is to my advantage or to my disadvantage. Even if I was not in the race and I was asked to make a comment, I'll say we can guide them, but at the end of the day they should be allowed to choose because what we want from the National Assembly is stability and to be able to work with the executive and deliver on some of these policies, that is what should be important to Nigerians always. And it is also part of strengthening our democracy and when we are talking about change, we want a departure from how things used to be so it is not going to be business as usual. So, we must practice what we preach.

When you throw it open like that, are you not afraid that the PDP may take it?

When you say throw it open, it might not necessarily be to throw it open at the floor, what we said is that there must be some level of internal democracy. The APC which has the majority can have within it, amongst its own 59 senators, a democratic process in which we can elect the candidate. The party at a time tried to organise some kind of primary election for those contesting. But again, that is a democratic process of doing it. So, when I say throw it open, I'm not saying just throw it open and let it go on the floor.

What is your level of rapport with PDP to ensure that you have their votes?

What I have come to observe in the last few weeks is good for our democracy. Also, it is good to see the calibre of senators that we have. I am encouraged by my colleagues that I see in the 8th Senate. They are distinguished senators who want to put Nigeria first, and I think in deciding who best to lead, they will be looking at who is best to lead and ensuring that this Senate will perform. I think that is the criteria they will use. I am talking to them; again, I feel that they will look at what happened in the past and be able to work with me.

What is your agenda for the Senate?

I think one of the things I have observed in looking at all our areas of responsibility is largely the fact that many Nigerians wonder what we do here. What happens in the National Assembly or to put it another way, 'I don't see what they do to my life.' There is no connect between the National Assembly and the Nigerian people and that is why people say they are just there. We hope the 8th chamber under one's leadership will begin to bring a closer relationship, a better connection between the Nigerian people and the Senate in the sense that we'll see that some of the laws that we pass are laws that will have impact on the lives of our people. Secondly, is the area of representation. A lot of us must improve in being able to connect and interact with people we represent. There must be openness and transparency in even what we do in the Senate.

We must ensure that there is accountability. Some of our responsibilities are in the areas of oversight, we really have to improve on that. No matter what we say, some of the issues that we have seen, things that happened in the last few years, we cannot but take responsibility that there have been poor oversight and that is an area that we must improve on. Whether we are talking about the issue of Boko Haram, the issue of security, we must improve on our oversight. This is an area of priority for us. We must also be able to make sacrifices that are necessary. We must be able to have a legislative agenda that also works closely with what Mr President's agenda is. There are issues of revenue, of the budget - we have to look at the budget process and ensure that the way it is done can impact on Nigerians.

We must also improve the capacity of the senators because I believe that there is need for a lot of research, there is need for a lot of capacity building and information gathering, also in our interaction with the legislature and the civil society and a lot of people out there who can provide the technical support if there is need for that.

There are some bills that I believe are priorities. I think one of the areas is the delivery of justice. It is a key area of all the things we talk about, whether we are talking about security or anti-corruption. We need to look at the electoral reform because that will strengthen our democracy. These are bills that I believe are key.

Some of our processes, our rules and proceedings, will have to be reviewed to make them more efficient so we see how we can deliver. So these are the things I feel we need to do to make our Senate more effective, to make it more productive, to make it have its own benchmarks on deliverable, to be able to say this is what we promised.images/gov_ahmed.jpg