Senate President Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki is in the eye of the storm these days. Too many contentious issues on the national scene spiral towards this former governor of Kwara State. Saraki sat down exclusively with Daily Trust on Sunday for an hour and discussed a wide range of issues. Excerpts:

Senate President, do you sleep at all these days, with all the things that are happening?

I do, very well.

With all the missiles flying left, right and center?

It depends on the kind of missiles [Laughter]. 

When you contested for and became Senate President in 2015, did you bargain for this kind of situation, with all the crises and conflicts?

Well, some of these come with the job and with the kind of politics that we play. The most important thing is to always stay focused, have an objective, have a goal, and be guided by that. And at every point to ask yourself what changes are you making to the lives of the people that voted for us? How are we improving their lives? That is my focus. I keep telling people, politics is over and it is the time for governance. Unfortunately, some of the people who lost do not accept that politics is over and it is now time for governance. Their strategy is to distract you. Most of the noise is not about governance but about politics.

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