Senator representing Borno South in the Senate, Senator Ali Ndume, has dismissed Senate President Bukola Saraki’s presidential ambition, describing it as a pipe dream and “not a threat to President Muhammadu Buhari’s second-term bid”.
Saraki, who recently defected from the ruling APC to the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party, is aspiring to be the country’s next president in the 2019 general elections.
Speaking as a guest of the News Agency of Nigeria Forum in Abuja, however, Ndume, who was an ally of the Senate President until they fell out in 2017 said, Saraki can only win elections in his home state, Kwara.
“I think it is good he is going for the presidency of Nigeria and he will see that it is only Kwara people that will vote for him, not Nigerians.
“We are waiting. At best, you will see that maybe people from North Central will vote (for him) because that is where he is from, but I do not think Saraki will be Nigeria’s president.
“When you present President Buhari and Saraki for people to choose from, the difference is very clear.’’
Since his declaration for the presidential race, Saraki has said at different fora that the country was in need of a leader like him with the “demonstrable capacity to unite the nation’’.
But Ndume said Saraki could not be trusted with the country’s leadership, having used his position as Senate President to “antagonise and sabotage’’ the current government.
