2011: I'VE NO TIME FOR FRIVOLITY – SARAKI

Against the background of reactions from opposing camps to his choice of mode of declaration of his Presidential ambition, Governor Bukola Saraki, has said he has no time for frivolities as his campaign is issues-based.

Saraki, who is contesting on the platform of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), said yesterday that the problems confronting Nigeria and her people required utmost seriousness on how they would be tackled and that was why his campaign strategy was development-focused and people-oriented, with malice to none and completely devoid of pettiness.

The Director-General of Abubakar Bukola Saraki Campaign Organisation (ABS), Dr. Udenta O. Udenta, in a statement in Abuja yesterday said the ambition of the aspirant was motivated by the fact that after decades of independence, Nigeria was still a nation at crossroads and that the path the nation chooses in the 2011 presidential polls would make all the difference.

He, therefore, called on all the other presidential campaign organisations to subscribe to a code of conduct that would guide a healthy and lively dialogue. 'The economy is in bad shape and in need of urgent intervention and remediation. Therefore, the choice is entirely ours: to leave it in its worsening state or seize the opportunity offered by the election with both hands to change it.

'This is why, for Governor Bukola Saraki, this presidential campaign must be issues-driven, development-focused, people-oriented, with malice to none and completely devoid of pettiness.' Dr. Saraki maintained that while this was an election season and as a result, candidates were now jostling and positioning themselves to win, sometimes at all costs, focused, visionary and transformative leadership could lead the nation out of the rot it had found itself.

'This is so because the problems with our nation have been well diagnosed but the real challenge remains fixing them,' he added. Udenta stated that Governor Saraki had the requisite experience and competence, both cognate and innate, to fix the nation and is, therefore, fighting for a fair chance to bring him to the centre to intervene in the nation's arrested development.

He quoted the governor as saying that what was of greater interest to him in fulfilling this patriotic desire was not just seeking power for its own sake, but becoming the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria through a fair contest devoid of rancor and politics of bitterness.