It has been a tough year for the Senate president Bukola Saraki. In an exclusive interview with NAIJ.com the senator commented on his alleged ambition for the 2019 presidential race and the development of Nigeria; here is an excerpt from his interview:

About Nigeria's development:
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, in 2014, Nigeria was named the largest economy in Africa.

Many of her citizens have led international organisations and the population has grown from just about 60 million to over 170 million, making it the most populated country in Africa.

We have some of the best and most solid financial institutions in Africa. Similarly, one of the greatest industrialists from Africa, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, is a Nigerian. He is also, according to Forbes rating, the richest African.

In addition to that, we have survived a civil war and experienced years of military rule. Today the country is a democratic nation. We have pulled back each time we moved to the edge of the precipice.

For all these, I believe, we have experienced a lot of developments. However, with the available resources, both human and material, we could have been a world giant today. We got independence about the same time with Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand. These Asian Tiger nations have taken the world by storm and are now leading global financial and investment capitals.

They have excelled in manufacturing, service and financial sectors. Yet, they are not as endowed in terms of natural and human resources as we are. Let me say that we have realized our problems and we are attending to them.

What this means is that the world should watch out for Nigeria, we are coming and we will still lead the world. I am sure, with sustained democracy and the envisaged pace of development, we will soon get there.

About rumoured 2019 presidential ambition
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 8th 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.

Source: http://specials.naij.com/bukola-saraki

SARAKI, THE FACE OF CORRUPTION