Senate President Bukola Saraki has promised tough times for incompetent political office holders across the country.

Dr. Saraki, who declared yesterday in Ilorin, Kwara State, that such persons, if found wanting, after being quizzed by lawmakers, would be recommended for prompt replacement by the Executive.

Saraki assured members of his constituency, who paid him a visit, “Until we find solutions to our economic problems we will not hold our peace. It is a challenge, but as leaders, we have no excuse for failure.”

According to Saraki, there is no responsible leader anywhere that will deliberately make his people suffer.

“Office holders have no excuse not to fix the Nigerian economy. However, it is important to be more patient on our agitation. It is important and of necessity to bring about solution,” he said.

Saraki used the occasion to reveal that a bill to prevent candidates who had passed the Unified Matriculation Tertiary Examination (UMTE) from repeating the said exams within the next two years after the success even when such candidates could not secure admission had passed through all the major stages at the Senate.

The Senate President said the development was aimed at reducing the burden of obtaining the same form the year after, as the development could not be traced to the laxity of the successful candidates.

He promised to use his office to improve the lot of his people and the entire Nigerians as a whole.

Saraki also expressed the belief that a military solution should not be the most reasonable option to resolve the agitation in the Niger Delta region.

He said that Nigerians were in the habit of aiding the economies of other nations with unbridled patronage of foreign goods at the expense of the locally made products.

The Senate president said the National Assembly had provided requisite legal frameworks to strengthen the campaign for the patronage of made-in-Nigeria goods.

On the crisis in the Senate, Saraki said those orchestrating his travails should withdraw from the plot as all evidence in public domain had vindicated him.

He advised that anyone hatching a plot to pull him down was embarking on a fruitless adventure. He noted that rather than nursing political vendetta, efforts should be geared towards stabilising the polity.

•Text courtesy of The Guardian. Photo shows Senate President Bukola Saraki.

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