Nigerian senate head mulls running for president in Feb

Bloomberg

Nigerian Senate President Bukola Saraki is considering running against President Muhammadu Buhari when Africa’s top oil producer holds elections in February.
“I am consulting and actively considering it,” Saraki, 56, said in an interview at his residence in the capital, Abuja. “I believe I can make the change.”
After recently defecting from the ruling All Progressives Congress, Saraki said that if he decided to run, it would be under the banner of the People’s Democratic Party, the main opposition group. He would need to win the party’s ticket during primary elections in October.
At odds with Buhari ever since he emerged as the senate leader against the president’s wishes in 2015, Saraki is a former member of the PDP who despite joining the APC, often went against the party line.
His defection last month back to the PDP came amid a wave of such departures from the APC, including dozens of senators and at least two state governors. After security operatives surrounded Saraki’s home last month for undisclosed reasons, the secret police temporarily blocked access to the National Assembly on August 7, in what Saraki said was an illegal attempt to impeach him. The head of the State Security Services was dismissed over the deployment.
“If a government can go and lock up an arm of government—and it’s never happened in our history—we should all be very concerned,” Saraki said.