Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso, the presidential candidate of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), says he is not in a hurry to become Nigeria’s president as he had been preparing for the job years ago.

He described himself as the best candidate to be Nigeria’s next president because he had been preparing himself for the job for the past 47 years, made up of 17 years as a civil servant and 30 years as a politician.

“Kwankwaso is not the type who is in a hurry to be president. In 2007, I was in the civil service for 17 years.

“I was the deputy speaker, House of Representatives; I was in the Constitutional Conference, I was Governor and I was a Minister of Defence. But I went back to Kano because I had an uncompleted job.

“So, I believe today, in terms of qualification, in terms of even health, in terms of capacity, in terms of experience, of course,” he said.

Mr Kwankwaso added: “The issue of integrity is very critical because that is what is lacking in most politicians in this country right from councillorship to the presidency.

“It is not easy because to prepare yourself to be a candidate to beat you will need to do a lot of sacrifice.”

“I thank almighty God that today I am standing and I believe Kwankwaso is the best candidate, I am the best person under our circumstances to be the president of Nigeria.”

The former Kano governor said these at the presidential debate organised by the Nigerian Elections Debate Group (NEDG) in collaboration with the Broadcasting Organisation of Nigeria (BON) in Abuja on Sunday.

Mr Kwankwaso had a lone appearance as other presidential candidates of the All Progressives Congress (APC), the Peoples Democratic Party and the Labour Party (LP) all failed to show up.

(NAN)