One of the contenders for the president of the 8th Senate, Senator Bukola Saraki from Kwara State has stated that competence and capacity to move the legislature and Nigeria forward should be the criteria for choosing the next Senate president and not sentiment.

Speaking in an interactive session with Senate correspondents, Saraki said the country had gone beyond the period when just anyone could just sit in the saddle and try his hands at governance, stressing that experience and ability to make the needed decisions are much needed for the new dispensation.

He said, "We need to review the way we have been doing things and start doing things right. I will ensure that the Senate makes impact on the lives of the people. The people are not feeling the impact of the parliament and they are asking what their elected representatives are doing there.

"I will provide quality direction on how to run the affairs of the country. We have to give Nigerians value for their money. The Senate must have a national agenda that will effectively address the multifarious problems confronting this country at the moment.

"Nigerians voted for APC for change so that things can be done differently. We need to allow internal democracy to take place in electing the leadership of the next assembly so that people can elect their choice candidates without interference. Let us not base choice of leadership on sentiment. The PDP lost because Nigerians were tired of the failure in the system", he added.

Applauding the position of the party that they should choose their leader among themselves without interference, he observed that Nigerians were not getting dividends of democratic governance in the country because leaders usually emerged through ethnic, religious and sectional sentiments rather than on the basis of qualification and competence.