A former governor of Kano State and one-time Minister of Defence, Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, is set to declare his interest to run for the office of the President in the 2023 general election.

The declaration is slated for next week after the Easter holidays.

According to Kwankwanso, he is declaring his intention to vie for the office of the President in 2023 because both the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) have failed Nigerians.

Speaking with journalists at his Abuja residence on Friday night, Kwankwaso said Nigerians were angry over the current state of the affairs of the country and were seriously seeking for a true change in the way things are done.

“I have been consulting widely with friends and Nigerians of diverse interests and the outcome has been positive. I will be informing Nigerians of my political ambition sometime early next week,” Kwankwanso said, adding that members of APC are all strange bedfellows whose ideologies have no similarity.

“The 2023 election will be between those who are happy with what has happened and those who want change. We are not happy or satisfied with what is happening and we want to change it. The system is not working and everyone knows it,” he added.

On insecurity, the former minister of defence criticised the APC-led government, stating that President Muhammadu Buhari has not shown enough commitment and courage towards strengthening the capacity of the security agencies to be able to subdue the criminal elements tormenting the country.

“How did we get here? The government should be more serious about security. As a former Minister of Defence, I never thought insecurity will ever be this low in this country within this short period of time. How did we find ourselves in this mess? What actually happened?

“‘Our issues in this country have to do with the leadership. When the political leadership is not strong enough to motivate the military, and ensure they are taken care of in terms of training and retraining as well as provision of equipment, arms and ammunition to match the bandits.

“Nobody is talking about rescuing people and the killings and abductions continue to happen again. So, I believe the government has to do more. We are so worried, and I believe security is one of the areas we will handle with utmost competence so Nigerians can be free again to pursue their daily businesses. We want the military and other law enforcement agencies to tackle insecurity,” Kwankwanso stated.