Former military ruler and presidential aspirant, General Muhammadu Buhari [Rtd], has formally declared his intention to contest the 2011 presidential elections under the Congress for Progressive Change [CPC].

Declaring his intention before a crowd of supporters in Abuja, General Buhari said he believes that what Nigeria needs is a leadership that will harness her resources of the country adequately.

General Buhari who has taken a shot at the presidency twice announced that, unlike 2003 and 2007 he will not challenge the result of next year's poll in court if he loses.

"Alas, after almost 12 years of our democratic experience, the administration's record is a catalogue of betrayal and thoroughly squandered opportunities," Buhari said in a speech announcing his candidacy on the platform of the opposition Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) party.

He said Nigeria should be a democratic example in the West African region, leading its economic progress. Buhari came to power in 1983 in an almost bloodless New Year's Eve coup that ended Nigeria's second attempt at democracy. His iron-fisted administration is best remembered for its austerity measures, the jailing of politicians on corruption charges and the execution of drug traffickers.

Buhari said he would review reforms including privatisation plans, which he said had in the past been marred by corruption.

"The so-called reform programme ... in the last 12 years has been zeroed to privatisation, interpreted to mean 'to strip and sell national assets to cronies at knockdown prices'," he said.

"Its implementation has all the hallmarks of the PDP administration: corruption." He said.

Buhari said one of the main tasks of any new government would be to tackle "rampant insecurity", requiring co-ordination between the armed forces, police and civil society.

Buhari, the military ruler for 20 months between 1983-85, lamented what he described as "pervasive corruption" in the years since the end of military rule just over a decade ago.