• Cautions against gerontocracy
The former military head of state, General Abdusalam Abubakar (rtd) has declared that Nigeria of 2023 and beyond does not need leaders with a walking stick but the younger generation to give the leadership a new lease of life.
Abdulsam spoke at his hilltop country home in Minna when President of Kaftan TV, Prince Adewale Adebayo, a presidential aspirant visited to consult with him on his ambition come 2023.
“Thank you, Adebayo for finding me fit to come and tell me of your ambition. Indeed Nigeria needs the younger generation to take over from us the older generation,” he said.
He expressed happiness that younger people are now showing interest to take over the leadership of the country.
“Like you rightly said the world is going digital and I believe the younger generation are more exposed internationally in ICT than the older generation.
“I am happy that you are thinking of moving the country forward and I believe with your ideologies and your youthful and vibrant ambition I think Nigeria is on the right part and wish Nigeria will be great.
“Nigeria with a population of over a 200million certainly is a great country and such leadership will go a long way to make it a greater place.
“Thank you for finding me fit to come and visit me to tell me of your ambition. You can count on our support always trying to do the right thing.”
He thanked the former minister for sports Barrister Solomon Dalung for bringing his friend to visit him.
The presidential aspirant is a product of the National Consultative Front (NCfront) and the shadow Government.
Adewale Adebayo while addressing the man who midwived the Nigerian democracy in 1999 expressed gratitude to him for relinquishing power to democratically elected leaders.
“We are grateful to you for many reasons, that we saw you on May 1999 handing over power and collecting your service plaque, you have always been there.
“You are one of our greatest leaders, you are to us what Abraham Lincoln is to the Americans. Because Lincoln founded America it wasn’t George Washington, he reformed the character of the country after the civil war and you after many years of military wilderness showed to us that you are an officer and gentleman and you kept your words which were not easy to do and you did it.
“But it wasn’t that day that you became who you are, you have always been a good citizen. You paid grievous sacrifices in the past when there were opportunities that you could be anything in the country to go abroad, or you stay here and become a medical doctor, lawyer, you chose a profession where you had to give your life to the country.
“At that time you never knew you could be head of state. You thought you could be eliminated on the war front but you have given your life to the country.
“If every youth lives their lives as you had lived that time some will be head of state, some will not be but everyone would be a patriot and the country is built by patriots, not by people in government and the calamity that we suffer in the country is not the misbehaviour of people in Government, it is the effect of the disbelieve that it has created on the minds of the people and the generational inheritance of that doubt of the feeling that things can be that good but things can be good.
“The reason why when we have problems we come back to you is not that we want to overwork you. It is because in mathematics you start with the basic formula when you are confused and you are the basic primary formulae for our democracy.
“We say if you want to show that tomorrow would be good you refer to a past that was good and looking back you give us that frame of reference.
“The reason why I have come out is essential because the country itself needs to be saved now and people like you risked your life for it literally, shed blood, and you
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