‘Anybody above 70 should give way’— Northern youth group rejects Buhari, Atiku

The Coalition of Northern Youths has called on President Muhammadu Buhari and former vice-president Atiku Abubakar to abandon their presidential ambition in the 2019 general election.

In a communique issued at the end of their summit in Kaduna on Monday, the group urged the two leaders to leave the stage for younger people between the ages of 18 to 60.

Abdul-Azeez Suleiman, spokesman of the group who signed the communique, said they had earlier advised Buhari to leave the stage for younger people.

“We have advised him (Buhari) to look for younger person who has the integrity like him to run for the presidency,” the communique read.

“Anybody above 70 years of age should give way to younger generation.”

They said the advice became imperative in view of the fact that Buhari and Abubakar who are both in their 70s “participated in debates that gave birth to the current national arrangement that is largely acknowledged as having failed our national aspirations”.

Read Also: OSUN 2018: I’m leaving PDP for SDP after ‘consultation with my God..’- Omisore

The group maintained that Nigerians were becoming worried that the older people who have dominated the political scene since independence had failed to move the country forward.

They called on Nigerians to insist on generational change in the leadership of the country.

“Frustrated young Nigerians, having paid their dues in the national development effort, have been manifestly left to suffer from the suffocating consequences of the prevailing exclusive and defeatist leadership selection process being imposed on the country over the years, by succeeding ruling elites,” they said.

“It is time they formed a rallying point from which younger Nigerians can make a strong demand for a new political order, to usher in a generational power shift, as reparation for past marginalisation in the nation’s political leadership.”

The group also frowned at what it described as “the seeming endorsement by some northern leaders of a brand of restructuring that clearly places the region at a disadvantage”, declaring that it was unacceptable and must be jettisoned .

The group said the north will “not settle for any restructuring plan that is not total, comprehensive and holistic.”

 

RipplesNigeria… without borders, without fears

Click here to join the Ripples Nigeria WhatsApp group for latest updates.

Join the conversation

Opinions

Support Ripples Nigeria, hold up solutions journalism

Balanced, fearless journalism driven by data comes at huge financial costs.

As a media platform, we hold leadership accountable and will not trade the right to press freedom and free speech for a piece of cake.

If you like what we do, and are ready to uphold solutions journalism, kindly donate to the Ripples Nigeria cause.

Your support would help to ensure that citizens and institutions continue to have free access to credible and reliable information for societal development.

Donate Now