Ahead of the 2023 general elections, some civil society organisations have insisted that they would not support any aged candidate for the presidency.
According to Olufemi Adeyeye, the spokesman for the African National Congress, Olufemi Adeyeye, a presidential aspirant under the Peoples Democratic Party PDP, Atiku Abubakar, should not go near the presidential seat, adding that Atiku lacked the capacity to fulfill all the promises he has made.
Adeyeye stated, “As regards age, we understand so well that the people who have vied to run for presidency are old in age and in their ideas. How ancient their ideas are, is what we are criticising.”
He posite, “The major point is that we understand that Atiku lacks the capacity to make all these things happen. When he was Vice President under Obasanjo, he was the chairman of the Privatisation Council; what did he do with the privatisation? He privatised Nigeria into their pockets. What Atiku is coming back to do is to privatise some more. We have seen how much the privatisation they did then is now.”
He opined, “Nigerians do not know how to hold a political grudge. If they truly hold a political grudge, someone like Atiku should not even come close to the Presidency at all, because the PDP in itself, some people would want to say is an opposition party. But Nigerians are opposing this opposition party.”
He maintained, “If you look at it clearly, this same Atiku was in the All Progressives Congress in 2018. Now he is back in PDP. It shows these people are just changing their goal posts while they have the same ideology that they carry. For us at the AAC, we reject old Nigeria. We reject going back to Golgotha to Nigeria. Some of these people should have to go to jail at this point.”
He remarked, “This is someone who has been in government all his life. Atiku has eaten from Nigeria. Nigeria has fed him. What has he done? We have to look at his antecedents. What has he done with all that he had? He was VP for eight years; he keeps running for the presidency.”
Meanwhile, the Convener, Coalition in Defence of Nigerian Democracy, Dare-Ariyo Atoye, reportedly stated that Nigeria cannot afford to have a repeat of president Muhammadu Buhari by voting in Atiku Abubakar.
He maintained, “What we suffer under Buhari is not something that we should again repeat. We deserve the best. We deserve a leader who is mentally aware and would be readily available. Atiku would not be able to tackle the humongous challenges that confront this country on a daily basis.”
He disclosed that, “Vice President Atiku Abubakar has served this country and made himself available but I think this is the time for him to support a younger, competent person to succeed president Buhari. It would be painful for him because it has been a lifelong ambition but there is what we call ‘a place of sacrifice’. He must be grateful to God for the opportunities he has been given.”
https://punchng.com/atiku-too-old-lacks-capacity-to-be-president-csos-others-insist/?amp
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