Buhari’s age, burden on governance — Abdulsalam

President Muhammadu Buhari during his recent visit to South Africa said his old age might affect his performance. What is the implication of this before the international community?

Buhari proved to be a man of honesty in South Africa; unfortunately though, he poured out his mind and told the world that he could not do what he thought he could do insisting that age, this time around, would tell on his administration and age would take a toll on what he could do and could not. He said age would take a serious effect on his capacity to perform the way he wanted to perform if he were to be at the age of 30 or 40 years old. But because he came out sincerely and honestly to tell the world the situation, the All Progressives Congress, being surrogate of the Peoples Democratic Party, decided to say that Buhari did not say what he said in South Africa. But the journalists who quoted him quoted him correctly, verbatim and very well. Thus, Buhari did say what he said and the APC should not go and be bending the fact. What certainly came out of Buhari’s utterances and confession is that Nigerians and the world should not expect to see that change which he promised them. Let Nigerians not trust the APC that Buhari will perform miracle and expect change because of his age. No. Age will tell on him and he will not be able to do what he thought before now he would be able to do and that is why he is telling the world: ‘don’t expect miracle from me, don’t expect me to be agile, don’t expect me to be vibrant, don’t expect me even at times to be sufficiently very articulate because of the age I find myself now.’

Did the Labour Party raise the issue of Buhari’s age before the elections?

Yes, we did. I did say clearly that in a country made up of over 60 per cent of youth who are very vibrant, very agile, very articulate and very forth coming why should we elect an old person? The age of the likes of Buhari, (former President) Olusegun Obasanjo and others are not actually the age they declared to us. These people are older than their declared ages. We did raise the alarm that time that if the APC could not look for youths who could win elections for them, they had better tell Nigerians the true situation of things. But Buhari himself kept on saying he could run 100 kilometres and so forth; but it is becoming clearer now that we were fed with lies. But certainly I did point it out that Buhari’s age would tell on him when he assumes power.

Considering your conviction, would you suggest electoral reforms to limit the age of those aspiring to the Presidency of the country?

I won’t support disallowing people of old age aspiring to whatever position they want in Nigeria because that will be undemocratic and it will amount to stopping people from getting what they want to get. But, the political parties themselves should be able to regulate the age of the individual they present to contest electable posts because the more one gets old, the less one is able to perform. Let’s face the reality in the world of today. In places like the United States and Britain which the APC would always cite as examples, their leaders are younger people. All over the world today, people are producing relatively younger people who could meet up with the challenges of the modern world. The world has moved beyond analogue, we are now talking about digital situations. Bringing analogue leaders in today’s world will create setback for a country like Nigeria.

Which age bracket would you recommend for presidency?

Anyone aspiring to the President of the country should be between 45 and 65 years old. Anything beyond that may be problematic.

Why?

If it goes beyond 65, the older one becomes, the weaker one gets. The person may not be able to perform.

What do you foresee now that Buhari has started admitting that Nigerians should not expect much from him because of his old age?

It would be very unfortunate if Buhari starts complaining about his old age. The fact of the matter is with the age on him now, he will certainly not be able to meet up and Nigerians are being told in unmistakeable language that, ‘don’t expect much from me because I can no longer perform the way I thought I would be able to perform.’ This age burden on Buhari, is also a burden on Nigeria and on governance in Nigeria. It will affect all spheres of administrative life in Nigeria because a president must be able to work at least 18 hours a day. But at his age, Buhari cannot work 18 hours in a day. If he tries it, he will crash out of the system and we are praying that he will be able to manage himself all through the four years.

Would you then call for his resignation?

One cannot say he should resign at this point in time because of his popularity. To say he should resign now will incur the wrath of some fanatics who believe in Buhari and believe he can perform magic. Let us manage him, let us go along with him and see the extent to which he can go.

Do you foresee Nigerians regretting voting for Buhari based on his age burden?

I won’t pre-empt it now, it is not Buhari that Nigerians will regret ever voting but Nigerians will regret ever voting the APC into power because it is like the PDP. If you look at the conglomeration of the APC, you will discover that it is PDP, ACN, CPC and ANPP. These are the people who came together and now, PDP who is their mother is now gaining upper hand over and above everybody. And that is why there is going to be more crisis than Buhari’s age. The crisis that will engulf APC will be more turbulent than Buhari’s age.

Since most states can’t pay salaries of civil servants, would you suggest that Buhari listens to the bailout agitation?

Buhari should not bail out any state. Let them go back to the drawing board, let them get internally generated fund so that they can be able to pay workers’ salaries or alternatively, let them use all the federal allocations being sent to them to pay workers’ salaries while they use whatever they generate internally to meet up with the other expenses of the state.

The fact of the matter is that there are a lot of white elephant projects in these states. Most of these governors after their first term in office, will pocket the money during their second term for themselves and their families. They will never utilise it in the interest of the people. To bail them out is to create bad precedence for future situation. That is to say the Federal Government is going to take over the regular payment of workers salary. If the Federal Government bails them out now and they are able to pay the salaries, subsequently, many more will come up and request the Federal Government to do same. The Federal Government should not bail out any state; let them bail themselves out from the quagmire they created for themselves.

What would you suggest as measures to be taken against these governors?

I suggest and I believe all those former governors including those currently in the Senate should be invited by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offenses Commission to explain how they managed the resources of their states. Any governor that his state cannot pay salary must be invited to account for what happened to the resources of their state.

http://www.punchng.com/politics/crossfire/buharis-age-burden-on-governance-abdulsalam/

Ok

I don't want to hear any story now
He has been gunning for the presidency for the last 16 years. Now he has finally gotten it and must complete 2terms there

Ok

okay then

These complaints are now taking a pattern which invariably means that there was a plan afterall. Having used the dinosaur to wrestle power from a bemused Jonathan, it is starting to look like a plan to hand over to a younger fulani come 2019 is already in the offing. We are being slowly prepared for that eventuality with all these costant tales of buharis age issues, somehing that was vigourosly denied during the elections. . . , and if that works, we have upto 12 years fulani misrule to deal with. .

owobokiri:
This age complaint is now taking a pattern which invariably means that there was a plan afterall. Having used the dinosaur to wrestle power from a bemused Jonathan, it is starting to look like a plan to hand over to a younger fulani come 2019 is already in the offing. We are being slowly prepared for that eventuality with all these costant tales of buharis age issues, somehing that was vigourosly denied during the elections. . . , and if that works, we have upto 12 years fulani misrule to deal with. .

What of Osinbajo

I thought he was waiting for buhari to ..........

Adulsalam..ur case dey court..
U corrupt bastard coming out to spew trash
Ole jati jati

Trailblazer1:

What of Osinbajo

I thought he was waiting for buhari to ..........

Hahahaha, that okon of a vee pee? He is somewhere inside the Lagos house in Abuja speaking in tongues waiting for god to kill his oga. .

Abdulsalam. You will be Jailed. there is no age excuse here.

wu is abdulsalam

tucky200:
Adulsalam..ur case dey court..
U corrupt bastard coming out to spew trash
Ole jati jati

whether they like it or not, Buhari must serve two terms.

Trailblazer1:
I don't want to hear any story now
He has been gunning for the presidency for the last 16 years. Now he has finally gotten it and must complete 2terms there

Lol,just fyi there's no northwestern president who has ever completed their term or ever left office willingly and history is not in favour of Buhari.

Murtalla Mohamed,Shehu Shagari,Yar'Adua ,Ahmadu Bello,Tafawa Balewa -- they all left office thru assassination,death or a coup .Will Buhari be sailing against this tide?

Slow but steady. Nor be all those jaga jaga (obubuyeye) administration

HOME TRUTH! # #GEJ SINCE YOU LEFT I have this to tell you. (1) boko haram is killing people every day since 29th may 2015. (2) Buhari is now inviting near by countries to come and help in the fight against boko haram the same moves that Liar Muhammad, APC and Buhari criticized you for doing, hmm mommy. (3) Our new president has not announce his cabinet after weeks of coming into office, which shows he was not ready. (4) He promise to publicly declare his asset till now we have not seen any of such declaration. (4) The man is busy traveling from post to post, wondering when he will sit down and start working. (5) One of the former governor that your government was trying to probe has been set free(corruption fighting indeed). (6) Our football team has been loosing out in almost all the tournament, this is the more reason we miss your goodluck. (7) We have witness a whole number of tankers explosion I don't know if APC is bad omen, or God is repaying those tanker drivers who succumbed to APC and went on the heart breaking strike few days to your handing over. ( They have not started paying 5000 yet as they promise to pay graduates, Dollars have not equals 1 naira yet, they have not stabilize the world oil price yet, my younger one have not started eating launch yet, the economy has not change yet but am still watching them. (9) My hero sir, as am talking to you now last week we were mocked at as our president created a new country in Europe and call it ''west Germany'' and called the president of the country Michelle. The same thing they use to make jest of our first lady. (10)Less I forget, we were promised there won't be office of the first lady but we are seeing a different thing now. (11) last week APC failed the acid test and were exposed for the whole world to see that they can never pass through what PDP pass through and still exist, they have been exchanging blows since Saraki and Dagora emerged as leaders of the Parliament against their illegal anointed candidate. (12) My hero since you left Buhari finally accepted that old age will limit his performance. There is still more, but let me save that for another day. President Johnathan we miss your Goodluck . Me? I weep for my dear country. We don enter one- chance.

Stop posting propaganda here. Kindly post a link to video where buhari stated that age is his limitations. If u say its in a secret meeting then it means u hv been lying to us as journalist would not be alloweD in.

We are in for 4years I just hope he wont go for 2nd term
Meanwhile please patronize Hary Building Concept. As the best awaits you with us. Thanks.