President Muhammadu Buhari’s unfortunate statement during his visitto South Africa:“There’s a limit to whatI can do at 72″ has generated a well-deserved negative heat.If the president knew there’s a limit to whathe could do at his age, why didn’t he inform us about it while he was still campaigning for presidency?


It was the spokesman of Buhari’s campaign organization and now the senior special assistant to the president on media and publicity, Garba Shehu, who in January this year boasted that Buhari was “as fit as a fiddle.” He also proclaimed that his boss was “in excellent condition to pilot the affairs of the country.” Why did then the limitations suddenly appear three weeks after he was sworn in as president?

Though I have nothing against President Muhammadu Buhari, I will not fail topoint out the drawbacks in his administration whenever I observe them. In fact, doing this can only make the government serve the country better. Afterall,a former British prime minister, Winston Churchill, said: “Criticism may not be agreeable, but it is necessary. It fulfills the same function as pain in the human body. It calls attention to an unhealthy state of things.” Theologian Norman Vincent Peale stated: “The trouble with most of us is that we would rather be ruined by praise than saved by criticism.”

I willpraise my president if he does something worthy of commendation, and I wil lalso constructively criticize him if he veers off. Declaring that there are restraints to what a leader can achieve beyond 72 is a theory that was proved wrong a lot of times. Here are 5 world leaders who were elected at an older age than President Buhari, but didn’t let that stop them from transforming their countries and the world at large.

1. Pope Francis. His Holiness Pope Francis was elected on March 13, 2013 to lead the world’s 1.3 billion Roman Catholics ‒almost eight times the population of Nigeria. At the time he was 76 years old.

A few days into his papacy, Francis swung into action by tackling some of the Catholic Church’s most nagging problems. He set up a committee to look into the activities ofthe Institutefor the Works of Religion popularly known as the Vatican Bank and widely regarded as corrupt. President Buhari promised to curb corruption in Nigeria, but one month on we are yet to be informed how he intends to achieve this.

The pope didn’t stop there though. He also set up a committee to investigate the embarrassing clerical child abuse scandal thathad recently rocked the Church. These and many other efforts aimed at making Vatican more transparent and bringing the Catholic Church into the 21st century has earned the pope unparalleled global goodwill.

A survey conducted by the Pew Research Center in February revealed that Pope Francis enjoyed approval of 70% Americans irrespective of their religious affiliations. It is remarkable that President Barack Obama’s current approval rating among Americans accounts for 47%, according to Gallup.

2. King Salman. King Salman of Saudi Arabia was elected earlier this year following the death of his elder brother at the age of 79. But the age did not in any way affect his performance. Months into his reign, the septuagenarian monarch sacked the Kingdom’s head of royal protocol for slapping a photojournalist live on television.

Before that King Salman had already banned a senior member of the Saudi Royal Family from taking part in all sporting activitiesfor making racist remarks on a TV talkshow. Moreover, he dismissed the country’s ministerof health for engaging in a heated spat with a person who only came to complain of the poor condition of a hospital in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia.
These actions signal that the old order of unruliness and highhandedness in the oil-rich Kingdom is gone to the satisfaction of the Saudi people.

Make I invest here........




The old guy knew he's 72 before contesting and promising to do the impossibles so no excuse is acceptable.

3. Winston Churchill. He is, perhaps, the most popular British prime minister of all times. Britain’s war time head of government was reappointed prime minister in 1951 at the age of 76 following the Conservative Party’s victory in the poll. From 1951 till his resignation in 1955, Churchill helped to fix the devastated Europe, and shrewdly managed the steady decline of the once-powerful British Empire. Those three and a half years were enough to cement his place as one of the 20th century’s greatest leaders,and forever carve his name in the hearts of the British people.

Sai Changeeee!

4. Ronald Reagan. The actor-turned-politician became the oldest president in the 239-year USA history (69 years old). Today, Reagan is regarded as one of the best presidents America has ever had. A 2011 Gallup poll asking 1015 Americans who they considered the greatestU S president placed him in first position with 19% above Abraham Lincoln (14%), Bill Clinton (13%), John F. Kennedy (11%) and George Washington (10%).

The major achievements recorded during Reagan’s two terms include ending the Cold War, reinvigorating the Republican Party rattled by Richard Nixon’s Watergate scandal, and creating over 16 million jobs for the unemployed Americans.

5. Nelson Mandela. SouthAfrica’s anti-Apartheid icon was 75 years old when he became the country’s first black president in 1994. During his single-term tenure, Mandela spearheaded the reconciliation and healing of a rainbow nation broken by decades of the white minority rule and black segregation, and transformed it into a globally respected economic powerhouse.

Long live thepresident ofthe Federal RepublicofNigeria!

Long live theFederalRepublicof Nigeria!

Source: www.naij.com/480183-five-leaders-who-changed-the-world-despite-old-age.html

Ikenna351
OAM4J
Afam4eva
Lalasticlala
Your attention is needed here.

Buhari is not just a 72yr old man but an illiterate 72yr old man, there goes the difference.

Buhari's 72 years is his football age o... for real, he should be 82!

Make una let this man rule na.

Weather we like am or not the 72year old man has 4years to show nigerians his worth.

Succinctly written. Why is this thread still hiding here?

Mods lalasticlala Afam4eva I wanna hit front page in a sensible thread like this

APC is just a party of old men without ideas. the diff between the old men you mentioned and pa Buhari is that the former had plans for their countries while the other scammed his way in.

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Buhari and the APC giving excuses since 1776.