Former Nigerian Military President, General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida (IBB) has given hint on his preferred candidates-to-be in the 2023 presidential election, subtly headlining political discourse less than two years to the general polls.
While IBB didn’t specifically drop names, he may have ruled out the candidacy of former Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, and a two-time Governor of Lagos State, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu ahead of the upcoming polls on the basis of age and agility.
Babangida who spoke in an interview with Arise TV aired on Friday, described his ideal candidate for the number one position in the country. According to him, Nigeria’s next president should be in his 60s, and vast in the matters of the economy in line with modern systems.
Age wise, his description of the next would-be president of the country tactically left out the two potential candidates that have been dominating public conversation among Nigerians ahead of 2023.
Tinubu, one of the national leaders of All Progressives Congress, who was born on the 29th of March 1952, would have clocked 71 in the next election year, while Atiku, former presidential candidate of the main opposition party, PDP in the 2019 poll, would be 75 by 2023. Atiku was born on the 25th of November 1946.
Though the duo have not officially expressed their intentions to run for the 2023 presidential election, moves in their camps show they both have their eyes on the highest seat in the land.
Speaking further, Babangida, who will mark his 80th Birthday in Minna Niger State on August 17, opined that only someone in his 60s, who believes in the unity of Nigeria, armed with leadership experience in public service, with valuable contacts that cut across different regions can effectively run the affairs of the country.
In his words, “If you get a good leadership that links with the people and tries to talk with the people; not talking on top of the people, then we would be okay.
“I have started visualising a good Nigerian leader. That is, a person, who travels across the country and has a friend virtually everywhere he travels to and he knows at least one person that he can communicate with.
“That is a person, who is very vast in economics and is also a good politician, who should be able to talk to Nigerians and so on. I have seen one, or two or three of such persons already in their sixties.
“I do believe in the future of Nigeria, but Nigerians don’t believe in the future of their country. They created and they destroyed.”
