President of Arewa Youth Consultative Forum (AYCF), Yerima Shettima, has said the political year 2023, would be the end of old politicians who are over the age of 60.
Yerima who made the statement in Kaduna during an interactive session with journalists, said youths in the North are sticking with the position of a former Head of State, General Ibrahim Babangida (rtd), who advised Nigerians to look inward for a younger person as their president in 2023.
“We have made our position very clear that we will not pitch our tent with any old generation. This is not because it is not their right to contest, but you can rest assured that we will only campaign for young generations.
“We will be looking forward to those that are in their 40s and 50s.
“We have been sensitising the youths on those who have been recycling themselves over and over again without being able to provide answers to our issues.
“So, we want to, for once, do it for ourselves and I am sure we have the strength to do it. We are looking inward for capable hands in the younger generation this time around,” he said.
On restructuring, Yerima said: “I have been talking about this overconcentration of power and if we continue to do this, we will continue to have funny people with funny characters occupying some of these political spaces."
The AYCF previously said that the former president had spoken the minds of millions of Nigerians who had been quietly disturbed by “the political culture of recycling old, tired citizens as presidents of the nation,” saying this was partly responsible for the current stagnation afflicting the country.
The group said, “Former President IBB has proved that he is committed to genuine democracy and demonstrated patriotism with this proposition of injecting fresh blood into the democratic space of today’s Nigeria.
“We call on all elder statesmen to queue behind IBB for the good of this nation. We are all aware that in terms of leadership/governance globally, the trend is having young, healthy and intellectually vibrant young people at the helm of affairs.
“We are calling on all political parties in the country to shun the culture of recycling old and incompetent candidates for the nation’s presidency because the youth will no longer support that dangerous trend anymore.”
The group explained that the era of having old people holding the reigns in Nigeria should belong to the past and “anyone who thinks this stagnation should continue should perish that negative thought.”
It said: “Going forward, the AYCF will never allow the recycling of old, weak and sick citizens as leaders of this nation, more so in a fast-changing and competitive world.
“Much as democracy gives everyone the right to contest for any elective office, it does not encourage the emergence of tired, weak, politically compromised, sick and overly unproductive persons as leaders of this modern society.”