COUNT ME OUT OF 2015 PRESIDENTIAL RACE – IBB

Former military President, General Ibrahim Babangida (rtd), has said age would not permit him to run for the most exalted seat in the country during the 2015 general election. Babangida, who spoke in a live interview on  a national television station at the weekend, emphasised that those who were speculating that he was still interested in becoming the president of the country were doing so to mislead Nigerians.  “The most important thing to me is to see an election that is devoid of manipulation, rigging, violence and, ultimately, fair and credible and where every vote will count. But I can’t be a participant because by 2015, I would be clocking 74 if Allah wills. So, at 74, it will be unwise for me to be running around the country looking for votes. I am not going to seek any elective post, but I am ready to offer whatever help I can render in terms of advice and my experience to move the country forward,” he said.

He said Nigeria would still remain indivisible entity after 2014, contrary to the speculation that the country would disintegrate after a hundred years of Southern and Northern protectorates, adding that despite uprising, religious, communal and tribal crises among Nigerians, people have learnt to tolerate one another. He, therefore, urged the Federal Government to initiate pogramme that would engage the youths and help them become productive to the society, stressing that one of the problems facing the country was that everybody wanted to live an exotic life in spite of adverse effect it might bring. “Everybody is doing everything to be like others without thinking of the adverse effect of their action. As long as everybody wants to be like the other person, there would always be increase in the crime rate and other social vices.

My advice is that the government should find means of engaging the youths so as to make them productive to the society. For instance, when I was the military president of Nigeria, I introduced ‘back to the farm programme’ in order to make youths to be productive to the society and the programme was very effective to the extent that other states copied it,” he said.

Source: Daily Newswatch