Former vice president, Atiku Abubakar, and a leader of the All-Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, are not suitable as Nigeria’s president, says ex-military president, Ibrahim Babaginda.
Atiku and Tinubu have been warming up to announce their interest to replace President Muhammadu Buhari in 2023.
Atiku wants to contest the presidency on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (APC). Already, he has launched his media office for the project called Atiku Kawai Media Group.
Tinubu, who said he deferred his interest to vie for the presidency in 2019 because he didn’t want to contest against Buhari at the time, has no further obstacle ahead of him. He is expected to announce his interest in the presidency on the platform of the APC.
IBB, in an interview he granted ARISE TV on Friday, said he strongly believes that Nigeria’s next president should be in his 60s.
Although Tinubu and Atiku have not publicly declared their interest in the 2023 race, there are strong indications that both men are interested in the race.
Atiku lost the 2019 presidential election to Buhari but he has not shown publicly that he is no longer interested.
On his part, Tinubu’s foot soldiers have been going around the country to market him.
But IBB told ARISE TV that he strongly believes Nigeria’s next president should be in his 60s.
He said he has at least three persons in mind.
Atiku, who is 75, will be 77 in 2023, while Tinubu, who marked his 68th birthday in March, would have turned 70 years by the next election.
He said, “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 versed 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 his sixties.”
