Buhari’s age, burden on governance — Abdulsalam

Buhari proved to be a man of honesty in South Africa;
unfortunately though, he poured out his mind and told
the world that he could not do what he thought he
could do insisting that age, this time around, would tell
on his administration and age would take a toll on what
he could do and could not. He said age would take a
serious effect on his capacity to perform the way he
wanted to perform if he were to be at the age of 30 or
40 years old. But because he came out sincerely and
honestly to tell the world the situation, the All
Progressives Congress, being surrogate of the Peoples
Democratic Party, decided to say that Buhari did not
say what he said in South Africa. But the journalists
who quoted him quoted him correctly, verbatim and
very well. Thus, Buhari did say what he said and the
APC should not go and be bending the fact. What
certainly came out of Buhari’s utterances and
confession is that Nigerians and the world should not
expect to see that change which he promised them. Let
Nigerians not trust the APC that Buhari will perform
miracle and expect change because of his age. No. Age
will tell on him and he will not be able to do what he
thought before now he would be able to do and that is
why he is telling the world: ‘don’t expect miracle from
me, don’t expect me to be agile, don’t expect me to be
vibrant, don’t expect me even at times to be sufficiently
very articulate because of the age I find myself now.’
Did the Labour Party raise the issue of Buhari’s age
before the elections?
Yes, we did. I did say clearly that in a country made up
of over 60 per cent of youth who are very vibrant, very
agile, very articulate and very forth coming why should
we elect an old person? The age of the likes of Buhari,
(former President) Olusegun Obasanjo and others are
not actually the age they declared to us. These people
are older than their declared ages. We did raise the
alarm that time that if the APC could not look for
youths who could win elections for them, they had
better tell Nigerians the true situation of things. But
Buhari himself kept on saying he could run 100
kilometres and so forth; but it is becoming clearer now
that we were fed with lies. But certainly I did point it
out that Buhari’s age would tell on him when he
assumes power.
Considering your conviction, would you suggest
electoral reforms to limit the age of those aspiring to
the Presidency of the country?
I won’t support disallowing people of old age aspiring
to whatever position they want in Nigeria because that
will be undemocratic and it will amount to stopping
people from getting what they want to get. But, the
political parties themselves should be able to regulate
the age of the individual they present to contest
electable posts because the more one gets old, the less
one is able to perform. Let’s face the reality in the
world of today. In places like the United States and
Britain which the APC would always cite as examples,
their leaders are younger people. All over the world
today, people are producing relatively younger people
who could meet up with the challenges of the modern
world. The world has moved beyond analogue, we are
now talking about digital situations. Bringing analogue
leaders in today’s world will create setback for a
country like Nigeria.
Which age bracket would you recommend for
presidency?
Anyone aspiring to the President of the country should
be between 45 and 65 years old. Anything beyond that
may be problematic.
Why?
If it goes beyond 65, the older one becomes, the weaker
one gets. The person may not be able to perform.
What do you foresee now that Buhari has started
admitting that Nigerians should not expect much from
him because of his old age?
It would be very unfortunate if Buhari starts
complaining about his old age. The fact of the matter is
with the age on him now, he will certainly not be able
to meet up and Nigerians are being told in
unmistakeable language that, ‘don’t expect much from
me because I can no longer perform the way I thought I
would be able to perform.’ This age burden on Buhari,
is also a burden on Nigeria and on governance in
Nigeria. It will affect all spheres of administrative life in
Nigeria because a president must be able to work at
least 18 hours a day. But at his age, Buhari cannot
work 18 hours in a day. If he tries it, he will crash out
of the system and we are praying that he will be able
to manage himself all through the four years.
Would you then call for his resignation?
One cannot say he should resign at this point in time
because of his popularity. To say he should resign now
will incur the wrath of some fanatics who believe in
Buhari and believe he can perform magic. Let us
manage him, let us go along with him and see the
extent to which he can go.
Do you foresee Nigerians regretting voting for Buhari
based on his age burden?
I won’t pre-empt it now, it is not Buhari that Nigerians
will regret ever voting but Nigerians will regret ever
voting the APC into power because it is like the PDP. If
you look at the conglomeration of the APC, you will
discover that it is PDP, ACN, CPC and ANPP. These are
the people who came together and now, PDP who is
their mother is now gaining upper hand over and above
everybody. And that is why there is going to be more
crisis than Buhari’s age. The crisis that will engulf APC
will be more turbulent than Buhari’s age.
Since most states can’t pay salaries of civil servants,
would you suggest that Buhari listens to the bailout
agitation?
Buhari should not bail out any state. Let them go back
to the drawing board, let them get internally generated
fund so that they can be able to pay workers’ salaries
or alternatively, let them use all the federal allocations
being sent to them to pay workers’ salaries while they
use whatever they generate internally to meet up with
the other expenses of the state.
The fact of the matter is that there are a lot of white
elephant projects in these states. Most of these
governors after their first term in office, will pocket the
money during their second term for themselves and
their families. They will never utilise it in the interest of
the people. To bail them out is to create bad
precedence for future situation. That is to say the
Federal Government is going to take over the regular
payment of workers salary. If the Federal Government
bails them out now and they are able to pay the
salaries, subsequently, many more will come up and
request the Federal Government to do same. The
Federal Government should not bail out any state; let
them bail themselves out from the quagmire they
created for themselves.
What would you suggest as measures to be taken
against these governors?
I suggest and I believe all those former governors
including those currently in the Senate should be invited
by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and
Independent Corrupt Practices and other related
offenses Commission to explain how they managed the
resources of their states. Any governor that his state
cannot pay salary must be invited to account for what
happened to the resources of their state.