Northern youths seek replacement for Buhari ahead 2019, say he is a failure
Northern youths under different groups have started the search for a Northern Presidential material to back in the 2019 Presidential election.
The Northern groups including the Arewa Youth Forum, AYF and the Arewa Youth Consultative Forum, AYCF are being backed by some northern egg heads.
The bid of the Northern groups is irrespective of a declaration of intent by President Muhammadu Buhari whose first term has been dogged mainly by ill-health and economic recession.
Buhari had upon his return from a 50 day medical vacation last month confessed to the fact of his ill-health.
“I have never been this sick in my life.”
His absence at last Wednesday’s meeting of the Federal Executive Council, FEC, had fuelled another rounds of speculations over his ill-health. The President, however appeared in public for the Jumat prayers in the Presidential Villa on Friday.
AYF President, Ibrahim Gujungu,said the group has not yet decided on whether it is going to back Buhari or not but has to continue to support the aspiration of the North to produce the next President of Nigeria so as to balance the loss of power to the South under the Presidency of Jonathan following the sudden demise of Yar’Adua.
“I can assure you that even though we don’t have any particular candidate in mind as at now, we will intensify the search for a northern leader who will empower the north and revive all the moribund industries there to create jobs for the teeming masses who are now roaming the streets either as IDPs or out-of-school children.
“We are currently searching for the candidate of our choice and if Buhari decides to run, we will present him with our blueprint to implement but if he rejects it, we will look for another credible Northern candidate to meet our political demands,”
Speaking in the same vein, the President of the Arewa Youth Consultative Forum, AYCF, Shettima Usman Yerima, said the group was looking for an alternative upon the failures of the incumbent administration.
“We are disappointed. Nigerians are disappointed. Sincerely speaking, this Buhari administration is a failure. It is a failure because this is not what Nigerians expected when they were giving him the mandate in 2015.”
The northern youth leader also disclosed that there are plans to look for an alternative Presidential candidate from the North East to represent the region in the 2019 Presidential election.
“I think we are going to bring a new alternative in 2019. We have to bring a new order to the country because we cannot afford to have a President who is not in charge of affairs in the country. This is coupled with the facts that some of us look at his age and come up with the reservation that it is not a good idea to have a man of his age to be leading a country like Nigeria with population of about 200 million people.
“People thought we were undermining him at that time but we said no because somebody of Buhari’s age would find it difficult managing his personal affairs talk less of affairs of a huge country like ours.
“We have nothing against President Buhari personally but we believe somebody of his age should manage less burden.
“When you look at global events, the way things are turning around universally, you will agree with me that we need at the saddle, somebody who is in tune with global reality. We need somebody that would be agile and knowledgeable enough to move round the world with his counterparts across the globe. For now in Nigeria, that is not the case. And I don’t think we are making any headway in that direction.
“The worst thing is that, for government to look for capable hands that can turn around things positively, it ended up picking some individuals that have been out of circulation over a very long time but who the government is comfortable with.
“Now, you can see the confusion everywhere. The reality is not all about Buhari as a person. The reality is about nature that is taking a full course on him coupled with the situation of his health that nobody knows.
“For now, we are going round making consultations but it will be too early for me to mention names but we may give a picture of some possible names after May 29, 2017.
“What we are doing now is to make consultations across board, we are also reaching out to other ethnic nationalities and personalities. Regarding the likely candidates, it will be too early for me to speak now because I do not have the mandate to mention their names.
“But I can assure you that after May 29, when they have told Nigerians what they have achieved, though we know they have not done much, then, we will declare the names.
“We are going to consider the vibrancy of the person and his intellectual capacity. We are going to look into his age and a lot of other things to be sure that whoever comes up in 2019 will not be part of the old establishment.”
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