By John Ikani
Former military Head of State, General Ibrahim Babangida, has declared that he has already seen the kind of person that would be Nigeria’s next president.
Speaking during an exclusive interview with Arise Television on Friday morning, Babangida, popularly known as IBB, called on Nigerians to focus on individuals in their 60s come 2023.
Although IBB did not mention names, by the next general election in 2023, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, who is 75 this year, would be 77, while former Lagos State Governor Bola Tinubu, who marked an official 68th birthday in March, would have turned 70 years.
The former military dictator who lamented that bad leadership was a major reason for series of socio-economic challenges the country is being faced with, pointed out that at this point, Nigeria is in dire need of a leader who connects with the people, tries to talk with them and not the one who “talks on top of the people.”
“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 verse 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,” he said.
When asked if the person could emerge victorious in the 2023 presidential election, Babangida added, “I believe so if we can get him.”
Responding to a question on whether or not he still believed in the future of Nigeria, IBB said: “I do believe in the future of Nigeria, but Nigerians don’t believe in the future of their country. They created and they destroyed.”
Reiterating his belief in the future of Nigeria and urging Nigerians to remain patriotic, Babangida, who claimed to be feeling good as he was about to turn 80 years, with gratitude to God for sparing his life, advised Nigerians to go for the person that has what it takes to transform the country when the time comes.
