By Emmanuel Nduka
Nigeria’s former military Head of State, Gen. Abdusalami Abubakar (rtd) has declared that by 2023, the country must look to the younger generation to offer leadership, especially in this digital age.
This, he said, will give the country a new lease of life, as the younger generation are much more exposed.
Abdulsami who is the Chairman of National Peace Committee, made this declaration in his home in Minna, while he played host to a Presidential aspirant and President of Kaftan TV, Prince Adewale Adebayo.
Adebayo had visited the former head of state to consult him on his presidential ambition for 2023.
“Thank you Adebayo for finding me fit to come and tell me of your ambition. Indeed Nigeria needs the younger generation to take over from us the older generation.
“Like you rightly said the world is going digital and I believe the younger generation are more exposed internationally in ICT more than us, the older generation.
“I am happy that you are thinking of moving the country forward and I believe with your ideologies and your youthful and vibrant ambition; I think Nigeria is on the right path and wish Nigeria will be great.
“Nigeria with a population of over 200million certainly is a great country and such leadership will go a long way to make it a greater place.
“Thank you for finding me fit to come and visit me to tell me of your ambition. You can count on our support always trying to do the right thing,” he said.
Responding, Adebayo expressed gratitude to the former military leader for relinquishing power to democratically elected leaders.
“We are grateful to you for many reasons, that we saw you on May 1999 handing over power and collecting your service plaque, you have always been there.
“You are one of our greatest leaders, you are to us what Abraham Lincoln is to the Americans,” he said.
“At that time you never knew you could be Head of State. You thought you could be eliminated in the warfront but you have given your life to the country.
“The reason when we have problems we come back to you is not because we want to overwork you, it is because in mathematics you start with the basic formula, when you are confused and you are the basic primary formula for our democracy.
“The reason I have come out is essentially because the country itself needs to be saved now and people like you risked your life for it literally, shed blood, and you lost many of your compatriots.
“Even the country hasn’t reach its full potential. You have given us a country as a base to work with. Even that little foundation is now under threats from all kinds of threats of which you are very familiar with the causes and the solutions.
“So 2023 is not to us in this generation an ordinary year just like you did for us in 1998, it is a year in which there are two parts, the part that leads to the continuation of this road that we know eminently does not augur well for the country or a new part that the people who are going to inherit the future start building the future now and the responsibility that you carried when you were at our age we need to carry them now,” he added.
