By Chukwudi Nweje
Former military President, General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida (rtd) on Friday, made a case for a generation shift in Nigeria’s leadership.
He said the president Nigeria needs in 2023 and going forward should be someone knowledgeable in economics and one with friends across the geopolitical regions of the country, and should not be over 60 years old.
Babangida said this in an Arise TV interview.
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 60s.”
The former Head of State also said that one major reason the country has not made progress is that Nigerians no longer believed in the future of their own country.
He said the future of Nigeria is in hands of the citizenry, who will either make or mar it.
“I do believe in the future of Nigeria, but Nigerians don’t believe in the future of their country. They created and they destroyed”, he said.
He noted that the nicknames ”Evil genius and Maradona” ascribed to him were the creation of the media, and noted that one cannot be a genius and evil at the same time.
