General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, Nigeria’s former head of state, says his choice for the next President of the country is someone who is “not very old, very conversant with the country, and a very good communicator”.
POLITICS NIGERIA recalls that Babangida had said last year that Nigeria’s next president should be someone in his 60s.
When asked by Trust TV in a recent interview to mention the particular person that fits his ideal president in 2023, Babangida said: “It is not who do I have in mind but who fits in; any person who fits in within these criteria, then he is the right person as long as he is a Nigerian; he is a politician, he is not old like I am; he is very conversant with the country, he communicates, he is a very good communicator.
“He should be able to communicate because a president should be able to walk into a group of people and talk to them on issues concerning Nigeria; not all the time but most of the time.
“He must have somebody he knows in every part of the country. It is not a tall order.
“You could limit it to states, you could limit it to local governments even to the wards if you can but somebody such that once you hear the name, it is somebody you will say, yes, I have heard that name before either in the country or in his profession; if he is a doctor, a journalist or whatever, all areas, we have heard the name before; okay then I will make an effort to know more about him.”
Furthermore, asked if he sees such a person among the current political office holders such as governors, ministers and others, he said: “Well, I believe the process will take care of that.
“Within the process, of those people you mentioned now, there are people who could fit into this category and I believe the process can take care of that.”
I believe that such a person with such quality described by Ibrahim Babangida could be found among the political class.
Well spoken sir
I think his opinion is right. It is time we start to look on the ability,agility,strength,achievements on the area of his/her profession and foremost a nationalist who take every territorial part of Nigerian as one , not tribal bigot who see his only region as the intellectual who can fixed Nigeria. From what we seeing today (fractionalisation ,agitation for self governance ,banditary,bad economic planning )and all the verses we have today
Sir Babangida, you ve said it all..