Group advises politicians above 60 not to contest in 2023 election

The leadership of the Concerned Northern Forum (CNF) has appealed to Nigerian politicians over 60 years of age to stay away from the 2023 presidency.

Spokesman of the forum, Comrade Abdulsalam Moh’d Kazeem, in a statement noted, “In Nigeria today, our civil service (rules) will not retain any individual above 60 years of age no matter his/her experience and value the said distinguished/accomplished individual will add to our system, this is enshrined in law.”

The statement explained that most renowned civil servants with an outstanding history of bravery, accountability, transparency, and fairness in service can later be engaged by the federal, state, or local government either as consultants, advisors, or committee members to help formulate and restructure policies that would bring about efficiency, and effectiveness in service delivery.

In developed nations, the forum noted that people of such age and experience are mostly engaged in charitable activities, free consultancy services, and all forms of selfless services to their nation and populace.

It lamented that in developing nations, the people in the age group are actively involved in all forms of forgeries, desperate moves in aspiring for the presidency to which they have no value to add, their aspiration for such office is wrongly motivated.

“Most of Nigeria’s political elites sources of wealth/ ideology is questionable, their state of health is unknown, primary, secondary and university/polytechnic attended is unknown while their age, name, parents and even state of origin are disputed,” the forum lamented.

According to the statement, research carried out by CNF proves that most of the country’s political elites inclinations to be Nigeria’s president are for reasons not beyond lust for power and affluence, with no blueprint on how to tackle the enormous challenges bedeviling us as a nation.

It observed that the time has come for Nigerians to give their mandate to candidates below 60 years, with good manifestos, stressing that the political will to help address the immediate, short term and long term problems that have made Nigeria the poverty headquarters of the world despite its population and abundant resources, which ordinarily should be advantageous to the country at any rate.

The forum noted that the country is faced with brain drain due to the effect of poor leadership caused by the so-called “Landlords of Nigeria” that sees nothing good in developing the nation but developing themselves at the detriment of over 200 million people.

According to the forum, “The time is now and 2023 Presidency for us should be based on an Individual’s personal competence, health status, integrity, and credibility will determine his marketability and electability”.

The group explained that it can not allow the recycling of old politicians who have been instrumental to the enormous problems facing the country from 1999 till date to still come and lead the country to more uncertainty, alleging that their achievements are looting, corruption, among others.

It called on progressive youths to take advantage of the not too young to rule to participate actively, not only in social media, since no polling unit exist here, rather they should help mobilize and sensitive their fellow youths on how to get permanent voters card, become a member of a particular political party, aspire for political offices, and equally encourage others with leadership potential with either finance, free consultancy services or soft words of encouragement, which will demonstrate that we are ready to lead our nation too.

“We are the trustees of this nation and the epoch of being spectators is over, we have to participate actively because available records show that out of the over 84 million registered voters, the youth represent over 51% and our nation with a fast-growing population of over 200 million, with more than 60% of the people under 25 years of age, we can and the time is now to unerring our past and have a nation that can stand tall among the comity of great nations against all we presently witness today,” the forum explained.