Nigerian youths have been urged to end the game of recyclying of leadership positions in the country, calling on them to never again vote in a president older than 55 years.
They expressed this at a press briefing in Kaduna by the Arewa Youth Movement, where the spokesman of the Movement, Abdullahi Balarebe read the text.
“As Northern Youths under the aegis of Arewa Consultative Youth Movement, we have a mission to change the mindset of youth and to rewaken them to the spirit of nationalism and dedication to ways that will bring about peace, progress and development in Nigeria.
“It is in the light of the above that we declare that henceforth we are calling on all Nigerian youth and Nigerians in general never to vote a President of this country who is above 55 years of age,” they said.
They said as Nigerians usher in a new year, it has become very pertinent to address some critical issues bedeviling the country.
“It is obviously clear that our country is in a threshold and the crossroad to which we have found ourselves is very pitiable.
“The issue of insecurity, strangulation of Government work, corruption , disregard for the rule of law, marginalisation, nepotism and the trampling of the fundamental human rights of the ordinary citizen has become the order of the day.
“These anomalies that have stunted our growth as a nation since independence is clearly as a result of misgovernance occasioned by the selection of favoured incompetent persons into the helm of affairs.
“Elections are not free and and the issues of our common interests have been thrown to the dogs,” they lamented.
They stressed that there is no even distribution amongst the various class of citizens in terms of leadership.
“This of course has led to the recycling of the “old Order” who continue to plunder our resources.
“Not too long ago, the president signed into law the not too young to run bill, but it is quite unfortunate that only a negligible few young persons have been able to attain leadership positions. This is clearly a case of injustice on the part of the youth of this country.
“We the members of the Arewa consultative Youth movement have followed with interest noting how the leadership of this country has been concentrated in the North for too long.
“Despite the erroneous clinging to power by the Northern elite, issues of religious discrimination and tribal or ethnic sentiments have remained the order of the day.
“The need for us to be introspective and proactive on issues has now warranted us to state clearly without equivocation that we are calling for a return to the South South Presidency.
“This has now become the central theme of our collective discourse hence and we will continue to clamour for it despite seeming manifestation of tribal configuration that has taken over our value system and caused by bad leadership over the years,” they pointed out.
The group also declared that a South South person should lead this country come 2023.
