Youths from across the six South-Western states of Nigeria, on Monday, staged a rally to drum support for the presidential ambition of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar in 2023.
The youths, under the aegis of Southern Youths Alliance (SOYA) carried banners bearing different inscriptions such as “Atiku is the candidate for Nigeria Presidency”, “Atiku Has Capacity, Competence, Character”, “Atiku Loves The Youths” among others to declare their supports for the political aspiration of the former Vice President in Abeokuta, Ogun State capital.
SOYA members, however, later converged at the secretariat of the state chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Oke Mosan, where they spoke with journalists on why Nigerians should support Atiku’s political aspiration 2023.
Speaking with journalists, SOYA president, Comrade Ridwan Ismaheel, described the convergence of the South-West youths as a “patriotic call” towards evaluating the direction at which the country was heading and also take a definitive stance regarding the year 2023 general election.
Noting that the country is presently confronted with monumental challenges, ranging from economy to security, as well as ethnic disaffections, Ismaheel declared that SOYA’s national assignment was to search for and persuade a leader who is “not bigoted”, but have the passion for picking “up the pieces, bring everyone to the roundtable for discussions and mend the divisions in the country from North to South.”
He berated the positions of some politicians, who are arguing that the former Vice President is too old to govern Nigeria again, stressing that “what is important is the quality of ideas that the leader is bringing to the table.”
Against the backdrop of agitations for youths to assume mantle of leadership in the country, Ismaheel declared that recent happenings in the country have clearly indicated that Nigerian youths cannot be trusted with public funds.
“We believe that there is absolutely nothing wrong in whether it is an old person or a younger person. We, as youth groups of the PDP will not sit idly by where ideas are compromised for lesser values. What we need as a country is competent leadership. There could be other wants, but we believe that what we need should trump what we want!
“We can see the way people are talking about mismanagement of fund, whereby we can’t even trust ourselves. The way we youths are mismanaging fund is getting out of hands. We need someone that has the experience, as an elder person to take the step so that we youths can learn from them.
“If Atiku does not declare, there’s a petition that is coming from our own side. I will believe that he is a coward if he is not declaring himself to contest the elections as the next president of this country,” Ismaheel stated.
Credit: Leadership