By Dele Ogbodo
Former Military President, General Ibrahim Badamosi Babangidda, week end said the time has come for Nigeria to have new breed
of Nigerians as their leaders in the next political dispensation.
According to him, the need has arisen to search for new blood and leadership, since 2019 is close.
Speaking in a counter statement earlier issued by his Media Aide, Kazeem Afegbua, in his country home in Minna, Niger State, he said President Muhammadu Buhari, can still contest the 2019, if he so desire.
However, in his original statement, which was retraction of the first, he denied writing the president but was just expressing his opinion, which read: “Fellow compatriots on the need to enthrone younger blood on the mainstream of our political leadership starting from 2019.
“in the fullness of our present realities, we need to cooperate with President Muhammadu Buhari to complete his term of office on May 29th, 2019 and collectively prepare the way for a new generation leaders to assume the mantle of leadership of the country.”
He explained, that he was offering the advise as a stakeholder in the Nigerian project, who was bent in seeing a new shift and paradigm in our collective aspiration to get the wheel of governance moving which will ensure a better Nigeria for all.
Continuing, he said: “This is the time to reinvent the will and tap into the resourcefulness of the younger generations, stimulate their entrepreneurial initiatives and provoke a conducive environment to grow the national economy.”
According leadership has to be proactive and not reactive, adding that they must factor in the citizens’ participation and involvement. He stressed the language if leadership must be persuasive, not agitated and abusive.