SAMUEL ALONGE
President Muhammadu Buhari has been advised to think of his advanced age and refrain from contesting
for a second term next year, as those urging him on are mere sycophants.
A Christian cleric, Prophet Lai Bamidele, who gave the advice said it was expedient for the President to decline any pressure to re-contest, on account of old age.
Bamidele, General Overseer of Glorious End-Time Evangelical Ministries, a church with headquarters in Fagba, Lagos, said aside from various controversies that have trailed Buhari’s almost three-year administration, it was only logical that the President who will be 76 next year, should opt for retirement.
Besides, the cleric recalled that out of about three years of the President’s rule so far, about two years were spent in and out of hospital, an indication that Buhari is no longer fit for another four-year mandate.
“Much as Nigeria may have no good alternative to Buhari, the truth is that, the man is too old. Nigeria doesn’t need a 75 years old man to be the President over a population of 170 million people.
“Besides, Buhari needs to go and take care of himself, because, from all indications, he has health issues, as his first two years in office was virtually spent in and out of hospital,” he averred.
Bamidele said besides, the Buhari administration is too slow.
“Buhari got to the government, it took him seven months to appoint ministers; it has never happened in this country.
“You have only four years to spend, seven months is a waste and you say the government is running, which government is running? Now we wasted seven months and by the time he came up with ministers, he came up mostly with people who don’t know their right from the left.”
He said it would only take the grace of God for Nigeria to progress, in view of the penchant of sycophant close aides who deceive their principals for selfish reasons.
“People that are eating under the government of Buhari don’t want him to go; they will even prefer to let him die ‘on the throne’, as long as they are making their own money.”
The cleric urged the President to use the remaining one year left for his administration “to correct his various lapses since he assumed leadership.”
“For instance, that some corrupt people could be condoned and embraced by his administration simply because they are northerners has put an end to the relevance of his anti-corruption crusade. He should reverse himself and do the needful, to put his name on the good side of history.
“Apart from that, he should ensure that all those who killed innocent people in the name of being Fulani herdsmen and as such untouchable, are made to pay for their crimes.”
Prophet Bamidele also urged the National Leader of the All Progressives Congress, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, to be tactful in his assignment of reconciling aggrieved APC members, saying, “Having been betrayed by the Buhari government once, he should not allow himself to be fooled for the second time.”
He said the President made a great mistake by saying at the inception of his administration that “I am for everyone and for nobody”, stressing that “the lions and the hyenas in his administration, as once stated by his wife, used the opportunity to influence him wrongly.”
Prophet Bamidele said Christian clerics in the country would not cease in praying for peace, unity and progress of the country, but stressed that, “we will continue to correct the leaders and excoriate where necessary, once they are about to derail.”
He tasked politicians to play the game by it rules and show tolerance as the country enters another election year.