Bauchi State Governor, Sen. Bala Mohammed has insisted that former Vice President Atiku Abubakar is well qualified to be president, but age is not on his side and therefore should be encouraged to drop his ambitions.
Africa Today News, New York reports that it is true that although Atiku, 75, is yet to officially declare, his son, Adamu Atiku, had sometime last year confirmed that he would contest again in 2023.
Also, one of his campaign groups headed by a Media Mogul, Chief Raymond Dokpesi, had last week said Atiku would do a single term of four years if elected.
When he received the report of a Contact and Consultation Committee, which he set up for his presidential ambition, Mohammed said Atiku had tried for Nigeria but age is no longer on his side.
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Governor Bala said, ‘There is no need for us to be greedy; of course, my presidency will not cause division. You can see that at the heat of the time that my elder brother, Malam Adamu was going round, we invited our elder statesman, the one that we respect so much, the Waziri Adamawa (Atiku Abubakar), we named a road after him.
‘We invited him to Bauchi and we interacted and I told him that in this game, I know he is the most senior, he is very qualified but because of his age and fatigue that he has suffered so much for Nigeria, he should allow his younger brother to be his spare tyre not to take over just like that.
‘But if Nigerians prefer him, I will support him. I am not too desperate but he should know that Nigerians like me too. And whatever he wants, I will do it for him, so this is our agreement, he has the highest respect from me,’ Governor Mohammed said.
The two opposition politicians would now be gearing up to go head-to-head.
AFRICA TODAY NEWS, NEW YORK