Atiku Abubakar, presidential aspirant on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has promised to hand over power to the youths if elected president next year.
Mr Abubakar was quoted to have made the promise in Abuja while meeting with leaders of hundreds of his support groups on Tuesday, a statement by Atiku Support Organisation, through its spokesperson, Dr Victor Moses, said.
“I will mentor you and hand over power to you,” the opposition chief was quoted to have said. “I would like to work more with young people because young people are more agile, creative, and conversant with contemporary opportunities and challenges.
“Our administration is going to be a transition of power from the senior generation to a younger generation,” he said.
The politician, also quoted by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), said he was delighted that more young people were showing interest in politics, adding that his dream is to mentor the young generation and hand over his political structure to them.
“It is encouraging that these days, I see many young people come to me declaring intentions to run for various political positions — some state assemblies, some national assembly and even some aspiring to be governors,” NAN quoted him as saying.
“The beautiful thing is that this shows that our democracy is being strengthened. I also started early like many of you.
“I started in my late 30s. During our time, our direction was to fight the military and return the country to civil rule.
“In joining politics, you have to be focused, principled and courageous. For example, I contested for the governorship position four times before I was finally elected. That is politics for you. You have to be determined and be courageous.
“We are more organised now. It is a reflection of the fact that we are now more experienced and with experience comes more knowledge.
“What that means is that if there was any mistake that we made last time, we are in a better position to avoid such mistakes now,” he added.
