Youths within the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) have called on members and leaders of the party to allow former Lagos State governor, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, succeed President Muhammadu Buhari, come 2023 when his tenure must have ended.
The youths, under the aegis of APC National Awareness for Youth Vanguard, while making the call, lauded President Buhari for removing whatever doubts in the minds of Nigerians regarding his rumoured third term bid, saying the president had demonstrated uncommon statesmanship.
The youth group within the APC made the call on Monday in a statement jointly signed by its National Coordinator, Alhaji Muktar Abubakar and National Secretary, Mr Dayo Ogunjebe respectively, warning those it called mischief makers who were angling to profit from the rumoured third term bid of the president to desist from the act.
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According to it, the act if not stopped was capable of dragging the person and the office of the president in the mud as the constitution only guarantees two terms of office for the president.
The APC youths, in their argument, said Tinubu, who is equally the National Leader of the ruling APC, by right of qualification and party loyalty, was eminently qualified to take over the mantle of leadership from Buhari.
According to leaders of the group, the call to have Tinubu succeed Buhari is also premised on the contributions of the former Lagos State governor to the founding of the party.
“We are calling on members and the leadership of the APC to look towards the direction of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu to succeed President Muhammadu Buhari in 2023. This is a man who has paid his dues within the party and we believe whoever has made any form of sacrifice must be entitled to benefit from the fruits of his labour,” the group said.
The group paid glowing tributes to the efforts of Tinubu whom it stated was not only instrumental but very cardinal to the formation of the ruling party in 2014, adding that the APC National Leader not only formed the party but deployed all he could to ensure that APC defeated the then ruling Peoples Democratic Party Party (PDP) IN 2015.
While advocating power shift to the southern part of the country as a means to foster national unity and cohesion, the group stated that Tinubu by virtue of his contributions to the APC is on the vantage position to clinch the ticket of the ruling party.
“When we argue that power should shift t the south, to us, it is a legitimate call, which we fully support for the promotion and sustenance of peace, progress and unity of the country.
“When we look at the array of gladiators jostling for the leadership of the country in 2023, it is our view that no one else towers above Tinubu in terms of contact and exposure,” the APC youths said.
Commenting on the position of Buhari, who recently at the National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting APC at the party’s headquarters in Abuja dismissed purported rumour of an impending bid for a third term in office, the group lauded the president, describing the move as a welcome development for the progress and unity of the county.
“We want to place on record our appreciation to His Excellency, President Muhammadu Buhari, for coming out to dispel the rumour (of a likely third term bid). That singular factor has no doubt helped in dousing tension in the polity.
“We are also calling on mischief makers to desist from their actions and not to drag the name and office of the president in the mud,” the group warned.