GENERAL MUHAMMADU BUHARI IS NOT AGED/OUTDATED RATHER HES THE ONLY HOPE OF NIGERIA Age is a baseless argument against General Muhammadu Buhari’s explicit capability to rescue Nigeria from its prevalent situation. This view is crusaded by some Political Propagandist and their minions based on their artificial belief that at 72, General Muhammadu is inherently out of touch with the complexities of the modern world. This artificial belief is fundamentally flawed, as it assumes that there is a direct correlation between age and competence. This view was aptly tackled in the most recent James Bond movie, the critically acclaimed Skyfall. Q, a young tech savvy agent confidently reminds 007 “age is no guarantee of efficiency, to which 007 replied “youth is no guarantee of innovation.” Even in reality, human history has innumerable case studies of old and young leaders that have done extremely well and extremely bad. Some political scientists even argue that elderly leaders spearheaded most of the contemporary economic growth across the world in recent memory. When Deng Xiaoping assumed power as the Paramount Leader of China in 1978, he was 74. Yet, Deng will go on to initiate his popular agricultural reforms and open China to the rest of the world, leading to the transformation of China into one of the fastest growing economies in the world for over 30 years. Consequently, hundreds of million Chinese citizens were lifted out of poverty. It is critical to note that Deng was 2 years older than General Muhammadu Buhari. The infamous economic miracle came with a minor restriction that only a few people know about till this very date. Japan limited the position of Prime Minister to leaders between the ages of 75 and 80 years old. The German statesman, Konrad Adenauer supervised the recovery of West Germany after the Second World War at the age of 73. Charles De Gaulle is credited for restoring French pride and prosperity. At 70, he galvanized the French war effort and went on to rule till he was 80 years old. Finally, the greatest leader Africa has seen in the post-colonial period, Nelson Mandela, was elected as the President of South Africa at the age of 74. Once again, that is 2 years older than General Muhammadu Buhari. Contrastingly, John F. Kennedy became the youngest American President to be elected into office at the age 43. His tenure as President ushered in a golden age of idealism that energized technological innovation, eventually sending a man to the moon and revolutionizing communications satellite. Finally, Lee Kwan Yew became the Prime Minister of Singapore at the age of 30. He would eventually be a major influence on Deng Xiaoping’s decision to reform China’s economic policies. After governing for three decades, from 1959 to 1990, he restructured Singapore into a beacon of efficiency, growth, discipline and prosperity. As General Muhammadu Buhari declared at the 50th Anniversary Lecture of Nnamadi Azikwe Hall at the University of Ibadan “ability, competence and skill in politics do not reside in one particular age group. The idea is to have a mixture of experienced people who will bring their wisdom to bear and young men and women with energy and vigor to cooperatively run an administration.”
Posted on: Sat, 30 Aug 2014 09:07:52 +0000
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