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Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has labelled young Nigerian governors as inexperienced.
Atiku, in an interview with Arise News on Wednesday night, said some states ruled by young leaders are “failing woefully”. He attributed their failure to the absence of a “capable” president at the helm of the country’s affairs.
“Well, there is a clear and stark difference. Take the cases of the state governors in a number of states being headed by relatively young people and failing woefully simply because at the apex they did not have a capable and experienced president to guide them and to of course give them the benefit of his experience and that’s why we have been having a number of you know very very woeful leadership at a number of states because they are being headed by inexperienced young men. Young men also require experience to succeed,” said Atiku.
He described the situation as a systematic issue, adding that Nigeria has also experienced similar failures at the national level. Atiku also described former President Goodluck Jonathan as an inexperienced leader. He claimed Jonathan’s inexperience contributed to his failure to lead the country properly.
“For instance, let’s take the era after Umaru Eradua, who started very well and was succeeded by Jonathan Goodluck. I know Jonathan Goodluck very well. A decent young man, but also inexperienced,” Atiku added.
“That, I believe attributed you know to his failure to manage affairs of the country, particularly when he was faced with challenges.”
Atiku opined that his expectations of young leadership are lower than he expected and that they require tutelage from the older generation.
“I still believe that our expectations of the young leadership [sic] is below what we thought,” said Atiku.
The former vice president has had one of the longest presidential ambitions since Nigeria’s return to democracy in 1999 and the beginning of Nigeria’s Fourth Republic. He has consistently positioned himself as a major contender in the country’s presidential elections since the return to civilian rule in 1999, but has lost on numerous occasions.
