From Sola Ojo, Kaduna
President, Arewa Youth Consultative Forum (AYCF), Yerima Shettima, yesterday ruled out the possibility of supporting any presidential aspirant, who is above the age of 60 ahead of the 2023 presidential election in Nigeria.
Yerima said youths in the northern region would go with the position of a former Head of State, General Ibrahim Babangida (rtd), that Nigerians should look inward for a younger person as their president in 2023.
Yerima, who spoke in Kaduna during an interactive session with journalists said categorically that only presidential aspirants in their 40s and 50s, would be supported irrespective of the region they come from.
“We have made our position very clear that we will not pitch our tent with any old generation. This is not because it is not their right to contest, but you can rest assured that we will only campaign for young generations.
“We will be looking forward to those that are in their 40s and 50s.
“We have been sensitising the youths on those who have been recycling themselves over and over again without being able to provide answers to our issues.
“So, we want to, for once, do it for ourselves and I am sure we have the strength to do it. We are looking inward for capable hands in the younger generation this time around,” he said.
On restructuring, Yerima said: “I have been talking about this overconcentration of power and if we continue to do this, we will continue to have funny people with funny characters occupying some of these political spaces.