The All Progressives Congress (APC) has told PDP Chairman Bamanga Tukur that only Nigerians can decide whether or not President Goodluck Jonathan will rule beyond 2015, saying his statement that the President will rule till 2019 is nothing but an empty boast aimed at ingratiating himself to the President.
In a statement issued in Abuja on Wednesday by its Interim National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party also asked the PDP Chairman to back up his statement, that it is time for Nigerian youths to take over the reins of power, by first stepping down from his post to pave the way for the younger generation.
It reminded Tukur that one of his predecessors once boasted, in another euphoric moment, that the PDP will rule for 60 years, only for him to leave office shortly thereafter.
”There is nothing on ground to justify Tukur’s empty boast, which is again being oiled in readiness for 2015.
”It is interesting that the Chairman said the future belongs to the youths and that the era of Gerontocracy is gone. The last time we checked, a 78-year-old man does not exactly belong to the generation of youths, even if he continues to hold away at the top echelon of the ruling party. The sincerity of that statement is therefore in doubt.
”As for the PDP Chairman’s admonition to the youth to start preparing to take over the mantle of leadership, the question to ask is whether or not the undergraduates in the nation’s public universities, who have been marooned at home for over four months now because the PDP-led federal government repudiated the agreement it signed with ASUU, are not part of the leaders of tomorrow?
”If Tukur believes they are, he should urgently prevail on the government sired by his party to meet its obligation to ASUU and end the strike by the university teachers. Then we will know that he is serious about his postulation. Until then, we say talk is cheap” the statement said.