General Abdulsalami Abubakar (rtd) pledges his support for the ambition of Barrister Adewole Adebayo, the presidential aspirant under the platform of Mega Party Movement for the 2023 general election.
General Abdulsalami who gave his support while receiving the presidential hopeful and his team of supporters in his hilltop Manson in Minna, the Niger State capital on Saturday, adds that Nigeria is on the right path with someone in the caliber of Chief Adebayo joining the presidential race as Nigeria needs a younger and vibrant leadership to make it a greater place.
The Former Head of State, General Abdulsalami Abubakar (rtd) while emphasizing that Nigeria with a population of over 200 million is certainly a great country added that the quality of her leadership will go a long way to making it a greater place for humanity especially when the nation’s leadership is taken over by youths.
The Army Gen. of repute and global icon of peace thanks prince Adebayo for finding him fit and worthy of the visit meant to officially inform him of his ambition and seek his support.
says Indeed Nigeria needs the younger generation to take over from us the older generation.
“I am so happy that young people are showing interest in taking over the leadership of the nation. Like you rightly said the world is going digital and I believe the younger generation are more exposed internationally in ICT more than the older generation.
I am happy that you are thinking of moving the country forward and I believe with your ideologies, youthful strength, your global presence and the vibrant intelligentsia upon which your ambition is founded, I think Nigeria is on the right path to greatness.
“You can count on our support always, trying to do the right thing. Thank you, Dalung for bringing your friend to visit him. The military democrat said.
The former Minister of Youths and Sport Development, Mr. Solomon Dalung in his opening remark hails the former Head of State for deploying his energy towards making peace around the country.
The comrade hourable former minister who describes Gen. Abdulsalami as father of modern democracy, added, “We have come because as an elder who have served this country, and still serving, who has invested and is still investing in the unity and stability of this great country of ours for directions.
“As one of your children I can volunteer for free how you think and feel Nigeria should be. I also know as a fact that consistently you have always been very prayerful for the growth and the development of this country.
“We always refer to you as the father of this democracy because you made history at a time when so many people disbelieved your sincerity of purpose, but you handed over.
“We are also here to inform you that we have a young man who has seen the visionary dream of governing this country and from the community I came from,Taro, any young man who has a dream will first discuss with the elders.
“As one of the elders of this country we deemed it necessary to visit you and share his dream with you so he can seek for advice, guidance and if we have your mind we will have the blessings too.”
Addressing General Abdulsalami earlier, the Presidential aspirant of The Mega Party Movement, Prince Adewole Adebayo lamented that the Democratic foundation is now under threats.
Adebayo said, “We are greatful to you for many reasons and my friend has said it. that we saw you on May 1999 handing over power and collecting your service plaque, you have always been there.
“You are one of our greatest leaders, you are to us what Abraham Lincoln is to the Americans.
“Because Lincoln founded America, it wasn’t George Washington, he reformed the character of the country after the civil war and you after many years of military wilderness shown to us that you are an officer and gentleman, you kept your words which was not easy to do but you did it.
“But it wasn’t that day that you became who you are, you have always been a good citizen. You paid grievous sacrifices in the past when there were opportunities that you could be anything in the country including going abroad, or stay here and become a medical Doctor or a lawyer, you chose a profession where you had to give your life to the country.
“At that time you never knew you could be head of State. You thought you could be eliminated in the war front but you have your life to the country.
‘If every youth lives there lives as you had led that time some will be head of State, some will not be but everyone would be a patriot and the country is built by patriots not by people in government and the calamity that we suffer in the country is not the misbehavior of people in Government.
“It is the effect of the disbelieve that it has created on the minds of the people and the generational inheritance of that doubt of the feeling that things can be that good but things can be good.
“The reason why we come back to you when we have problems is not because we want to overwork you. It is because in mathematics you start with the basic formula when you are confused, your excellency, you are the basic primary formula for our democracy.
“We say if you want to show that tomorrow would be good you refer to a past that was good and looking back you give us that frame of reference.
“The reason why I have come out is essentially because the country itself needs to be saved now and people like you risked your life for it literally, shed blood, and you lost many of your compatriots.
“Even the country hasn’t reach its full potential. You have given us a country as a base to work with. Even that little foundation is now under threats from all kinds of threats of which you are very familiar with the causes and the solutions.
“So 2023 is not to us in this generation an ordinary year just like you did for us in 1998, it is a year in which there are two parts, the part that leads to the continuation of this road that we know eminently does not augur well for the country or a new part that the people who are going to inherit the future start building the future now and the responsibility that you carried when you were at our age we need to carry them now.
‘We need to show and assure you that your legacy lives on. We need to have a template for you to show that Nigerians does before any other decision and that the unity and continuity of the federal republic of Nigeria is more paramount to us than any other consideration.
“Two, that we know that, it is not a country where we want to be great individually but we want the country to be great.
‘I will rather be an ordinary man from a great country than a great man from a ordinary country”.
“it is that importance, there is nothing else that we as young people can achieve than we have produced everything that can be produced but we need to give the glory to the country which means, that the labours of our heroes past should not just be a song.
“That labour should be a continum because the journey of the heroes of the past started, it is not yet finished and if we just talk about heroism without talking about who is going to be the new hero because we need to build a new country.
Highlighting his forth point, Adebayo said the former Head of State made a wonderful move by giving Nigeria civil rule and that tenet must be maintained and improved upon.