Alhaji Yerima Shettima, the president of the Arewa Youth Consultative Forum (AYCF), in a recent interview, speaks on the 2022 Electoral Act recently signed into law by President Muhammadu Buhari, the 2023 presidential elections, why Nigeria needs a young president and insecurity ravaging the country, among others.

Speaking on the 2022 Electoral Act recently signed into law, he said “it is what Nigerians have been waiting for, though it appears late, but it is better late than never. Everything in life has processes and it has a beginning and the beginning is exactly what he did. That is not to say that in future we will not demand that certain things should be corrected because we will continue to demand either laws or amendments of the constitution and existing laws or we push for certain laws that we feel will be for the better interest of this country.

“We expected the president to have done that much earlier than he did but it is good that he has done it at this time than never to do it at all. There are some developments that emanated from the signing of the law especially the clause that the president asked the National Assembly to amend but it has been thrown out by the lawmakers, what is the implication of such?

“The implication is that we must have a culture of consistency and as far as I’m concerned, Nigerians are happy that the amendment was thrown out by the National Assembly. For whatever reason, there is no need for Nigerians to go behind the door especially the lawmakers to come up with the bill again because we are supposed to put it behind and forge ahead,” he said.

When asked about what he thinks about the consensus between APC and PDP that the presidency should go to the south, he said “Interestingly, they are not the only two parties in Nigeria. So, if the APC or the PDP make an attempt to zone their presidential ticket to the south in the name of zoning, we will shock them. Zoning is a gentleman agreement and it is not bidding on anybody and certainly Nigerians will give their support to a party that does not zoned anything but allows competence to prevail at the end of the day because we must forge ahead. We must move on.

“So, the issue of zoning does not arise and I dare them to zone it to the south and look at the margin. At least PDP is not stupid. In fact, PDP is buying time to watch what APC will do. Let the APC do what they are doing then PDP will give them a surprise at the end of the day by bringing out a northern candidate, then we will see what happen. But my own side of the thinking is not about north or south but competence and youthfulness.

“Age must play a major role in deciding who lead us in this country. The defining factor must be a true Nigerian who has faith in the country and that is the person we are looking for,” he said. (Story adapted from New Telegraph)

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