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Elder statesmanTanko Yakasai
Elder statesman, Tanko Yakasai, has described himself as a lucky man to be alive after exposing President Muhammadu Buhari’s lack of capacity to govern, even before he was elected into office in 2015.
Yakasai, who stated this in an interview with Vanguard in Abuja yesterday, explained that when he raised the alarm, those who were supporters of the then candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, almost went for his head.
He declared: “When Buhari came in 2014/ 2015, northerners and southerners came together to say he was the one. Remember, I came out and cautioned Nigerians,
“I said clearly that Buhari was not competent, that he has no capacity to govern. I was lucky at the time otherwise; I would have been killed by Buhari die-hards.
“Now, by divine intervention, a lot of people now are wiser, a lot of people who believed then that Buhari was the right person at that time; now know that he is not.”
Speaking about the controversy generated by the decision of Asiwaju Ahmed Tinubu to choose Senator Kashim Shettima, a follow Muslim, as his running mate for the 2023 presidential election, Yakasai explained that the decision was based on political exigencies.
“When you talk of elections, my experience is that it’s the Christians who are raising this issue today, not Muslims.
“There are many states in Nigeria, in the North and in the South where you have a Christian governor and a Christian as deputy; nobody has ever raised an issue with that.
“Now that this is becoming a problem, it is because of the mischief of certain individuals or their short sightedness. If they didn’t do it, it wouldn’t be a problem today,” he said.
The elder statesman enjoined Nigerians to look beyond their immediate needs and be futuristic in their choice of those who they would give their mandates to in 2023.
According to him, Nigeria’s democracy is at risk of destruction, with the increasing rate at which those with deep pockets are being given a leeway to dictate the pace not only within political parties but in the larger society.(Vanguard)
