Yerima Shettima, the president of the socio-cultural organisation Arewa Youth Consultative Forum (AYCF), has ruled out backing any presidential candidate beyond the age of 60 in Nigeria’s 2023 presidential election.

Yerima stated that he agrees with former Head of State General Ibrahim Babangida’s (rtd) declaration that Nigerians should elect a younger person as president in 2023.

In an interview with media on Saturday, November 6, Yerima stated:

“We know where we stand. It is very clear we will not side with any old generation. Yes, we recognize that it is their right to run, but please be assured that we will not campaign for or support any older generation. We reserve them for the younger generations.”

“The range is around 40s to 50s,” Yerima stipulated.

“We have been sensitising the youths about 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 over concentration 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.