According to Showunmi, the ‘Not Too Young To Run Law’ does not imply that the elderly must die as the President of the United States of America, Joe Biden, is in his 70s.
It could be recalled that the former Lagos State Governor and National Leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Tinubu had announced his intention to run for the 2023 presidency; former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, who was the candidate of the PDP in 2019, is still consulting.
However, there have been calls across the country that the likes of Tinubu and Atiku should leave the political stage because of their ages.
In a statement made available to the press in Abeokuta on Monday, Showunmi stated that “When President Buhari signed the Not Too Young To Run bill on 31st of May 2018, it was a welcome development as it lowered the age to give more access to those wanting to contest. I do not see any clause in it that says age is now a disease or an impediment to anyone aspiring to be anything in our country, Nigeria.”
He stated that he had listened and watched with bewilderment the fixation on age as the only parameter, especially to the high office of the presidency, “under some silly assumption that the presidency of Nigeria is a stone quarry where the occupant is expected to use Stone Age Tools to chip mountains into chips for building”.
He added: “Hello friends, get busy and come to the table with ideas and snap out of these bully tactics directed at the elderly. No one, and I repeat, no one, is stopping anybody from aspiring for any office of their liking. We do not have an age ceiling on eligibility to contest.
“I have seen wet trees die while the dry ones live much longer, the mortality experience of humans does not justify this lazy frenzy. Do the young not die just as much as the elders? Do the infirmities of health not affect all humans? I don’t get it.
“Thankfully each and everyone that is qualified is free to aspire. The reality of what the contest demands will manage the garrulousness of infantile lackeys of the kindergarten wannabes.
“So it is Waziri Atiku Abubakar or Asiwaju Bola Tinubu that these lots are hoping to bully of their ambitions with the screaming and shouting about age.
“Shall we not examine their scorecards on the assignments and opportunities granted them.
“We know those younger leaders that can bring something to the table, and we know the unstable over-ambitious office seekers who are simply deceiving themselves. Time will tell.
“Their story is like that of the leach that wants to kill the dog it feeds on, forgetting that once the dog dies, the leach will cease to exist.
“If Atiku Abubakar is often in the news while the consultation is still ongoing, I tell you again he will be one of the issues in the build-up to 2023.
“When nations are looking for leadership in a democracy, they look for who can get the job done. In our case, the demand is more, for we will be on a fool’s gambit to think the challenges the country faces is child’s play.”
