Postpone your presidential ambitions to 2023, Buhari tells Nigerian youth

President Muhammadu Buhari may have assented to the ‘Not too young to run’ bill but he is not keen on running against Nigerian youth just yet.

The president, who will seek reelection in 2019, has appealed to the youth to pace themselves and study the lay of the land before flooding the political space.

As Buhari signed the “landmark piece of legislation conceived, championed and accomplished by young Nigerians,” he asked for a favour; Nigerian youth should slow-pedal their ambition for now.

He said: “I am confident each one of you will transform Nigeria in your own way – whether through media, agricultural enterprise, economists, engineers, or as lawmakers in your states or at federal levels, or as state governors – and even someday, as president. Why not?

“But please, can I ask you to postpone your campaigns till after the 2019 elections.”

The president spoke at the Presidential Villa in Abuja on Thursday shortly after signing the Not-Too-Young-To-Run Bill into law.

Buhari, 74, is seeking reelection in 2019.

Buhari had, in his Democracy Day broadcast on Tuesday, pledged to sign the bill.

The bill was passed by the National Assembly last year to alter Sections 65, 106, 131, 177 of the Constitution to reduce the age qualification for president from 40 to 30; governor from 35 to 30; senator from 35 to 30; House of Representatives membership from 30 to 25 and State House of Assembly membership from 30 to 25.