2011: LEAVE THE RACE FOR YOUNGER GENERATION, ADEBAYO TELLS IBB

Former Military Governor of the defunct Western Region and Chairman of the Yoruba Council of Elders, Major General Robert Adeyinka Adebayo (retd), has advised the former Military President, Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida, to drop his ambition of contesting the 2011 presidential election.

According to him, it was time the elders in the country sat back and took advisory role, saying 'we are to serve as advisers to the younger ones who need our wealth of experience to provide solid leadership to their own generation.'

The octogenarian made his personal opinion on the issue known yesterday in Lagos at a press conference where the communiqué of the YCE meeting was read to newsmen. Why wondering what might have suddenly caught Babangida's fancy in Aso Rock where he occupied for eight years as Nigerian leader, the concerned elder statesman urged him and others like him in the race to allow the younger generation 'who have learnt the rope through us to come in while we serve as their special advisers from behind the scene.'

In a related development, the YCE has charged the new Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Attahiru Jega to make sure that Nigerians witness a free, fair and credible election that would usher in truly elected leadership in the country.

Reading the text of the communiqué of its meeting held earlier in Ibadan, Oyo State, to newsmen in Lagos, the National Publicity Secretary of the organisation, Chief Oluyemi Falade urged Jega to 'uphold the principle of truth, fairness and justice to enable Nigeria realise the stability we have been yearning for.'

The YCE also charged President Goodluck Jonathan on the security of life and property in the country just as it also challenged him to concentrate on the massive improvement of power supply so as to encourage the manufacturers and local artisans to be productive, reasoning that 'the rate of unemployment would, by that, reduce.'

On the controversial zoning fomular of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the YCE expressed opposition to it and urged ' all the political parties to jettison the zoning idea so as not to sacrifice good materials for a system that is not in the constitution.'