Former military president General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida (IBB) has said that age has ruled him out from contesting the presidency of Nigeria, since he missed the 2011 chance. He has called for reduction in the number of political parties to five for more vibrancy in the political system.
IBB who spoke to journalists after his accreditation as a voter at his Hill Top polling unit also joined those who are calling for non- involvement of military personnel in the security of election in the ongoing general election.
When asked whether he would recontest as the president of Nigeria in 2015, Gen. Babangida said: “I’m not contesting now, so the question of me trying again does not arise. My answer is no. I know you know by 2015 you can guess how old I will be, then it will now be the time of all of you guys, the younger generation”.
Babangida, however, said that he is still a member of the PDP, adding that “I cannot get out of there, I’m a founding father of the PDP. No matter what everybody will say, we have been there since 1999.”
All the presidential candidates have a chance to win yesterday’s poll, he said, because politics is like a game: “If you lose you try again, we have been playing games since schools’ inter-house competition. One house win the other house loses, you will wait for another day, that is the essence of politics,” he added.
Babangida, however, called for realignment of political parties in Nigeria by reducing the political parties to five solid parties in order to bring more vibrancy and good management to the political system.
He said, “I tried two political parties, somebody tried five, somebody is trying 63, so I hope we would try to put them back into a manageable size like five political parties, it is not new we had it before.”
On whether he subscribed to the use of military as security within the political and electoral system, he said “no, I have always said that the military is an aberration, we should not introduce it in our own politics now, we had it before, I don’t support a military in our system, I have been in the system for 32 years.”
Babangida also lauded INEC for the smooth conduct of the ongoing general elections and said: “So far so good”.
Babangida, who voted around 1p.m. told Journalists in Minna that, “the process is coming up well because I ran an election some 18 years ago and I can tell you whether it is good or not, I think so far so good.”
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