Olufunke Aladejare
The Presidency has urged a former Vice President of Niteria, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar to take a cue from former President of South Africa, late Nelson Mandela, who retired from politics as a result of age.
Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga made this remark while reacting to claims of former Labour Party Presidential candidate, Peter Obi, who promised to run for only one term if elected as President of the Country.
He said, “Peter Obi, the aspiring presidential candidate of the fledgling opposition party, must have flunked history in school. In justifying his so-called ‘sacrosanct’ pledge to serve only one term of four years, he cited Abraham Lincoln, JFK, and Nelson Mandela as leaders he wanted to emulate.
“A simple fact check by a politician who always challenges his gullible and unthinking mob to verify his statements would have revealed that he quoted the wrong examples.
“Obi would have found that Lincoln, at the time he was assassinated, had finished his first term, had won re-election, and had been sworn in for a second term.
“Lincoln began his first term on March 4, 1861. He won re-election on November 8, 1864, and was sworn in on March 4, 1865, before his assassination on April 15, 1865.
“John F. Kennedy, who shared a similar tragic fate with Lincoln, came into office on 20 January 1960 as the 35th President of the United States. He was assassinated on November 22, 1963, before the expiration of his first term.
“Nelson Mandela served as the first president of South Africa from 1994 to 1999. He declined a run for a second term on account of his age. Mandela, at the end of his first term as president, was 81 years old. He decided to retire from politics rather than contest for another five-year term. Mandela’s example might be more appropriately recommended to Obi’s rival for the opposition ticket, who will turn 81 by 2027”.
