Former Vice-President, Atiku Abubakar has advised Nigerian youths to be consistent and courageous in taking active participation in politics.
The presidential hopeful of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) spoke on Tuesday at a meeting with leaders of support groups aligning with his presidential bid.
Addressing the leaders of the groups at the event held in Abuja, Atiku said he was delighted that more young people were showing interest in politics, adding that his dream is to mentor the young generation and hand over his political structure to them.
Atiku, who also revealed that he started fighting military rule in his late 30s, said that he contested the governorship position four different times before he finally won in 1999.
“It is encouraging that these days, I see many young people come to me declaring intentions to run for various political positions — some state assemblies, some national assembly and even some aspiring to be governors,” NAN quoted him as saying.
“The beautiful thing is that this shows that our democracy is being strengthened. I also started early like many of you.
“I started in my late 30s. During our time, our direction was to fight the military and return the country to civil rule.
“In joining politics, you have to be focused, principled and courageous. For example, I contested for the governorship position four times before I was finally elected. That is politics for you. You have to be determined and courageous.”
Atiku expressed gratitude to the leaders of the support groups for the roles that they played during the 2019 election and commended the groups for their discipline and their determination to be better organized than in the last outing.
He said, “We are more organised now. It is a reflection of the fact that we are now more experienced and with experience comes more knowledge.
“What that means is that if there was any mistake that we made last time, we are in a better position to avoid such mistakes now.”
