When you say someone is too old to run for office or be elected President, what do you mean?
I think this is a key question we must answer or key issue we must understand as we approach another election season.
I don’t believe that once a candidate is young, he will automatically make a good leader. That will be some huge faulty thinking. It is also not a guarantee that an old candidate will translated to be a great president. Na lie.
We have young leaders all over the world either doing greatly or poorly and we have some old leaders also doing either greatly or poorly.
So, when we talk about age, as in old age, we are really talking about health. Old age comes with a deterioration of physical and mental strength. This is not something to be ashamed of. It will happen to the best of us. This is why people retire.
This deterioration happens differently to all of us. Some persons at 80 are still agile physically and mentally; while some at 60 are already packing up. Look at President Obasanjo, he is older than President Buhari but many have argued that he is still more physically and mentally alert than Buhari.
I don’t know what is responsible for this differences in physical and mental deterioration, but my point is those who are putting themselves out for elective offices should know not just their ages but their level of physical and mental deterioration and save us the pain of watching them suffer.
We should also know the difference so that we don’t throw away an experienced agile old man just because he is old or be hoodwinked to pick a deteriorated one.
However, when the choice is between two equally competent persons, I will always pick the younger one.
– By Firsts Baba Isa (FBI)
