At 62, I will be too old to be President in 2023, says el-Rufai

*’…after eight years of President Buhari, the presidency should go to the south’

GOVERNOR Nasir el-Rufai has rubbished insinuation that he is eyeing the presidency in 2023.

The governor, who featured in a programme on the Pidgin Service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) in Kaduna, yesterday, said at 62, he would be too old to occupy the country’s highest political office in two years’ time.

However, el-Rufai was silent on whether he would be interested in the vice president’s position.

He said his current position as Kaduna State governor has had a telling effect on his age.

“Governing Nigeria is a serious job, which is obviously too much for a 62-year-old man. Look at me, look at my grey hair. If you see my picture when I was sworn in, my hair was very black but look at how it has become.

“This is a very difficult job and that is just state governor, one state out of 36. A big one, yes; a difficult one, yes, but it is not the same as Nigeria.

“Presidency of Nigeria is a very serious job, it is too much for a 62-year-old.

“On the vice president’s position, I have not thought about it at all. I have said that in the political system we have, after eight years of President Muhammadu Buhari, the presidency should go to the south.

“I have been suffering this presidential ambition suspicion since 2006, I have suffered it for 15 years today, and I am sick and tired of it.

“There are people that are out to paint me in a particular picture so that, I will be out of the presidential race, but they don’t know that I am not in any race anywhere.”

“They have called me all sorts of names; they said I am a Hausa-Fulani irredentist, I am Jihadist and all that, Jihadist when? Where? I am not even an active member of any Islamic organization.

“I am Muslim yes, a devote one but, I believe religion is private. Even here in this office, when it is time for prayer, I just excuse myself as if I am going to the restroom, I don’t ask anyone to come and pray with me, because we will all go to our graves separately.”