BUHARI’S AGE CONTROVERSY: INEC MUST ACT NOW, SAYS PDP

President Muhammadu Buhari, toasting to his 75th birthday recently.

Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has described as “national disgrace” President Muhammadu Buhari’s declaration that he had all the while believed he was 74 years.

Reacting to this in a statement in Osogbo Tuesday, PDP’s Deputy National Publicity Secretary, Prince Diran Odeyemi, said that not a few Nigerians and the international community must have been shocked the President of a country in the 21st century has no knowledge of his actual age.

Prince Diran Odeyemi’s statement reads in part, “How many other inconsistencies are in Mr. President’s biodata submitted to INEC? We are sure there are more. And the world is waiting on the body to give details about our President. We therefore advise INEC to act now by revisiting those forms President Buhari filled in all elections he had participated in, especially those he filled before 2015 elections to unravel other inconsistencies therein.

“In a normal clime, the electoral umpire would have set in motion verification modalities to avoid further national embarrassment and expose Mr. President. Come to think of it, a leader that does not know his real age, could not be said, to have sound knowledge of the people and country he governs, let alone knowing the peculiarities of the governed. This is simply not the kind of president Nigeria needs at the moments.

“Not too long ago, Nigeria became laughing stock with the inappropriate designation of German Chancellor, Angela Merkel as President of West Germany by President Buhari. We recall President Buhari once admitted that his age would slow down his performance in office. For a country that could fall into an emergency situation anytime, like the present government-failing induced fuel scarcity, we don’t need a president that forgets things easily.

Prince Diran Odeyemi  said his party was thus advising Mr. President to consider turning in his resignation letter to avoid further slowing down the country because of his age, and to also save the country’s corporate image in order not to be seen by the international community as a country that had a President with occasional memory failure.