Editor’s note: Naij.com guest author Chinedu George Nnawetanma responds to President Buhari’s claim that there are restraints to what he can do for Nigeria at the age of 72, and recollects 5 well-known world politicians who overcomed age limitations and made diffirence in their countries. 
Story highlights:
– “If the president knew there’s a limit to what he could do at his age, why didn’t he inform us about it while he was still campaigning for presidency?”
– “If the president knew there’s a limit to what he could do at his age, why didn’t he inform us about it while he was still campaigning for presidency?”
– “Declaring that there are restraints to what a leader can achieve beyond 72 is a theory that was proved wrong a lot of times.”
President Muhammadu Buhari’s unfortunate statement during his visit to South Africa: “There’s a limit to what I can do at 72″ has generated a well-deserved negative heat. If the president knew there’s a limit to what he could do at his age, why didn’t he inform us about it while he was still campaigning for presidency?
READ ALSO: Buhari Under Fire For Expressing Doubts 
It was the spokesman of Buhari’s campaign organization and now the senior special assistant to the president on media and publicity, Garba Shehu, who in January this year boasted that Buhari was “as fit as a fiddle.” He also proclaimed that his boss was “in excellent condition to pilot the affairs of the country.” Why did then the limitations suddenly appear three weeks after he was sworn in as president?
READ ALSO: Fayose Urges Nigerians To Pray For Buhari 
Though I have nothing against President Muhammadu Buhari, I will not fail to point out the drawbacks in his administration whenever I observe them. In fact, doing this can only make the government serve the country better. After all, a former British prime minister, Winston Churchill, said: “Criticism may not be agreeable, but it is necessary. It fulfills the same function as pain in the human body. It calls attention to an unhealthy state of things.” Theologian Norman Vincent Peale stated: “The trouble with most of us is that we would rather be ruined by praise than saved by criticism.”
I will praise my president if he does something worthy of commendation, and I will also constructively criticize him if he veers off. Declaring that there are restraints to what a leader can achieve beyond 72 is a theory that was proved wrong a lot of times. Here are 5 world leaders who were elected at an older age than President Buhari, but didn’t let that stop them from transforming their countries and the world at large.
1. Pope Francis. His Holiness Pope Francis was elected on March 13, 2013 to lead the world’s 1.3 billion Roman Catholics ‒almost eight times the population of Nigeria. At the time he was 76 years old.
A few days into his papacy, Francis swung into action by tackling some of the Catholic Church’s most nagging problems. He set up a committee to look into the activities of the Institute for the Works of Religion popularly known as the Vatican Bank and widely regarded as corrupted. President Buhari promised to curb corruption in Nigeria, but one month on we are yet to be informed how he intends to achieve this.
The pope didn’t stop there though. He also set up a committee to investigate the embarrassing clerical child abuse scandal that had recently rocked the Church. These and many other efforts aimed at making Vatican more transparent and bringing the Catholic Church into the 21st century has earned the pope unparalleled global goodwill.
A survey conducted by the Pew Research Center in February revealed that Pope Francis enjoyed approval of 70% Americans irrespective of their religious affiliations. It is remarkable that President Barack Obama’s current approval rating among Americans accounts for 47%, according to Gallup.
2. King Salman. King Salman of Saudi Arabia was elected earlier this year following the death of his elder brother at the age of 79. But the age did not in any way affect his performance. Months into his reign, the septuagenarian monarch sacked the Kingdom’s head of royal protocol for slapping a photojournalist live on television.
Before that King Salman had already banned a senior member of the Saudi Royal Family from taking part in all sporting activities for making racist remarks on a TV talk show. Moreover, he dismissed the country’s minister of health for engaging in a heated spat with a person who only came to complain of the poor condition of a hospital in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia.
These actions signal that the old order of unruliness and highhandedness in the oil-rich Kingdom is gone to the satisfaction of the Saudi people.
3. Winston Churchill. He is, perhaps, the most popular British prime minister of all times. Britain’s wartime head of government was reappointed prime minister in 1951 at the age of 76 following the Conservative Party’s victory in the poll. From 1951 till his resignation in 1955, Churchill helped to fix the devastated Europe, and shrewdly managed the steady decline of the once-powerful British Empire. Those three and a half years were enough to cement his place as one of the 20th century’s greatest leaders, and forever carve his name in the hearts of the British people.
4. Ronald Reagan. The actor-turned-politician became the oldest president in the 239-year USA history (69 years old). Today Reagan is regarded as one of the best presidents America has ever had. A 2011 Gallup poll asking 1015 Americans who they considered the greatest US president placed him in first position with 19% above Abraham Lincoln (14%), Bill Clinton (13%), John F. Kennedy (11%) and George Washington (10%).
The major achievements recorded during Reagan’s two terms include ending the Cold War, reinvigorating the Republican Party rattled by Richard Nixon’s Watergate scandal, and creating over 16 million jobs for the unemployed Americans.
5. Nelson Mandela. South Africa’s anti-Apartheid icon was 75 years old when he became the country’s first black president in 1994. During his single-term tenure, Mandela spearheaded the reconciliation and healing of a rainbow nation broken by decades of the white minority rule and black segregation, and transformed it into a globally respected economic powerhouse.
Long live the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria!
Long live the Federal Republic of Nigeria!