The above statement was made by Kailash Satyarthi, an Indian children’s right activist and Nobel Peace Prize recipient.
Recent activities of the Federal
Government, particularly, the Independent National Electoral Commission
(INEC), would suggest that they may have woken up to this reality.
Recently, the President recently signed
the Not Too Young To Run bill into Law, bringing down the age of
eligibility for the different elective offices in the country, and
making it possible for the youths to aspire and contest.
Also, in the build up to the 2019
general elections, the electoral body, INEC, has taken it upon itself to
build up the confidence, interest and support of the Nigerian youths
for the elections.
The youths, on their part, seem to have
also woken up from slumber to realise that they are the future of the
country, that they make up the largest percentage of the population and
so can effect a change in the polity.
For INEC, the message for the youths,
concerning 2019, is summed up in this sentence, “Youth Votes Count,” and
it’s been working hard to make the message sink in.
Last Wednesday, the body stormed the
University of Lagos, Akoka, for its political awareness campaign, tagged
Campus Outreach, which it put together in conjunction with the European
Union, European Centre for Electoral Support and YIAGA AFRICA, a
youth-based Non-Governmental Organisation.
The importance of the event was
underscored by the caliber of personalities who were in attendance. They
included the Vice Chancellor of the University, Prof. Oluwatoyin
Temitayo Ogundipe, INEC Chairman,
Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, Head of the European Union Delegation to Nigeria
and ECOWAS, Ambassador Ketil Karlsen and the Director, Voter Education
& Publicity, INEC, Mr. Oluwole Osaze-Uzzi.
Also in attendance were the Resident
Electoral Commissioner, Lagos State, Mr. Sam Olumekun, four Resident
Electoral Commissioners from other states where INEC hopes to go on
Campus Outreaches.
Panelists at the event were; Helen Paul,
Actress and Comedian, Omotola Jalade-Ekeinde, Actress, Ayo ‘AY’ Makun,
Actor and Comedian and Basket Mouth, Comedian, Babatunde Durowoju, a 400
Level student of Sociology and Seun Okinbaloye, a broadcast journalist
and INEC Youth Ambassador.
Welcoming the guests to his campus, the
Prof. Ogundipe expressed delight that the event was taking place at
UNILAG given the enduring relationship it had built with INEC through
its Centre for Social Research and Advocacy. Both, he disclosed, have
been organising programmes to combat voter apathy, the climax being a
lecture on 2011 elections and the consolidation of the democratic
process in Nigeria delivered by former INEC chairman, Prof. Attahiru
Jega.
Noting that the responsibility before
INEC was much, the VC expressed optimism that they were achievable
through the cooperation of national and international institutions
committed to the development of the democratic process in Nigeria.
He said “all Nigerians have a role to
play in the democratic process and all segments of the population must
be fully mobilised. This is why the voter education campaign for
students of tertiary institutions must be applauded. The youths
constitute an important segment of the population in Nigeria. They are
energetic, innovative, adventurous, zealous and veritable change agent.
But these qualities must be properly harnessed and channelled in the
right direction if they must yield positive dividends.”
Prof. Ogundipe expressed the view that
“one of the worthy causes to which young people’s interest and ideals
must be directed to in Nigeria is the attainment of good governance and
to attain good governance, young people must be involved in the
electoral and political processes.
“The reduction in the ages for
contesting the various elective posts through the recently signed
not-too-young-run by the President, confirms the readiness of the
government to provide opportunities for young people to participate
fully in the necessary political processes. Youths must utilise the
advantage of their numeric strength positively. They cannot be effective
change agents if they remain aloof or become apathetic to political and
electoral process,” he said.
He urged the students who have not registered to take advantage of the registration centre, which INEC opened within the campus.
Mr. Oluwatobi Otekaye, President of
Faculty Presidents and a 500 Level Systems Engineering student, in his
goodwill message challenged the youths to do more than complain on
social media and use their votes to bring about change.
“I am aware that most students believe
that there is no point registering and voting because it doesn’t count.
Truth is that our votes count and that is why INEC is doing this. I urge
you register, collect the PVC and beyond using it for banking purposes
or as an ID, use it to vote,” he said.
He expressed the hope that with the
not-too-young-to-run law, more youths would get involved. “We can’t stay
on social media and say we want change. Social media does not bring
change. I haven’t seen where a poll on social media translated to
someone winning elections. We have to come out, register and vote. We
want change in the county but it doesn’t come by you sitting down in
your room and analysing issues. We must register and vote.”
The Head of the European Union Delegation to Nigeria and ECOWAS,
Ambassador Karlsen, told the youths that “If we want to have truly
consolidated democracy in Nigeria, that needs to be reflected in the
power of your participation in the democratic processes.”
He expressed his disappointment with the
number of those who have registered among the students present and
hoped that the Outreach would bring a change of attitude and mindset.
The Ambassador also expressed his desire
“to build the strongest partnership ever between the EU and Nigerian
youths,” adding, “we are trying to walk the talk through not only
supporting our partners but supporting youths. That’s why EU has
provided more than 100m euros since 1999 for electoral processes in
Nigeria. That’s why we have been here since 1999 with electoral
observers and we will have an expert mission here for the Primaries. We
keep our promises of following up on the electoral processes here, but
not only by supporting key institutions such as INEC itself, the
National Assembly, but also supporting Civil Society Organisations and
YIAGA and we feel very proud to be associated with the
not-too-young-to-run, soon to be ready-to-run campaign.”
He explained that his mission was not to
foister European ideals or ways of doing things on Nigeria but that
their engagement in Nigeria was “about supporting Nigerian policies,
Nigerian visions, Nigerian ideas and they have to come from you at the
end of the day. Continued democratic consolidation is the only way
forward and that is why the vote of each and everyone of you will count
in 2019,” he stressed.
The panel discussion focused on “Enhancing Youth Participation in the Electoral Process.”
For Basket Mouth, it was time for the
youths to wake up. He lamented the fact that the social media has much
consumed the minds of the youths to the point that they are almost
dependent on it to the exclusion of every other thing. “A while back,
our President said we were lazy people and we got upset. But why should
we be upset? The man was a President at a young age, we were there, he
grew older and became President again. What does that tell him about
us-we are lazy. Our anger can only be expressed through social media
because we have found comfort in that world. We complain for a second
and after complaining we move on to something else.
“We are not passionate about what this
country offers us we are more concerned about how we are seen by the
public. Countries are fighting over power and things like oil. You see
America fighting Russia over cyber issues and other serious issues and
we are fighting Ghana over jollof rice. We are not paying attention to
the major problems rather we pay attention to things that do not matter.
The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The next best time is
now.”
The popular comedian commended those who
put the Outreach for thinking about the youths. “I thank them because
they are in power, much older and in comfortable positions. They
shouldn’t care about whether you vote or don’t vote because they are
there already. They are doing things we shouldn’t wait for them to do
for us. Most of these people that are telling you to go and vote, the
government is paying for everything they do. So they shouldn’t care
normally but now they have thought about you, make use of this
opportunity,” he said.
He pleaded with the youths to take their
attention off irrelevances and pay attention to what matters. “Let’s
register and vote. If you don’t have a PVC, you can’t actively get
involved in the argument. A leader without followers is just going for a
stroll. You are the followers and you are the people who will decide
what Nigeria is going to become in the next four years. If you decide to
sell your vote for a bag of rice and groundnut oil, it’s your loss. A
bag of rice will last you for two months and you will then have about 3
years and 8 months to wait for another bag of rice and groundnut oil,”
he stressed.
Basket Mouth, however, noted that the
reason Nigerians do not care about the country is because “individually
we are all presidents. Everyone is his own country and government
because you provide your own light, water, road, security, everything,”
but notwithstanding, he said the youths must resolve to actively
participate in the coming elections, by registering and voting.
Helen Paul was optimistic that the
youths will rise to the challenge in 2019. “The youths are many but they
are often not allowed a voice. But now they are calling on the youths
to come and participate in the electoral processes and making efforts to
make the environment more secure for the youths to participate. Now the
youths are getting educated as to why they should be part of the
electoral process, now they know their power is in their PVC so step by
step the youths will take over,” she said.
She acknowledged the fact that
insecurity and violence were twin issues that kept the youths and a
large number of Nigerians away from the polling booths.
AY, challenged the youths to make a
conscious efforts to make the Nation work. According to him, “If you are
in Nigeria and you do not believe in Nigeria, there is a problem. You
have to create the reason to believe, you have to make that conscious
effort to do what you have to do, to get what needs to be done to be
done right.
“We usually complain about the leaders.
But you don’t have a right to say ‘this person is not good enough when
as an individual you are not making conscious effort to do something.”
He shared some personal experiences to drive home his point; “I used to
organise campus beauty pageant in Delta State University. At the end of
the competition, people would complain that the Queen was not fine. But
if 20 ugly girls participate in the contest, is it not one ugly girl
who will emerge Queen? So if you think somebody is not good enough to
run for election and you think you are better than that person, but you
are not doing anything about that or rather you take to social media and
begin to advocate without making any practical effort to change things,
we will not move forward or make progress, we would just be stagnant.”
He, therefore, charged the youths to
believe in Nigeria saying that “collectively, if we decide to present
content and do something that will benefit the country, Nigeria will be a
better place and we would get a better result.
“Knowing how far we can go in 2019, is
knowing where we are presently. Are we happy presently, are we getting
the best presently, having that awareness is enough to motivate,
trigger, push us to get the right persons into office to represent us
and the only way to do that is realising and recognising that the only
way forward is to vote. Your choice candidate may not win but let it be
on record that your effort counts,” AY said.
For Omotola Jalade-Ekeinde, the youths
have the numbers to make the difference in 2019. She would want to see a
sustained engagement between the Electoral body, the government and the
youths to build the confidence of the young people in the electoral
process.
“The minute the young people start to
feel confident, the minute they start to feel that 2019 will not be like
the others they will participate. We might not win, the people we vote
for might not win but that is not the point. The point is to put the
numbers behind them to be confident enough to try again. That’s the most
important thing. People sometimes look at candidates and say ‘this will
not win I won’t waste my vote,’ let’s waste the votes in 2019. I’m
ready,” she said.
Reaponding to some of the questions and
issues raised by the youths especially the issue of security, the INEC
Chairman, Prof. Yakubu assured, “the environment for conducting
elections is getting progressively better. I’m not saying that we are
there yet but we are getting progressively better. We have a system
starting from 2015 of meeting with security agencies. We have what is
called the inter agency consultative committee on election security. We
meet and discuss with them, we tell them about the polling units, we
talk about deployment and we have even taking measures to discourage
armed security men anywhere around the polling centres.
“Of course, there would be armed
security men close by so that they provide the kind of security that
people require to vote in peace. As our democracy matures, this will
increasingly become a thing of the past.
He noted that the active involvement of
the people would go a long way in stemming electoral violence. “The
perpetrators of violence use violence because people do not care and do
not participate and therefore they organise some people to cause
disruptions so that they can influence the outcome of elections. But
increasingly, with the active participation of citizens and the measures
we are taking through the security agencies, we will progressively and
we are progressively addressing this. The more you stay away from it,
and the more you throw your hands up in the air say ‘it’s violent, I
won’t go and vote,’ the more the merchants of violence who profit from
these processes will continue to perpetrate that and will continue to
serve as leaders at various levels.”
Prof. Yakubu declared that “the antidote
to violence is continuous active engagement. Nobody will take a gun in
a place where he knows he’s not actually strong but when people
continue to abandon politics, abandon processes, leave it to those who
perpetrate violence, the more they will use that to continue to
influence the outcome of elections.”
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