2023: Young people ‘hold the key to Nigeria’s development’

Ahead of the 2023 general election, speakers at the first virtual townhall meeting organised by Ojodu Rebirth have urged Nigerian youths to get involved in politics.

They asked the youths to get involve and start mobilising to take over political power.

According to Toluwase Dada, convener of Ojodu Rebirth, the meeting with the theme: “Youth engagement for national development” was organised to reawaken the consciousness of young people in the society.

“Ojodu Rebirth is simply a movement to reawaken the consciousness of the youth in the society, the rebirth project is built solely on the premise of ‘youths helping youth to win,” he said.

“We all cannot have our faces on campaign posters but we can all contribute by engaging continuously in the conversation that affects our existence.”

Cynthia Mbamalu, director of programmes Yiaga Africa, urged the youths to ensure that their participation in an election goes beyond electioneering but office seeking.

Mbamalu said there is a need for political will amongst the youths to get the Not-too-young-to-run bill functioning as it should.

“The passage of the Not-too-young-to-run bill raised the consciousness and saw an increment in the number of young people who ran for political offices. It is sad to note that party primaries were not favourable to these young people, some of them were unjustly schemed out,” she said.

“The process is not favourable, we need to understand that the voting process is very important in the electoral process, imagine if all the young people registered in Lagos vote during an election.

“We shouldn’t overemphasise on the presidential and governorship elections but critical look must be at given to the local government elections.”

Speaking also, Fatimah Muhammed, a lawyer, said leadership is not about position but “about influence built from wherever you are.”

Urging young people to take active roles in determining governance, Dattijo said: “Most people are affected by their environment, we must own the narrative that we are completely different from our parents.

“Let the youth own their own narrative, our parents thought working hard was it, but we are saying working smart is better, you cannot be 67 and say you are a youth.

“Leadership is not about position but about influence built from wherever you are. We must be intentional in dealing with each other, we as youth need to take up responsibility.”

Oluwatosin Sanusi, asked young people to unite and not be divided along tribal or religious line.

“Build a network, you must leverage than compete then highlight the strength of one another, through that you can have more sustainable business enterprises,” he said.

“We should always collaborate, we should learn to build communities, we should get involved, register with a political party. We should not be divided along tribal or religious line, we should get into the party system and stop talking from outside.”