Written by Mustapha S. Umar
Please correct me if I am wrong : It’s obvious that youths play the
most significant role in preparation, before, during and after every
election in Nigeria. It is also true that, in some parts of the
country, youths have started contributing directly to issues of
governance in terms of gaining political appointments, from counselors,
Local government chairmen, Commissioners, special advisers, and the
rest.
The saying… Youths are the leaders of tomorrow, vis-a-vis
the number of appointments given to those cohorts to justify the
saying, leaves much to be desired. Up till this time (in the 21st
century for that matter), youths are still looked upon as options, not
priorities. We attend preparatory meetings, we scribe almost all
meetings, we stay late in party offices (because they say we are still
young to take pressure), we follow all campaign trains, we type
speeches, we mobilize, we shout, we also ensure last minute issues
before election day and we finally stay in the scorching hot weather or
the hash cold weather to vote for the “Youths”. At the verge of setting
up transition committees, youths figure start thinning. When mantle of
power is taken over, youths have little to say. Contracts are also
mainly awarded to the same cohort of people who have been enjoying the
gesture even before democracy. Criteria for contract awards are usually
set, such that, only the old clique wins something reasonable. You can
continue to mention. And this is common to all levels of government in
all states of the federation, with only few lights in some areas.
This was, is and may likely continue to be the benchmark of assessing youths contribution to National development.
body languages from many directions) and the same youths will be hired
for the job. If we did not device the means to take ownership of many or
all positions, we will continue to be in this state or worst still,
be going backward.
As for me, for now and henceforth, my vote
goes to the youth, the true dictionary meaning of youth in all
ramifications. How we are going to ensure this happen, time will tell.