The irony of Nigeria is that we don’t seem to make progress in the aspect of our national life that matter the most and can guarantee sustainable growth and development. More than 50 years ago, we had, perhaps, one of the youngest Head of States in the world, Yakubu Gowon, who at 32 years of age led Nigeria through a very difficult civil war, albeit with success. But 50 years after, Nigerian youths have been ostracized from national leadership even though they are better educated, experienced and more cosmopolitan than when Gowon held sway. Yet time after time, the country has been led by a crop of people who are not only well advanced in age, but most especially disconnected from the reality and yearning of the millennial generation.
The more the youths advocate for a place on the table where their future is being decided, the more they are being ignored.
In the last couple of years, the youths seem to have taken their agitation for inclusiveness to a new level with the launch of #nottooyoungtorun campaign led by concerned Nigerian youths that is emerging as a national movement. Their advocacy is a call to the Nigerian leadership to encourage youth participation in politics by lowering the age barriers for political aspirations and participation. These young people sponsored a Not Too Young To Run Bill, which seeks the modification of Sections 65, 106, 131, 177 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended) to reduce the age qualification for the office of the president from 40 years to 30 years; Governor 35 to 30, Senate 35 to 30, House of Representatives 30 to 25 and State House of Assembly 30 to 25 respectively. The Bill also seeks to bring to mainstream the independent candidate platform for electoral contest within the Nigerian electoral process.
At a point it looked like the movement was well received by the politicians, some of them sounded regretful and promised to address the omission. But government has failed to live up to that promise by ignoring the youth again in its recent appointments into boards of agency and parastatals of the federal government.
The composition of the appointments left a lot to be desired in terms of diversity and inclusiveness in governance. The youth that make up about 70 percent of our population, were largely left out of the process, excluding about 120 miilion Nigerians from the insights, creativity, resourcefulness and competence of the youth. It was a major slap in the face of the #nottooyoungtorun campaign and millions of other youths who had supported and made sacrifices for the election of the current government; with the hope that it will be more supportive of their aspirations and agitations. The opposite has turned out to be the case. Instead of bringing qualified young people on board, appointments were given to dead people. A major embarrassment on the nation.
And before then, was the appointment of Ambassadors and heads of Foreign Missions, which, as usual, turned out a feast for the not too old and old, including an 82-year-old elder who now heads Nigerian foreign Mission in Washington DC. Again, young people were left out. Like many analysts have posited, the culture of political settlement has continued unabated.
Indeed, it is a paradox that a nation which craves for national rebirth, sustainable growth and development can wilfully ignore a demography that has become its most potent asset, and, thereby, widen the gap between the youth and the Nigerian political leadership. Nigeria’s Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar (who I must add is also culpable in this seeming youth marginalization), put it in proper context when he said, “I tell people my age that to understand young Nigerians, we need to understand the difference between Nigeria and Naija. Naija embodies the hopes and dreams of young Nigerians, the country they love and long to go home to when they are abroad. Naija is the country that brings them pride in music, film, comedy, fashion, and technology. It is the country of WizKid, Asa, Davido, Tuface, the Olympic bobsled team, Iwobi and Don Jazzy Again. Nigeria, on the other hand, is the country of their parents, the country where leaders are constantly failing them, of Boko Haram, of herdsmen violence, of recessions and joblessness. Our young people need us to make our country live up to the aspirations of Naija by fixing the problems associated with Nigeria.” I may not be a fan of the former Vice-President, but I agree with him a 100 percent.
Some analysts have suggested if the amount proposed for defence was being channelled to Education, perhaps, there would not be a need to spend such huge sums on insecurity and defence. I agree. “In Nigeria we spend more money on defence than education. What a fallacy. We cannot defend an empty house, a dilapidated house and leave our children and the most important asset we have, which is the brain, desolate. We cannot have paper factories and call them universities.” Apologies to Prof. Chris Imafidon, a Nigerian academic based in the United Kingdom.
Sadly, while Nigeria is still groping in the dark, other nations have long seen the light and moved on. Nations across Europe, America, Asia and even the Arab world are widening the landscape to give their young people a chance to flourish. They are deliberately taking away the hurdles on young people’s paths to success and urging them on. The results are unmistakably discernible as some youths are taking up major responsibility in government and even emerging as Heads of Government of their nations. The youngest of them is Austria’s Sebastian Kurz who became Europe’s youngest foreign minister at the age of 27 and has become the youngest leader in the world at just 31 years old. Enrico Carattoni, Captain Regent of San Marino. Mr. Carattoni, 32, is one of the two current leaders of San Marino, the tiny micro state surrounded by Italy. Warmongering dictator, Kim Jong-Un became North-Korean leader on December 30, 2011, at 28, after the death of his father.
Sheikh Tamim became one of the youngest leaders in Qatar’s history when he took power in 2013 at the age of 33 after his father abdicated the throne. Now 37, Sheikh Tamim became the first ruler, in a succession of three Qatari rulers from the Al Thani family, to ascend to power without resorting to a coup. Emmanuel Macron also swept to power in France in 2017 at the age of 39, becoming the youngest leader in France of course.
These are all sensational accomplishments that point to the direction the world is heading, but none of these could have happened in Nigeria under the prevailing political climate of godfatherism and money politics. I laughed myself to scorn when I read Atiku blame the military for truncating democracy and hence the environment for grooming successor generation. That is begging the issue. The question should be, what have the politicians done to create the enabling environment for young people to aspire to the highest cadre of political leadership between 1999 and now?
Almost 20 years on; what has the civilian leadership done to correct the errors of the military?
Nigeria’s Transport Minister Rotimi Amaechi, also sounded very much like Atiku recently when he insinuated that Nigeria’s youths were not ready for leadership. While I agree that young people have their own issues, I am confident we have a huge army of us that are capable of leadership when given the chance.
What the political class have forgotten is that it wasn’t always like this. Nigeria’s pre-independence struggle was championed by young nationalists like Obafemi Awolowo (37), Akintola (36), Ahmadu Bello (36) Abubakar Tafawa Balewa (34) Okotie-Eboh (27), Enahoro (27), Nnamdi Azikiwe (40), etc. All led the struggle for Nigeria’s independence in their youthful ages.
President Muhammadu Buhari became Governor of the North-Eastern State at the age of 33. At the age of 34, he was made the Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources. In 1977, Buhari was 35 years old, when he was also appointed pioneer Chairman, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC). Buhari was just 41 years when he became Nigeria’s Head of State.
It is not too late for the government to do a rethink on this issue. Thankfully, the controversial list of board members for government agencies and parastatals have been re-called for reconsideration following the resounding public outcry. Thus, government has another chance to correct the mistakes of the past by giving the youth a chance to become part of the policy and decision-making process. But I fear that may not happen because we are approaching a political season. It is a season of settlement for politicians, patronage of those individuals the government consider to have electoral clout to further their 2019 electoral plan, rather than advancing the quality of governance.
But what government must realise is that 2019 is not 1999. In 2019 just like 2015, we, the youth have Social Media, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube etc, all powerful tools that can influence votes. The level of political socialisation and awareness is higher than ever. So clearly, we know where the power lies, and we will not hesitate to use it in our favour when the time comes.
Bashir Abdullahi II is a Builder, an Entrepreneur and a Social critic.
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