The Co-founder of pro-transparency group, BudgIT, Mr Seun Onigbinde, says youths have yet to take advantage of the ‘Not too young to run’ law because partisan politics in Nigeria is too expensive and there is power inequity.
Onigbinde said this during the Independence Day PUNCH Live programme on Friday while discussing the role of youths in nation-building.
He noted that electioneering in Nigeria was not propelled by ideas but money.
The BudgIT co-founder added, “Our route to public office has been heavily monetised and has been taken out of the reach of decent working people. So, even if you want to run for office, you count the cost, you want to drop all your life savings to contest an election you are not sure of winning?
“The office of the governor is not something that you will not be looking at upwards of N10bn or for the office of the President, N20bn. Now, it is likely you are building a concentration of interests to provide that for you, who are not charity givers and will ask for their returns at a specific time either by dipping your hands into the treasury or giving them some sort of advantage.
“Nigeria’s young people don’t have that sort of money yet. So, even if you say we should go and contest, the space we run is heavily monetised.”
Oniginde said voters would be moved by donation of items rather than an attractive manifesto.
Reacting to the Independence Day speech delivered by the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), he said the President ought not to have trivialised the increase in food prices by blaming middlemen.
Reacting to the President’s promise to lift the ban on Twitter once the government’s conditions are met by the social media company, Onigbinde said it was unlikely that all those conditions would be met.
The BudgIT co-founder said Twitter was a self-cleansing space unlike YouTube and Whatsapp
He wondered if Twitter would register and open offices in Nigeria.
Onigbinde said, “I don’t think there is any haste in the restoration of Twitter. Don’t forget that this is a digital communications company. They have their own standards and I am sure there are some lines they will not cross.”
He said the Twitter suspension would dent Buhari’s legacy.
