•Money politics limits youth participation in governance-Abati
ABUJA (Sundiata Post) – Mrs Oby Ezekwesili, former Vice President of the World Bank and co-leader of the Bring Back Our Girls Group (BBOG), has said that what Nigeria is currently practising is not real but pseudo democracy bequeathed to her by the Nigerian military.
Ezekwesili made this observation on Wednesday in Abuja as a guest speaker at a seminar on ‘Advocacy to Lawmakers Seeking Reduction in the Age Limit for Young People Seeking Political Office’ with theme on ‘Youths in Nigeria: Inclusion and Participation in Politics’, organised by the League of Progressives Ambassadors of Nigeria (LEPAN).
She explained that the nascent Nigerian democracy is founded on the imperfect constitution drafted under the military authorities and handed over for civil rule.
She, however, noted that even though there are gaps in the constitution, it has helped Nigerian democracy to thrive for 17 years, which is the longest stretch of democratic governance since the country gained independence.
“The democracy we have today might not even be real democracy. It might be a pseudo one based on the Constitution handed over to us by the military. However, we must thank God that we have enjoyed democracy now for 17 years.
“Even though, there are gaps in the Constitution, it still provides the basis to agitate for more improvement in democracy and for inclusive governance,” she said.
Speaking further, Ezekwesili, also a former Minister of Education, noted that the country has only achieved what she termed a “low outcome” since its 56 years of independence.
Consequently, she called for urgency towards addressing the issues of governance in the country including visionary youth participation in politics.
“There is an urgency to improve things in the country. By October this year, we are going to be 56 years and in all these we have been able to achieve is this low outcome that the country has found itself. That is why we should be urgent in what we do,” she stressed.
Ezekwesili also noted the fact that in other climes like the United States and other advanced democracies, youths enter into politics with a vision to advance the course of their country and not for monetary gains, which is the norm with most of the politicians in Nigeria.
She also emphasised that the quality of politicians and institutions goes a long way to determine the quality of the governance, policies and programmes in the country.
“Common problems lead us to politics, which in turn lead us to governance, policies and programmes. Our common problems creates a necessity for us to therefore engage in politics.
“The quality of the operators of a political system determines the quality of its outcome. So the question is; how are you (youths) going to activate your time to determine the desire quality outcomes,” she posed.
Ezekwesili, however, called on the National Assembly to amend the constitution by
reducing age limit for political aspirants, saying that the current age limit f of 30 to 35 for political office participation is outdated.
She also advised that the young people must be allowed to exercise their political rights, adding that the Constitution is a setback to almost 66 million Nigerian youths’ active engagement in politics.
She said: “If their objective in politics is
simply to replace the old ones, then we haven’t made any significant difference but if their objective is to envision a new nation, then, we have a basis for saying the young minds should take over the governance of the country.
“There are some young people whose age of idea is very old, so we don’t need those kinds of people pretending to be youths but If we have them young and the age of their idea is also young, then there is very likely that the vision they will have for the country will take Nigeria to the top League of Nations.”
“There are Nigerian youths in early 20’s are running businesses worth mega millions thereby making significant choices and decisions, stressing that if they could succeed in businesses that they could also fit into the public sector. By the time they are in their mid and late 20’s, we must encourage the young people to exercise leadership”, she added.
Earlier, the Special Assistant (Media) to former President Goodluck Jonathan, Dr. Reuben Abati, said that one of the impediments of youth participation in active governance is money politics and lack of political reforms.
Abati urged the political parties, leaders and policy makers to see the issue of youth participation in governance as a right and priority.
“Exclusion and marginalisation is counter-productive, hence youth inclusion is a right and not a privilege. Youth participation in governance and politics is a fundamental right of every youth,” he said.
Abati went memory lane to remind the audience how the first crop of socio-economic, political and military leaders of the country and our founding fathers were youths.
He reminded that “Politics is everyone’s business”, warning that “youths saying that they don’t want to be involved in politics is a big mistake.
“Politics is everyone’s business and if you leave the political space for others, they will decide your destiny and you would have abdicated your responsibilities. The fact is that no one will hand over power to you on a platter of gold. If you want power you must get involved in the game of power,” he posited.
Abati recommended some key ways to get the youths involved in politics and governance, urging that “the culture of politics in the country need to be reformed”.
He continued: “Political parties need to involve the youths, and note that money-politics doesn’t only affect the women but the youths as well.
“You can however, start by joining the political parties, pressure groups and voted during elections.”
At the policy level, he said, the leaderrs have to see youth inclusion in governance as a development indicator.
“Youth participation in politics, democratisation, national integration and development policy must be encourage,” he advised
In addition, Abati frowned that the role of young people in politics have been reduced to handbag assistants and Special Adviser on New media.