Six young Nigerians on Friday shared their thoughts on the participation of youths in politics and leadership in the country.
They include actress Kate Henshaw; political strategist Moremi Ojudu; anti-corruption activist, Hamzat Lawal; CEO, Sujimoto Properties, Sijibomi Ogundele; Sponsor, Not Too Young To Run Bill, Tony Nwulu; and Lawyer/PDP Member, Anthony Ehilebo.
Here are excerpts from the thoughts they shared about youth participation in governance and politics in the country during a special session with Seun Okinbaloye, aired as part of Channels TV’s Special Programme celebrating Nigeria at 61.
Where did we get it wrong?
Sijibomi Ogundele
To answer this question, we have to go back to, not even 1960, 1958. From 1958 to date, Nigeria has earned over $600bn dollars in oil revenue. Between 1999 and today, Nigeria has borrowed over $25bn, a capital injection of approximately N300tn.
Do we look like N300tn has passed through us? Does our infrastructure, do our health care and many other things look like N300tn has passed through us? We must make those conscious decisions and address the issues of the past so that we can have a future tomorrow. If we refuse to do that, we will continue to suffer these dividends of incompetence, and I strongly believe that the cost of leadership must not be that difficult.
Anthony Ehilebo
For a lot of years, we have asked ourselves that question. Did we get it wrong with our leadership? Did we get it wrong with our followership? I think we got it wrong by just focusing on one area which is leadership.
I think getting it wrong started from both parties (leaders and followers) not recognising the role they had to play in the future Nigeria they needed to see. And we’ve forgotten that even at the very basic level of the country – ward level, unit level – there is leadership, there is followership and we need to identify these particular niches of our country and say we all need to take responsibilities both as leaders and followers, we all have a place where we got it wrong. Agreeing to that is the very first step to fixing whatever problems we have as a country today.
Kate Henshaw
We got it wrong when we stopped upholding the office of the citizen, which is the highest office in the land; where we took our eyes off the ball and we let things slide, where we stopped holding people accountable including ourselves, where we stopped voting people into office who truly cared about our human resources, our human capital, and the potential of this great country. That is where we got it wrong.
Hamzat Lawal
We got it wrong because people in power became selfish. We stopped investing in people and we thought that, without investment, Nigeria could move forward. Our biggest assets are people. We got it wrong because everyone has put themselves before Nigeria.
Moremi Ojudu
We stopped investing in people. We always put ourselves first and, unfortunately, our leaders have taken that path of putting themselves before others.
Unfortunately, that has really put us in a very bad light and our value system became a value system of greed and a situation where we just lack focus.
Tony Nwulu
We need to also address inequality. I believe that if you could vote then you should also be voted for. It doesn’t actually mean that at 18 you should go to the Senate or at 20 you should go to the Senate. But if you live in a community where at 20 you are the only one qualified to go to the Senate then, by all means, you should go to the Senate.
I think it is a different thing from the leadership failures that we’ve been having. It is not that we have a dearth of leaders, but several other people have refused to also join (politics) to see what they can do to correct those anomalies that we see in society.
