-by Stanley Vandu
Youth is an essential and vital part of any society. They are the backbone of any economy
(dependable workforce), and for me personally being a youth is an exciting
period in one’s life. In Nigeria youth and politics have never seemed to be a
good mix, this is largely aggravated by our ailing African age grade systems, sit
tight leaders, and a poor leadership recruitment and training machinery.
However it will interest you to note that we have done ourselves
a lot of disservice by not being part of the governance process. Most young
people stay away from essential building processes in private and public
spheres. In Universities, most of us do not get involved in student union
politics, or do not participate in voter registration, but we are still are
dissatisfied on how government is run or complain how the university is
administrated.
We need to break away from our old habits and familiar spirits,
leave our comfort zones and engage the democratic structures. Even if it is as
small as choosing a class prefect in secondary school we should insist the
process be democratic. It was William James who once said "The greatest
discovery of my generation is that human beings can alter their lives by
altering their attitude of mind."
We must also institute a process
where before you lead, you must have a proven track record of excellence and
have succeeded in your chosen field of endeavour, because success is all about
growing yourself. When you become a leader, the axiom shifts to growing others.
We have to engage other young people
and task them to pay more attention and participate in the process of
elections, not just to come out to vote on Election Day but to participate in
the whole governance process. Like participating in voter’s registration,
electorate education and sensitisation, understanding government policies and
engaging the government constructively and contributing positively to the whole
process.
Electoral systems are a good
opportunity for us to engage in institutionalising the culture of responsible
leadership in young people. A Leadership
that has the ability to establish standards and manage a creative climate where
people are self-motivated toward the mastery of long term constructive goals,
in a participatory environment of mutual respect, compatible with personal
values and the character which inspires confidence.
America, which has one of the
most successful democracy’s today, had a very strict and closed electoral
system at the beginning of elections in that country, the first ever election
in America was held in Virginia in 1619, and to be enfranchised you had to be free,
a white male, a land owners and 21 years of age, and this system ran for close
to a 80 years until people stood up to challenge the system and then
modification came and all its amendments. And today the situation is different;
we all know the Obama story, the world’s greatest army being lead by a black
with African roots.
As youth, we have to learn to ‘Play
Politics’. We should get involved in
this process from the earliest time we can.
We should ensure we start from our schools, ensuring that we are
involved in the student union governments, up to our wards and communities and
where ever we find ourselves. We cannot
continue to sit and complain and hope things would change.
We have to be the change we want to
see. We must use our number to our advantage.
