Why are Youths restricted to forming support groups for
politicians?
Youths in twenty-first century Nigerian politics
have deviated widely from the roles hitherto
associated with the demographic in the past and
the cost of this reverberates across the political
terrain loudly today, especially in the countdown
to the 2011 elections.
While it is almost empirically impossible to
associate early involvement in politics with
competent, committed and patriotic leadership, it
is hard to divorce it also from these attributes.
What is undisputed though is that an ingrained
political culture will breed more focused
participation and vision in any political project. I
raise this because it is very commonplace today
to see politicians with little or no political culture
hopping as it were into politics simply for the
fact that they possess the financial wherewithal
to do so. It does not matter whether these
individuals are young and old; their motives are
suspect and most times, self-revealing.
A backward glance
A quick journey down memory lane will serve us
quite well here. In the pre-independence era, the
man who came to be known as ‘Zik of Africa’,
Sir Nnamdi Azikiwe more or less began his foray
in Nigerian politics in his mid-thirties on his
return to Nigeria in 1934. In the three or so
decades that followed, he whole heartedly
pursued his political convictions and in that time
was engaged in party politics at the highest
levels, served at various times in the legislature
culminating in his ascendancy to the position of
the Senate President, then progressed further still
to become first, Governor-General, then President
of Nigeria.
Though his involvement in Nigerian politics can
be traced to his return home, he had also been
actively involved in pan-African movements
during his sojourn abroad. Here is a man whose
youthful years had been tinted heavily by politics
and this tincture marked all his actions and
decisions all his life.
Another contemporary of his, late Sir Abubakar
Tafawa Balewa, shares a similar story. First
elected into the Northern House of Assembly at
the age of 34 and later into the Legislative
Assembly at the age of 37, he went on to serve
severally as minister and eventually at the age of
45 was elected Chief Minister at the age of 45
and Prime Minister at the age of 48.
….Fast forward to our second democratic
experiment. While many of our generation may
not know much about him aside from derogatory
allusions to the fact that he was a teacher,
former president Shehu Shagari’s involvements
in politics started when he was just 21. By the
time he was 23 (1948), the political organization
he founded, Youth Social Circle, merged with
other political organizations to form the Northern
Peoples’ Congress. At age 33, (1958), he was
elected Parliamentary Secretary to the Late Sir
Abubakar Tafawa Balewa. He later went on to
serve thrice as minister within the short-lived
first republic (and all before he was 40) and
once in General Yakubu Gowon’s administration.
He became President of Nigeria at age 54.
The history of Nigeria up until the end of the
second republic is replete with such stories –
Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Chief Anthony Enahoro,
Chief Raymond Amanze Njoku, Chief Samuel
Ladoke Akintola…and the list goes on. However,
by the time that democratic odyssey was
truncated by the military the reservoir of young
politicians was already drying up, largely as a
result of the freeze in political activities during
the military regimes of Yakubu Gowon and
Olusegun Obasanjo (13 years in total) that
preceded it. The regimes of Muhammadu Buhari
and Ibrahim Babangida finished the job. It was
no longer fashionable as young Nigerian to
venture into politics for the simple and true fact
that there was very little of it going on anymore.
The diversion of a whole generation of youths
from politics created a vacuum that was going to
shake the foundation on which our very
existence as a political entity stood. This was
worsened by another new twist in our political
culture…money politics.
The attempt to return to democracy in 1998
found few true young politicians in the mix. The
number was quickly supplemented by ‘buying’ in
more. With the condition of the economy, finding
young people to join political movements was
easy for those who had the money. For those
who didn’t, their aspirations found rocky ground
and failed to survive. That stratum of the
political machine of the state became populated
with many young people whose motives for being
involved were very, very questionable.
One of the most brazen displays of the depth to
which youth involvement in politics had sunk
(and which may most likely be one of the
earliest ancestors of the hundreds of ‘youth
support groups’ today) was ‘YEAA’. Many people
may remember this with a smile. Yes, Daniel
Kanu and his Youth Earnestly Ask for Abacha
project made headline news across the country
in the period preceding the late president’s
death.
Their famous ‘2-million man march’ in March
1998 under the aegis of the National Council of
Youth Associations in Nigeria (NAYCAN) of
which Daniel Kanu was vice-president was
supported partly by a N500 million budget
sourced from a ‘number of patriotic individuals
across the country’. NAYCAN then was
representing several other youth Pro-Abacha
groups (Youths for Consensus Abacha ’98, 21st
Generation Insist on Abacha, NANS for Abacha,
Youths Earnestly Ask for Abacha ’98, Nigeria-
British Youth Organisation, Nigerian Youth
Democratic Diplomats, etc) but half a billion
naira – when the entire budget for the country in
that year was N329 billion – was no child’s play
and many young Nigerians came off from that
episode smelling like really fine roses.
We do not need to look too far from where we
stand individually today to see the same
scenario – albeit with different actors – being re-
enacted all around us in the run up to 2011.
Nigerian journalist, Tom Chiahemen as far back
as 1998, reflected on that event and ominously
summarised thus: ‘I believe that if the Great
March in March” has succeeded in achieving
something, it is the fact (which future historians
will soon come to reckon with) that the status of
Nigerian youth in the politics of the nation has
somehow been elevated to its pedestal’.
The post-Biafrans
This is the politics that the active generation of
Nigerian youths, a generation I chose to call the
post-Biafrans, have grown into…and the new
roles they have been ‘given’ in this new political
culture calls for concern.
The post-Biafrans are those Nigerians born from
shortly after the Biafran war, between 1971 and
1990 to be exact. These are the Nigerians who
today qualify as the ‘active youths’ and they
share quite a number of characteristics and
influences. They range from the age of 20 to 40
– a very crucial time for the development/
acceptance of any set of values that will guide
their actions in adulthood. If Nigeria had enjoyed
an unbroken democratic story, a good number of
these may be cutting their political teeth just
about now while others are maturing well into it,
shaped with the right political values.
Like I disclaimed earlier, it may be empirically
impossible to prove that early involvement will
lead to committed, competent and patriotic
leadership; but backed by the right political
values built into a nation’s political culture, it is
almost impossible to fail to harvest great
political leaders from such a generation.
Now what?
Well, many will with good reason point out that
this is where we are, whether we like it or not;
whether it is the ideal or not…what do we do
with it?
Herein comes the need to define a new role for
the youths to grant them a new place, a place of
pride hopefully, in the new politics. Other than
that, without setting out a new, concrete agenda
and goal, politics – the new money dominated
politics – will drown them in its currents. The
young are susceptible to money. It is a fact and
that is why many of the few young people in
politics today are at best, guns for hire.
In every country where democracy has been
fought for and entrenched, the archetypal youths
have always had a say driven by conscience or
ideology. Candidates seeking election into
political offices recognize the need to win that
demographic. Most times, winning them over
was instrumental to unlocking their victories.
They can go to lengths unimagined to secure the
victory of a candidate, many a times, voluntarily.
In addition, winning the youths is not just out of
recognition that they are the workforce, the
engine room and the army of a candidacy; they
are courted regardless of price because they are
the prize of a successful government.
Nigeria has not at any other time in its history
had a generation of young people with greater
access to professional/ academic qualifications
than now. It has also never had a generation of
young people with a greater disillusionment in
their nation, especially its leadership.
The new archetypal youth
The Post-Biafran as he is today is dragged in
the slipstream of money politics against his will.
Any interest s/he displays mostly either a) has
an underlying pecuniary motive b) needs
financing to have any hope of actualization, c) is
driven by his/her access to financing (daddy’s or
looted). These have led to most youths in
politics being seen as opportunists or under the
thumb of one or more godfathers or out and out
‘mandate-buyers’. Whichever tag falls on them,
they are acolytes of the new politics.
The post-Biafran has a difficult task. How can s/
he be altruistic, driven by his belief in an
ideology and ready to pursue that belief with as
much of his strength as s/he dares sacrifice with
all the money being waved in his face? For
many, it may be the ‘once in a lifetime’ chance
to bid poverty bye-bye and the choice is even
made long before any concrete offer of financial
reward is even dangled. True, the sheer sizes of
the war chests of many politicians render
whatever financial and professional emancipation
some post-Biafran may lay claim to. A vast
majority of them roam the streets jobless or go
to under-paying jobs. It is almost inhuman to
ask them not to offer themselves to be bought
as most often happens.
A pivotal role that the young should play in
politics and any other area of life is to replenish
the pool with quality replacements. With a past
where the likes of NAYCAN strutted proudly, it is
no surprise that today’s youths are battling with
issues of credibility and relevance.
If today’s youths take to politics with more
altruistic ideals and champion developmental
ideologies, the youths of tomorrow and the
leaders will all be better at what they ought to
do.
To give a new direction and reason for our
politics, we have to give those ideals to the
youths.
The main attribute that our archetypal youths
should imbibe is the truth that that there is no
politics without ideology…No, not even a shadow
of it.
Any aspiration for political position or relevance
that is not grounded in a particular ideology
which has a clear vision of how the society
should be governed and how its citizens should
co-exist in ways that will ultimately be beneficial
to the state as a geographical, economic and
organic entity will leave uncountable Nigerians in
suffering when it has served itself. It is not news
that thousands of Nigerians die yearly due to
poor health care facilities, dangerous roads,
armed robberies and poverty. It is almost not
worth mentioning except for the purpose it
serves as a pointer to what the refusal to
champion visions seeking the overall well-being
of the society offers.
Young people who want to get involved in
politics should take off from here: being the
custodians of ideologies.
Pressure groups vs Support groups
In 2009, President Barrack Obama of America
visited the West African nation of Ghana. In his
speech before the Ghanaian parliament and also
before his departure, he made this plea.
“So I especially want to, again, speak to the
young people of Africa. In places like Ghana you
make up more than half the population, and here
is what you must know: that the world is what
you make of it.
You have the power to hold your leaders
accountable and to build institutions that serve
the people…and harness your energy and
education to renew and build connections
between the world. You can conquer disease and
end conflict and make change from the bottom
up. You can do all that.”
Support groups most times exist only in the
period immediately preceding an election. They
tend to die afterwards. They may resurrect under
new names in future (to reflect the new principal
being supported) but do not provide any concrete
contribution to the society at large. Whatever
actions they may involve themselves in, centre
around their principal and the pecuniary gains to
be gotten there from. This is the type of
involvement in politics that today’s youths
should begin to dissociate themselves from.
Youth involvement in politics should centre more
on putting pressure on existing governments to
do what is right for the society. Many civil
society groups in Nigeria today lack manpower
and youthful zeal and momentum to gain
sufficient public and government attention and
thus, the ability to influence government actions.
Building networks that provide existing civil
society groups with armies to enforce change
and starting pressure groups will be key towards
providing a better society for all.
History is replete with instances where young
people, student groups have pressured their
governments into society-changing decisions as
huge as the relinquishing of power. Today’s
revolutions in information communication,
especially those made available through the
existence of the platform of the internet, make it
possible to reach out to more like-minded people
in easier ways than before. Rallying support
around agendas that should get government to
provide quality leadership should be one of the
areas today’s youth should focus on if indeed
their interest is making our society work better.
The internet makes congregating an easier task
and holding online rallies is now a possibility.
Sometimes, all that is needed to change a
situation is just a legislation away and all that is
needed for that legislation to come to become
reality is support. Other times, sincere and
credible criticism and condemnation of leadership
can sway actions. These are by no means the
only ways the youths can impact on the political
culture. There are several more.
Young people today are more enlightened than
ever before and it falls on them to shape a new
political culture for the next generation – one in
which the preservation and promotion of
everyone’s basic rights and the development of
the socio-economic fabric of the society in
general are the take off points – so that we do
not become also that which we are today
disillusioned of.
To conclude, I will like to quote Obama again
from the same speech mentioned above. “…
democracy is not simply a gift from previous
generations, but a responsibility for each
generation to preserve and to pass on.”
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