After losing out to hoodlums who derailed their #EndSARS train through violence in 2020, Nigerian youths now seem to be regrouping to seize political power with their votes in the forthcoming 2023 general elections. And Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State has paid them judicious notice on that score.
Led by some musicians, actors, skit makers, comedians, civil society types, social media influencers and others, they seem to have replaced their Soro soke slogan with a wake-up call for their generation to register for and collect their Permanent Voters Cards as though their lives depend on it.
Between the last general elections of 2019 that returned the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), to Aso Rock Villa, many more Nigerians have attained the majority age of 18 and are, therefore, eligible to enlist into the ranks of voters who can exercise the right to universal adult suffrage.
The focus of the youths seems to be to seize political power so that the next government will be beholden to them, be youth-friendly, initiate youth-friendly policies, create jobs, promote digital technology and unleash their creative energies.
You can see the youths in droves pulling down physical and psychological barriers to register and obtain their Permanent Voters Card. Consequently, both officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission and Old Brigade politicians are watching them with bewilderment, if not fear.
Festus Okoye, INEC Commissioner for Information and Voter Education, is making frenetic efforts in the media to explain the efforts that INEC is making to address the sudden upsurge in demand for registration and collection of the PVC.
A memo, addressed to Resident Electoral Commissioners and signed by Rose Ofiaran-Anthony, Secretary to the INEC, directs the extension of “the Continuous Voter Registration Exercise until further decision is communicated to them.”
INEC has also uploaded the voters’ registration exercise onto its online portal in order to adequately cope with the upsurge in the registration exercise ahead of the 2023 general elections.
Older politicians, especially those of All Progressives Congress and Peoples Democratic Party, are watching, with unease, as hitherto inconsequential political parties, like Labour Party, Peoples Redemption Party and the newly formed New Nigeria Peoples Party, are attracting the increasingly audacious youths.
In addition to concerted efforts to sign up to vote, the youths are massing up, holding rallies (across the nation), funding and producing campaign communication materials for mostly youthful, but not exactly young, presidential candidates of their choice. They even contrived an opinion poll that (predictably) showed that Peter Obi of the Labour Party is the preferred presidential candidate.
Other presidential candidates, especially Bola Tinubu of APC, are getting their own share of support, even if their political communications are not as sleek as those of Obi. Some Yoruba Nollywood actors have endorsed Tinubu.
One must acknowledge that Obi appears to be the biggest beneficiary of the political gravy train of Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, who lost out in the APC presidential primary. They seem to have morphed into the “OBIDIENT” crowd who say, upon the Peter Obi Rock, they will build a better Nigeria.
Evidently, these young partisans, who are desperately looking for another symbol, seem to be latching on to Obi in the manner of a Japanese military parade looking for a commander.
Others even say Babatunde Fashola, the cerebral Minister of Works and Housing, would have been on the card for drafting by the youths as a presidential candidate, but for his announcement that he was only interested in being President of his household after May 29, 2023.
Some Obi partisans have said that if Obi chooses not to run they will abduct and compel him to stay in the presidential race. Though they seem to say this in jest, their benign threat shows how desperate they are for a change in the way things are run in Nigeria. And you never know the extent to which people will go to actualise their dreams.
The frenzy around Obi, which appears to cut across regions, tribes, religions and socioeconomic classes of Nigerian youths, sans ideology or clearly defined manifesto, has been a cause for concern for those rooting for Old Guard politicians who appear baffled by the turn of events.
Accordingly, Old Guard politicians are desperately looking for strategies to hitch their presidential wagons to the moving political train driven by the youths. This is because the youths, from age 18 to 45 years, may cast their votes, like one man, for this new sensation of a presidential candidate.
Some people argue that even if the youths do not finally end up voting for Obi as President in 2023, the movement that he has ignited would have at least activated the youths into seizing their future with their two hands. This should transform into the youths themselves seeking political offices from the 2027 general elections onwards. This would be a big leap for the ‘Not Too Young To Run’ lobby.
Incidentally, supporters of Old Guard politicians think that practically all the fake news, exaggerations, outright lies and insinuations on social media emanate from the youths, who seem intent on shooting down anyone who appears to be on the political divide other than theirs.
Some Obi-partisan youths have been known to at least verbally attack those who do not share their political conviction. Obi recently told them to “nwayo,” which is Igbo for “take it easy.” They sometimes act like they could become physically violent if others are not easily persuaded to “port” to their side of the political argument.
Out of the rank of Tinubu supporters comes a “shangoma,” who posted on the internet a video of what looks like a charm gourd defying the law of gravity to confirm that Tinubu will not only emerge as President of Nigeria next year, but he will also be a successful President.
But unfortunately, the gathering political storm of the Nigerian youths may not amount to political gains after all. An unconfirmed report indicates that by 2020, 43.49 per cent of Nigerians were between age zero and 14 years old; 53.77 per cent are between 15 and 64 years old; a mere 2.74 per cent are 64 years and older.
Another unsubstantiated report claims that about half of the Nigerian population are below 19 years old. This suggests that a little more than 100 million Nigerians won’t be able to vote in the 2023 general elections. They would not have achieved the majority age of 18 that qualifies them to vote.
In addition, it’s being rumoured that most of the PVCs that are just being registered for won’t be ready ahead of the 2023 general elections. If true, this is a dampening prospect. And it could discourage the youths that seem to have finally woken up from their lethargy.
What the youths need to do now is to at least sustain this momentum, be more rational and work with less emotionalism in their quest to birth a new Nigeria. The good news is that the change can be achieved by the youths, as some youths, like Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, Obafemi Awolowo, Sir Ahmadu Bello, Aminu Kano and Bode Thomas, did in their thirties and forties in colonial-era Nigeria.
The youths should firmly seize the moment and make political hay while the democracy sun is yet shining.
