By Wole Adedeji, Ilorin
Youths and the women folk in Nigeria have been advised to form a political party of their own in order to have a desired political relevance in the country.
The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Resident Electoral Commissioner, REC, in Kwara, Malam Garba Attahiru-Madami, gave the advice in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital, while receiving the Conscientious Youth Empowerment Foundation, CYEF, in his office.
The CYEF team was led by its Executive Director, Abiodun Oyeyiola, in company of his other executive members.
Attahiru-Madami said that from all available statistics, women and youth constituted over 80 per cent of voters in any election in the country, pointing out that according to statistics and records of the Continuous Voter Registrations CVR, which he had double checked, 80 per cent of registered voters were youths and women.
He said, “What they need to do is to come together and form a political party, which will now provide a platform for both men and women to contest elections.
“That will remove the issue of marginalization, lack of money to contest and cannot compete with old politicians.
“As at today in Nigeria, any aspirant seeking for any political position, he or she must belong to a political party.”
He was of the opinion that if the youth of Nigeria would coninue to wait for the existing political parties to give them platforms, they would merely be wasting their time, because it would never happen.
“The old politicians will never quit and give you the opportunity, so you have to grab the opportunity. You have to get the opportunity and the only way to do that is to revolutionalise politics in the country and that is by teeming up with the women to form a political party.”
The REC added that elections in Nigeria were becoming more transparent, and rigging was becoming impossible, saying that this was because results of elections are now declared right from the polling units to collation centres.
He added, “The results are already at the polling units, everybody has seen it from the polling unit, to ward collation centres, to local governments, state and national.
“There will be no chance for any manipulation of election results, so the youths have a good chance of ruling this country, of running the government of Nigeria in the future, if they come together with the women to form a strong political party.
“That will change the atmosphere, it will change the politics of this country.”
He also advised Nigerian youths to shun double registrations during the ongoing Continuous Voter Registration, CVR, adding that double registration was a criminal offence; admonishing them to run away from hard drugs, because taking and abusing drugs may make them lose focus on their study and career prospects.
Earlier, the Executive Director of CYEF, Oyeyiola, said that they were in the INEC office to appreciate the good Attahiru-Madami was doing in Kwara State, adding that his group had erected four billboards in strategic locations in Ilorin to sensitise youths in Kwara State on the need to register as voters.
He told the REC that members of the group had also been going round registration areas in Ilorin to monitor the level of participation of youths in the exercise.
Oyeyiola appealed to political parties to give youths a chance in the running of the affairs of the country, adding that as future leaders of Nigeria, youths were not given enough opportunity to express themselves in the scheme of national affairs.
He said, “Youths have the highest population in Nigeria, with over 60 per cent of the population; we are a key stakeholder in voting. Despite this, youths don’t come out to participate in elections.
“We discovered that majority of the youths have not registered as voters, so we use our laptops to register them online. We also educate youths on their rights through our weekly radio program on Royal FM 95.1.”
He later presented a framed certificate of merit to the REC.
Members of the group who accompanied the Executive Director include: Kehinde Akinsola, Abosede Ajiboye and Dapo Olumide.
