YOUTH INCLUSION IN POLITICS; A GLOBAL TREND THAT NEEDS TO BE REPLICATED IN NIGERIA

The world have celebrated several era of political exploits with tremendous innovations by outstanding leaders who had the rare privilege of writing their names in the sand of history. Aristotle the Greek Philosopher did say that man is a political animal. His ideology of politics demystify politics from the complexity of a super elaborate idea (activity) and simplify it to mean the interaction and coordination that evolve an organized livelihood for man.

The advent of democracy as one of the most widely practiced system of governance has set a precedence in the world political arena. So that other system of government still strive to contend its soaring potential for realizing the dreams and aspiration of nations, in the 21st century. The search light has never been so focused on leadership as we have in this last few years. The ideals of leadership is a reoccurring discussion both in the media and strategic floras. Clerical observers of world politics discover a trend in leadership pattern, which makes the definition of governance complicated to the onlooker. Leaders are known to inculcate their personality as well as leadership skill into the system of governance in practical terms to achieve the national objective. This have led to giant strides in many nations while others pace on.

With the envy of smaller nations and the surging urge to catch up with the best of nations that have attain self-actualization (though in relative terms), the political climate of the world begins to advocate for integration of ideas and innovations as well as a call for regional cooperation to achieve global best practices, especially in politics and economy the two terms that are becoming inexplicable as the world becomes a community of settlers. Communist’s emergence to power from the 1990s, indicates that free elections and multi-party democracy have begun to replace the one-party systems and political repression that prevailed years back. As at then, the integrationist dream of a United States of Europe was envisioned for the distant future, but a peaceful and prosperous Europe united in common aims and working for common solutions to shared problems is certainly becoming a possibility. However, achieving this goal required both political will and, even more so, political understanding of each nation’s difficulties.

With the operations of international bodies as the UN, FAO, UNICEF, IMF, WB etc., the politics of individual nations begins to command the interest of other nations who sees her as a sister member in parliament. African nations have in the last two decades clamour for change in her polity which is to a large extent leadership based. As the European nations strive to stabilize the democratic network of its integration, the African continent look up to pick up relevant clues that will assist her emerge completely from the claws of military and dictatorial rulership, into her pride of place. This aspiration became a burning issue of discuss among citizens as well as enthusiast of democracy, for the continent was at the verge of eruption from the intense heat of dictatorship.

Several African countries went against the trend of ousting dictatorial and military governments in favor of multiparty democracy in the first half of the 1990s. The scale of military corruption in oil-rich Nigeria delayed the process until the late 1990s. Mobutu’s 1997 overthrow by armed rebellion created the instability that slid the Congo into outright civil war in the late 1990s and early 21st century. In Algeria, when it appeared that a militant Islamist party was about to win 1992 legislative elections, the Algerian military canceled the election, suspended the legislature, and ushered in a decade of violent civil conflict. In Libya, the long-standing one-party regime of revolutionary leader Muammar al-Qaddafi ruled on, supported by huge oil wealth, reasonably redistributed among a sparse population.

But like a gentle breeze that comes after a catastrophic storm, democracy began to pervade the length and breathe of the continent with ease. Haven witnessed the dividend of democracy, the tenets of democracy not only engulf the African States but, began to grow deep roots too. Nigeria, the biggest black nation in Africa did not groom her nascent democracy without challenges and hurdles. A democracy that resurfaced in 1999, giving way to sundry politicking and historical events than our earlier 80s, 70s and 60s put together have witnessed.

Though Nigeria wills a robust political pedigree amongst the African States but, the lack of foresight by many of our so called Statesmen, belittles the country’ potential for amassing our future glory. The inclusion of youths in our leaping democracy is a prerequisite for fast tracking our pace and acclimatization to the standards of world politics. There is so much innovation going on in the economy, this is not without the fervent contributions of youthful innovations. The growth of the telecom sector has created an awesome track record by exploiting the dynamism (intellect) and energetic (Physical) disposition of the Nigerian youths.

The decision by our ‘political lords and custodians’ should advocate for power shift. They should without further hesitation give the youths a chance to pull the nation out of the drudgery of yesteryears. There seems to be a generalized notion that the Nigerian youths are more corrupt than their fathers, that they lack the patience to pull up elaborate innovations and also not forgetting the widely held notion that, they lack the needed experience to occupy leadership seat in the various facets of governance. All these have been formulated to retain the seat of government for our aging politicians who are only willing to let go their seat on the promise of, becoming a God-Father to the incumbent. This gross misconception arising from sheer greed has left the country in scorn and contempt.

The youths are the leaders of tomorrow, is a truth that stare at our faces, and that tomorrow starts today, if delay would not endanger our potential chances of becoming a developed nation in the world by 20:20. Willful courage is the yardstick with which greatness is banqueted to the rightful owner, let’s fix this abnormally and watch how the youths disappoint the spirit of greed, which has kept us locking in the dark all the while in search of our merited treasures.