by Adewale Alabi
During the #EndSARS protests, there was a lot of exemplary coordination and strategizing that the youths involved exhibited, which was surprising, exhilarating and refreshing to everyone who was a witness. It showed observers that a working system could be achieved in Nigeria. This has made some call for young people to band together and create their own political party.
There are quite a few problems with this ideology. One of them is that no one remains a youth forever. So what happens to those invested in youth political parties when they go beyond youthfulness? Is being a youth a political ideology? Do all youths have the same values? All these questions come to mind whenever one thinks of a Youth Party.
Lawyer, Moe Odele, known as @Mochievous on Twitter, spoke about this on her timeline with the following tweet;
Everyone cannot form one political party. One political party is essentially a tyranny because many will still be oppressed. What we need to do is adopt the attitude of demanding accountability from everyone in leadership. Start from your local govt. Participate.
— Moe (@Mochievous) October 23, 2020
If youths want to make an impact, the idea has to shift from having a youth political party to being influencers in the political process of the nation. How does this work? An orientation, first of all, has to be one of the first steps to be taken. Young Nigerians need to start educating themselves as well as their friends/colleagues/neighbours, on how to effectively be a part of the political system. This could be by getting a voters card or teaching others how to get their voters card, taking the bold step to run for public offices, or just by giving an orientation to that brother on the street who may not understand why he should not sell his votes for cash.
Though many youths seem to be weighed down by the stress that comes with being a Nigerian, to make any progress as a nation, these supposedly little things must be done.
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