ON INTERNATIONAL YOUTHS DAY

About six months ago, I happened to be among a group of youths (students and coppers) selected for a special national assignment, electoral work for a rerun election in some constituencies where the earlier election was canceled. A day before the election, we were gathered at the INEC headquarters and taken on buses for conveyance to our respective designated places. Coincidentally, I found myself inside a bus that contains people with whom I share the same passion, mostly comrades that are actively engage in the students union politics and whome have a passionate dream of participating in the sophisticated Nigerian politics in the future.

There were about 15 of us in the bus, all students of the same university, some two of us were from engineering, other two from health sciences and all the remaining from humanities and social sciences. Thus the journey gave us a very wonderful opportunity that we exchanged views, opinions and ideas about the nature of Nigerian politics in the past, present and according to our views, it will possibly be in the future, and of course to me, an ample survey to judge the views of the youths of this country about it's politics and it's future.

The conversation started with how the election might possibly occur, " do you think there is any possibility of an opposition party to win?" 

One comrade asked this questions, and before he closed his mouth about half the people in the bus had answer him "No!",

 "Don't you know how formidable the person on the position is?" another comrade asked, and that opened another topic of discussion, his political background.

He has been in the position of a member representing his constituency since the beginning of third republic, and we learned from another fellow that he won his first election by the time he has just graduated, at most on his early 30s!

We were seriously shocked by hearing that, but really there's nothing worth surprisingly.

"Wow! This is exactly what I want do upon my graduation, I will contest for a legislative position in my constituency"

One gentle fellow who seemed never said a word in the discussion until then uttered this, nodding his head with full of enthusiasm.

The whole bus bursted into a serious laughter upon hearing that,  how will you?  Who and who do you have as godfathers?  How much do you have, or you think you'll get before then?

We asked him.

The gentle comrade couldn't provide a single agreeable answer to our questions, just as we expected, but his optimism rely on the fact that somebody has done it before and thus he too can make it. He went on further supporting his point with examples of some past Nigerian leaders like Gowon, Obasanjo, Buhari, Babangida and others who had all make the history of ruling this country in much more complicated times than tye present in their younger ages. And this opened another subject of discussion, wide enough to be an article of it's own, and which will be the tittle of my next article.

WHY YOUTH RULED NIGERIA IN THE PAST AND NOT THE PRESENT