Armstrong Bakam, Bauchi
A Bauchi-based group, Bauchi Youth Political Hotspot, has called on politicians to stop destroying the future of youths by using them as thugs during elections.
A member of the group, Hisham Yusuf Joda, stated this while addressing journalists at a press conference in Bauchi on Friday, organised by an international organisation called Leadtots.
Leadtots is a human development company facilitating diverse range of coaching, mediation and other forms of human development services for young people, professionals and communities.
The group said it was working in partnership with the National Endowment for Democracy, USA, to develop leadership capacities for students’ union leaders of tertiary institutions in the North-East in a project called DE Watson Leadership Academy.
Joda, who also represented the Students’ Union Government of Abubabakar Tafawa Balewa University, Bauchi, said it was unfortunate that politicians only thought about themselves and their families.
“As a group, we feel very worried that youths who are potential leaders are being used as thugs before, during and after elections.
“They are destroying the future of the country because when they give these youths money to cause violence during elections, they are not only destroying them, they are also destroying the country.
“It is not fair for politicians to keep using and dumping youths as if we have no future. The unfortunate thing is that they don’t use their own children for such violence but they will rather use children of the poor,” he said.
He challenged the youth across the country to use the opportunity of the signing of the Not Too Young To Run bill into law to seek to occupy various offices in the 2019 general elections.
According to him, the leaders who are old have failed Nigerian youths.
He added that it was worrisome that Nigerian politicians had refused to give way to the young ones who constitute the majority in the country.
Joda said that Nigerian youths were tired of being led by old people who had run out of ideas because “there is nothing on ground to show for their being in power.”
“We are worried because these elders have been in power for long and they keep recycling themselves; they have refused to give way to youths.
“But with the signing of the Not Too Young To Run bill into law by President Muhammadu Buhari, the time has come for us to rise up as youths and take over power from these old politicians because they think only of themselves and their families; they don’t have us at heart,” he said.
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Source: Punch
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