The position of “youth leader” in a political party would not be necessary in a party where age is not a currency for party leadership, but unfortunately, in Nigeria age is not only a currency, it is indeed one of the most valuable denominations.
Women would not be wrong to think they are the most disrespected political group in the country but when the numbers are crunched, it would not be shocking to discover that Nigeria’s young people are the most politically marginalized group.
Across all the major and minor political parties, you’d not find a man designated as “women leader,” while you’d be hard pressed to find anyone below 40 years of age designated as “youth leader.” That is not to say our women do not deserve a lot more than such limiting designations.
Until recently, the “youth leader” of the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) was closer to the age of 70 than he was to 40. That point marked the age of peak madness in the designation of men well past their 50s as party youth leaders.
Reno Omokri is never one to be believed, having said the PDP youth leader is now 31. Even if Reno Omokri, going by his Wendell Simlin-esque antecedents can never be trusted with the truth, it does appear that he was right this one time. The PDP has since corrected the anomaly.
The All Progressives Congress (APC) Nigeria’s main opposition party unfortunately copied from the wrong PDP page, especially a page the PDP has since corrected, a page that once said the youth leader had to be an old man.
This is a most unfortunate situation. On the question of appointing a man well past his 40s as “youth leader,” the APC has truly goofed! You cannot come preaching about change while continuing in the old order of youth disenfranchisement.
The APC seems to confuse the unpopularity of the current ruling party as a correlational popularity for itself. It is not. Nigerians are likely to be inclined to stick with their oppressor of the last 15 years than press their thumb for what continues to look like the soul and spirit of the old oppressor in a new skin.
It was inspiring to see the APC bypass an element like Chief Tom Ikimi as its party leader while going with Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, a respectable gentleman who though in his 70s, has the mind, character and personality to lead the Nigerian opposition party forward.
If the APC wants to be seen as the change Nigeria needs, the APC must first be that change in its way and manner of conducting its own party business before it can expect to be trusted by Nigerians as the change we really and truly need.
On a related note, it was inspiring to see young APC members take a stand while kicking against the decision by their party leaders to have someone out of the youth bracket lead them. In a country where some young people never see anything wrong in the party and political groups they support irrespective of what such parties or groups do, it was really inspiring to see the young APC members voice their disagreement.
Here, democracy has been assumed to mean, “support your party no matter what; oppose the other party no matter what.” This is the bane of our political conversations. When the PDP had the aforementioned old man lead its youths, the same real youths in the party publicly defended the decision almost to death.
They probably thought they were taking a stand for their party but situations like that only show a zombie-esque membership status. If you cannot challenge your leaders when they are wrong, you are not their followers: you are their slaves. Only slaves are expected to voice support for the master, wrong or not, because the master is never wrong. Followership is a call to responsibility and self-assertion not a call to zombieship.
If young people had a fair ground to play in these political parties and are allowed the chance to contest and win the major positions in the parties, there’d indeed be no need for the position of “youth leader.” Check the Democratic and Republican parties for starters-- this anomaly does not exist within their main executive positions. The position of the “youth leader” looks like an attempt to ensure youth participation at that level seeing as the balance of power naturally plays the youths out.
So then, with this balance of power very much in place, why can’t these so called youths be allowed to be “youth leaders” in their own political party? Is it that our youths are needed just for the votes alone? Leaders of the APC openly made jokes about PDP’s then geriatric youth leader. So, who is the joke on now?
I am @Omojuwa on Twitter
Women would not be wrong to think they are the most disrespected political group in the country but when the numbers are crunched, it would not be shocking to discover that Nigeria’s young people are the most politically marginalized group.
Across all the major and minor political parties, you’d not find a man designated as “women leader,” while you’d be hard pressed to find anyone below 40 years of age designated as “youth leader.” That is not to say our women do not deserve a lot more than such limiting designations.
Until recently, the “youth leader” of the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) was closer to the age of 70 than he was to 40. That point marked the age of peak madness in the designation of men well past their 50s as party youth leaders.
Reno Omokri is never one to be believed, having said the PDP youth leader is now 31. Even if Reno Omokri, going by his Wendell Simlin-esque antecedents can never be trusted with the truth, it does appear that he was right this one time. The PDP has since corrected the anomaly.
The All Progressives Congress (APC) Nigeria’s main opposition party unfortunately copied from the wrong PDP page, especially a page the PDP has since corrected, a page that once said the youth leader had to be an old man.
This is a most unfortunate situation. On the question of appointing a man well past his 40s as “youth leader,” the APC has truly goofed! You cannot come preaching about change while continuing in the old order of youth disenfranchisement.
The APC seems to confuse the unpopularity of the current ruling party as a correlational popularity for itself. It is not. Nigerians are likely to be inclined to stick with their oppressor of the last 15 years than press their thumb for what continues to look like the soul and spirit of the old oppressor in a new skin.
It was inspiring to see the APC bypass an element like Chief Tom Ikimi as its party leader while going with Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, a respectable gentleman who though in his 70s, has the mind, character and personality to lead the Nigerian opposition party forward.
If the APC wants to be seen as the change Nigeria needs, the APC must first be that change in its way and manner of conducting its own party business before it can expect to be trusted by Nigerians as the change we really and truly need.
On a related note, it was inspiring to see young APC members take a stand while kicking against the decision by their party leaders to have someone out of the youth bracket lead them. In a country where some young people never see anything wrong in the party and political groups they support irrespective of what such parties or groups do, it was really inspiring to see the young APC members voice their disagreement.
Here, democracy has been assumed to mean, “support your party no matter what; oppose the other party no matter what.” This is the bane of our political conversations. When the PDP had the aforementioned old man lead its youths, the same real youths in the party publicly defended the decision almost to death.
They probably thought they were taking a stand for their party but situations like that only show a zombie-esque membership status. If you cannot challenge your leaders when they are wrong, you are not their followers: you are their slaves. Only slaves are expected to voice support for the master, wrong or not, because the master is never wrong. Followership is a call to responsibility and self-assertion not a call to zombieship.
If young people had a fair ground to play in these political parties and are allowed the chance to contest and win the major positions in the parties, there’d indeed be no need for the position of “youth leader.” Check the Democratic and Republican parties for starters-- this anomaly does not exist within their main executive positions. The position of the “youth leader” looks like an attempt to ensure youth participation at that level seeing as the balance of power naturally plays the youths out.
So then, with this balance of power very much in place, why can’t these so called youths be allowed to be “youth leaders” in their own political party? Is it that our youths are needed just for the votes alone? Leaders of the APC openly made jokes about PDP’s then geriatric youth leader. So, who is the joke on now?
I am @Omojuwa on Twitter
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