Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, has called on Nigerian Youths to join political parties ahead of the 2019 presidential elections to enable them to be voted into political offices. Osinbajo, who was represented by Babafemi Ojudu, Special Adviser to the President on Political Affairs, made the call at the Emerging Political Leaders Summit in Abuja.
He said that it was not enough for youth to always complain about bad leaders, but that they needed to break the status quo by taking the chance to be elected and create the transformation they needed for a change.
“Youth have a challenge in their hands for the future of our country; so, I advise you not to sit down and fold your hands and be lamenting over bad leadership or politicians.
“Get down to business, organise and do something to become elected political youth; after all, Enahoro became a leader in this country at the age of 23 and later moved a motion for the nation’s independence at the age of 27.
“The leaders there today will vacate the place tomorrow. So if you the youth don’t start preparing today by getting mentored and learning the ropes, there is no way you will perform very well if the mantle of leadership falls on you tomorrow. So there is need for you to go in there and participate,’’ he said.
Osinbajo, however, enjoined youths not to expect that from the day they start participating in politics they would become the president of Nigeria. He said that it was not realistic and could not happen, but that they needed to start gradually from the ward level and move up to local government level and to state “before the presidency’’.