2019: Young Aspirants Express Fears Ahead Of Elections

Young aspirants from all the 91 political parties contesting for various positions in the 2019 general election have expressed fears over what they described as “landmines” that could hinder their success in the election.

The aspirants expressed this concern at an event tagged ‘The Convergence: Power, Capacity, Politics’, an initiative of Youth Initiative for Advocacy, Growth and Advancement (YIAGA Africa) and the Not Too Young To Run movement- one of Nigeria’s largest and most successful youth movement in recent times.

About 400 young candidates of various political parties had converged in Abuja for a 3-day conference aimed at empowering them ahead of the 2019 general elections.

Some of the Aspirants who spoke to THE WHISTLER, said lack of adequate funds to wrest power from old politicians, INEC, violence, manipulations, amongst other fears, could mar their chances in the 2019 election.

In his remarks, Adeeko Oladipo Adekunle who is seeking to represent Alimosho 1 Constituency at the Lagos State House of Assembly, under the platform of the Abundant Nigeria Renewal Party (ANRP), said his major fear was getting adequate funds for his campaign and election violence.

“My number one fear is funds, I have a budget that I am hoping to run a good campaign that will get me into office, but I actually don’t have the funds, this is about 70 days to elections and I don’t have 10% of what I intend to use to fund my campaign, so that is a big threat to my candidacy for 2019 elections,

“Then the number two fear I have is the political apathy of my electorates, some don’t believe that votes count, some think that election results are just manipulated so whatever efforts they expend voting for you is still a waste of time,

“The last threat is the assumption that there will be violence at the polling booths, we are a decent people in my constituency, but you know there is this picture that people have that there could be violence in our polling booth, there are over 500 polling booths in my constituency, we hope there won’t be violence on that day,” Mr Adekunle said.

Otobotekere Betty who is contesting under the Re-build Nigeria Party (RNP) for the Bayelsa State House of Assembly, Yenegoa Constituency 2, said she is pessimistic of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) capacity to contest a free and credible election in her constituency in particular and Nigeria in general.

“My fear is INEC, they are my major problem, because of the manipulation of card readers, I even heard some INEC staff talking about it some months ago about manipulation of card readers and in my state I saw something that shocked me, the current SSG in my state is from my place, then his face was in another local government among registered voters with another name, where is that coming from, I think it’s coming from INEC, people cannot just manipulate it.

“My fear is nothing but INEC because before rigging takes place INEC is part of it, we have to be sincere, politicians cannot just rig elections without the help of INEC staff, we have to face the truth.

“So my biggest fear is INEC, not security nothing, because I know how many voters card are in the possession of INEC staff in their office, thousands of which politicians buy and use in different polling units, I am aware of that, I know where I am coming from, am coming from Bayelsa state. If someone can fake the face of the SSG in the state where he is from Yenagoa local government area (YELGA) but his face is showing in Kolokuma LGA, with a different name where is that coming from if not INEC?

“Sorry to say this, but if Nigeria can bring foreign bodies to conduct elections, I will like it, until maybe INEC sits up, I think that will be a good idea,” Miss Betty said.

Mr Chike Ukaegbu who claims to be the youngest presidential candidate, seeking to defeat incumbent president, Muhammadu Buhari in the February 16th polls said his greatest fear as a youth candidate is that; “politics in Nigeria has been about money and as a young person who does not have the kind of resources that the incumbent and the main opposition have, there are challenges.

“One major fear is the ability to execute on the strengths that I know I have, that have the potential to cause an upset in the upcoming election, secondly is do my target audience, the populace, the electorates are they ready for this new ideology focused politics that we want to inject into the system.

“There is also that fear of our systems being compromised, whether by INEC or by the incumbent in understanding that you may toil and give your best, yet be cheated out of it.

“There are fears, yes, but also the courage, the passion, the need to change the status quo, where we are as a nation is greater than whatever fears that we may face today,” Ukaegbu said.

Also speaking her mind, Comr. Steven Happiness who is running for the Imo State House of Assembly, Ngor-Okpala State Constituency under the platform of the All Grand Alliance Party (AGAP), said INEC, security amongst others are her major fears in the 2019 election.

She said: “I must tell you the truth, my major fear is INEC, I say INEC because I don’t know the measure that they are putting in place to ensure that the card reader will function effectively, I am saying is INEC because I want them to tell me how sure they are that they won’t use Incident Report Forms to manipulate the election, I was privileged to participate in the Anambra State governorship election when I served was serving as a Corp Member and I saw what happened. In most of the polling units, card readers failed and they had to resolve to use incident report forms. So my major fear is INEC and how they are going to handle this issue.”

“Also my other fear is security, we want an election where all law enforcement agents will do their best in ensuring that they do not participate in whatever they usually do during an election, they shouldn’t subscribe to being bribed by the so-called strong politicians,” she added.

THE WHISTLER spoke to many other young aspirants who expressed similar fears. The event held from Dec. 10-Dec.12