Abuja Town Hall Meeting Told Nigerian Youths Not Ready To Take Over Power

Nigerian youths who gathered at a town hall meeting in Abuja on Wednesday agreed that youths in the country are not ready yet to take over political power.

The town hall meeting with the theme “Youth and Civic Engagements: What can we do in times like this?’ was organized by Women of Divine Destiny Initiative (WODDI) established by wife of Senator Rochas Okorocha, Nneoma Nkechi Okorocha.

One of those in attendance, Busayo Morakinyo, civil society activist, had provoked reaction when he declared that Nigerian youths were not prepared for political leadership yet.

He said “ I don’t see young Nigerians ready to take power. The reason being that I have not yet seen anyone that has that economic power to do that as a young person. It involves money, you want to run and N100k is a problem to get.

“Until we are ready to fix our own personal economy we are joking. The kind of young people I see today that want to get into government, if they are allowed, will be bad because they have not seen money before.

“I asked my colleague in the office ‘if N1bn enters your account today what will you do?’  and she responded that she will just start walking around! Imagine these kind of people get into government and sees money.”

However, he said the youths would be ready for political race if they have the opportunity for tutelage and guide by the older generation.

“We must deliberately bring youths together and have an intergenerational guide. I want to sit with the wife of a governor or ex-governor and talk about how she was able to cope for eight years.

“Those are the kind of lessons we should be learning as youths; we need to know the things it took for a former elected political officer to remain in position and the challenges they faced.

“I’m not a fan that says a young person must lead Nigeria or be a governor; we want a system that is bulletproof end to end so when you get there, you will be able to lead according to the dictates of the law.”

The audience, which include students, businessmen and some youth activists, concurred with Morakinyo as no one raised any issue with his claims.

The panelists, including Olubunmi Ayantunji, a legislative aide to Senator Tolu Odebiyi, Chinenye Uwanaka, lawyer, Dorothy Njemanze, a gender activist and Mrs Okorocha, also had no problem with the suggestion as none of them interrogated the young man’s submission.