2019 Elections: The Nigerian Family and Nigerian Youth
A society can only be a reflection of the type of family that exists within that country. Now the question is what is an average Nigerian family talking about? How do an average Nigerian family see leadership and public office? Do they see leadership as a place to enrich themselves or a place to serve?
What is an average Nigerian family value like? All these questions and more should be the crux of our concern here. We have seen people go into public offices with an average financial background only to come out as multibillionaires, the very reason people fight tooth and nail to get to the political office. They feel it is an avenue to loot the nation’s treasury.
The Nigerian youth prefers sitting and giving out votes to a big brother candidate than actually giving out the vote to elect who foresees their future for the next four years. Nigeria is presently at its state because of the lukewarm attitude of the youth towards political matters. If some Nigerian youths can actually give Efe, the former winner of the big brother Nigeria show, a whopping sum of one million votes then verily they can unseat and seat any government.
As the 2019 election gets closer and closer, it is has become imperative for political enlightenment and electorate’s education. The whole country, come early next year, will line up once again in various parts of the country to vote in their leaders.
The 2015 election was an election that proved an unprecedented point. It proves that power actually belongs to the people. When I say power belongs to the people, please don’t have that stereotypical view of one big political party with an umbrella logo, the power I mean here is the legitimate power of the people.
The people, according to the social contract theory, are obliged to come together bringing themselves and their individual powers into a contract with the government or state who are obliged to provide them the basic amenities for their existence.
And for a government to become legitimate, it must have the legitimate backing of the people. You will agree with me that the 2015 elections actually had the legitimate backing of Nigerians home and abroad.
The political alliance of some big political parties actually brought a healthy competition to our polity. Before 2015, we only had just a political party ruling since 1999 with a promise to even remain in power for the next 16 years. The people for the first time in the political history of Nigeria actually voted out an incumbent government at the center. And it is this feast of 2015 that many people want to replicate come 2019.
As we gear towards another round of elections, it is important we bring political enlightenment to the grassroots, starting from the family, yes, I said the family. This is actually so because the family is the basic unit of societal development and a country with healthy families will definitely have healthy leaders.
As 2019 is coming closer and closer, the main focus of concentration is the youth. The average Nigerian youth constitute more than half of the nation’s population. As a matter of fact, the youths actually contributed to the resounding success of this present administration, you cannot dispute that fact. But the problem I have presently is the political apathy that is currently prevalent among the youth today.
The present situation of the country requires youthful ingenuity and input. When the youths that are supposed to be ingenuous are nowhere to be found, then we are heading for the rocks as a nation.
Also read: 2019 Election: Nigerians Need Digital Leaders, Babangida Insists
Follow us on Facebook – Dailyfamily.ng, Twitter – @DailyfamilyNG , Whatsapp +2348188889427, BBM PIN D86722A7 and instagram @dailyfamilyng for more updates.
