The Arewa Youth Council Forum (AYCF) has vowed to not support older politicians wishing to occupy elective positions in the country henceforth.
The National President of AYCF, Comrade Yerima Shettima stated this while expressing concerns over state of the nation in an exclusive interview with The New Diplomat in Kaduna. He said older politicians should allow youths address the myriad of problems facing the country after their years of efforts with no difference.
X-raying happenings in Nigeria today, Shettima said: “it is sad”, what is happening in Nigeria today, stressing: “this is not what we envisaged, certainly not what we expected. Some of us who have been at the trenches for over time advocating for democracy, we know the sacrifices we have made.
“Some of us leaders thought that after all the sacrifices, better days will come ahead of us but it is obvious that despite our struggle in the last close to two decades, we have not gotten it right because the system is so bastardized by these opportunists so called politicians.
“Oftentimes, they do things with all impunity. We run the country as if we are not really a constitutional democracy. People do things with all impunity. They rule people as if we are a republic banana where there is no respect for rule of law, where things are not done properly and where the masses of the country are left at the mercy of those in power.
“These are very, very abnormal” noting that “no society strives and gets it right when the citizens are not well taken care of” and queried: “What are those things to be done?” as according to him: “the essence of governance is to provide security, provide social welfare, but today nothing is being provided for the citizens” stressing that “Nigerians produce light for themselves, Nigerians produce medical things for themselves, so and so forth.
“So, now you ask: what is governance and what are these people giving to the people? Even the security as of today, there is no where there is 100percent security.
“In fact, worse of it all is that even the part of the country where it is presumed we have the President, things should be better but today the case is a different game altogether. So, it is really disturbing. But one thing I am sure of is that certainly one day we shall overcome some of these challenges. It is just a matter of time”.
Thus, the disappointed youth leader advised ambitious politicians who are above sixty years old to shelve their political ambition ahead 2023, warning that they will not enjoy the support of youths.
“With the look of things today and the way this insecurity is, it gives somebody worry and concerned that are we even going to get there?” the youth leader queried.
Shettima who said “divine intervention may likely address the issue” declared: “it is obvious that we have more troubles as I am seeing. I am worried and disturbed about it”.
To this end, Shettima said “I have been going round talking with our contemporaries even in the southern part of the country, robbing minds with those strongly believe in the country. Some of them do not believe in the country, they live by faith but those of them who believe in the country, we are still robbing mind, walking and working round the clock because I do not think it will be wise to encourage anything that will be of harmful to this country.
“Though some of us did not experience the civil war in the sixties because we were not born then but going by history from what we have learnt, that war was avoidable but eventually they didn’t work the strategy very well and suddenly war came and we lost a lot of people.
“I am of the view that we must not allow that to happen again and to avoid that it means we must continue to rob minds with stakeholders. Whether you like it or not we are the stakeholders today in the country and our contributions should go a long way possibly to change and in fact hopefully the lives of nationhood.
“We need to work together with our southern contemporaries, talking with them, engaging them and discussing issues of mutual benefit for all of us, particularly the youths. To this end, we will soon have a national movement that will be all inclusive.
“The priority of that movement will be to unite the country”, he explained as according to him, “if there is no country there will be no election, if there is no country there will be no election, if there is no country when we are in a chaos, nobody talks about who becomes who. So, we need peace and that is what we are exactly working on and we will get there, I have no doubt in my mind. We are working on that.
“What uppermost in the minds of Nigerians if you ask me, I will only look at our perspectives, the present generation and what is in our mind is to ensure that we work collectively and unanimously arrive at a position.
“Of course some of us agreed that we have to unanimously adopt a new order and what is the new order about is that we will ensure that our generation unite the country and also occupy the political space. We will ensure that we project ourselves.
“Never again we will project any old politician. So I think we are working on that and certainly, I am not mincing word on this position I am taking and I am sure it is exactly what is going across every meaningful Nigerian youth today and that is to occupy political spaces.
“Some of us may fall back to old order but certainly you can be rest assured that eight of us are determined to occupy political spaces. We will work with younger progressive elements to ensure that we project our people to occupy every office in the land so that we can now determine and decide the fate and future of this very generation. I think this is what is uppermost in our minds now.
“We have tried the old brigades over and over”, Shettima lamented and consequently declared: “never again we will allow ourselves to be used by any politician because we could see that they are making move again over and over with that same method and styles. It will not work this time.
“God willing, through all electoral processes, we will take over the leadership of this country come 2023. We will do that. It is democracy and democracy is about number”, Shettima said.
