THE ROLE OF YOUTH IN THE ONGOING NIGERIA'S DEMOCRATIC EFFORTS

BY

 Prof. Clement Olusegun Olaniran Kolawole

 Dean, Faculty of Education

 University of Ibadan

 Ibadan

 Being a keynote address delivered at the 2012 Annual Distinguished Personality Lecture of the Association of Graduate Students of Political Science, Department of Political Science, University of Ibadan.

Introduction

 Nigeria returned to the path of democratic governance in 1999 after being under military rule for close to seventeen years. Between that time and now, Nigeria has been trying to improve on its elections and the general practice of democracy. The effort that is being made in the country to improve democratic governance involves every stakeholder including the youth that constitute the largest number of voters in the geographical entity that is called Nigeria. Thus the topic of today's lecture is therefore topical and very relevant because it affords us the opportunity to take a critical look at the role of a critical segment of the society in sustaining democracy. Before attempts are made to discuss the role of youth in the development of any nation, it is imperative for us to take a look at what we mean by youth and democracy.

 Youth is a stage that marks out a toddler from an adult. It is a that everybody sees as being critical for impact making in any country. That is why it is commonly said that any country that fails to develop its youth is planning to undermine its future. By age distribution in Nigeria and it most other countries, youth constitute a significant percentage of people that are available to be mobilised to national development. Information has it that 70% of the population are youths. Similarly, Ashima remarked that 41.05% of the population in China are youth. Youth which has been described as the future of any country, has been classified to be a stage where people are more daring, adventurous, aggressive, impetuous and full of passion for anything they believe in or whatever they have come to identify with. In the word of Hackney (2011), youth is the largest age group in Fiji within the population of the country. The implication of this importance of youth in any country therefore is that they are very central to the achievement of any developmental agenda a country can set for itself.

 From what we have observed in all the areas of interest in the world, it is clear that youths are the driving for behind them. Thus, we need to make concerted efforts to ensure that our youth are helped to acquire knowledge, adequate skills and competences, experience and democratic principles that will enable them to play the critical role expected of them. The situation in Nigeria is so critical that we cannot, in all honesty, fail to take advantage of the potentials of our youth in our democratic journey.

 Youth and Democracy

 If the popular definition of democracy being the government of the people, by the people and for the people is to make sense, it is important to emphasize that youth have to be fully involved in the process. Can it be rightly said that we can afford to ignore 70% of our population in a movement that is largely driven by number? This is why today, all the political, parties have youth wings and are making frantic effort to enlist the army of youth, most of who are hungry, poorly educated, grossly underemployed, as members. This is understandably so because it is easy for youth to help political parties in their campaigns and general mobilisation and electioneering activities. The experiment in Nigeria since we returned to democracy has shown that our colleagues have not been the best that we expect them to be. We all remember the four million man march in support of Abacha's plan to become a civilian President during his despotic rule in the country. Though he did not succeed, he had the support of most youth who had been recruited into his army. Of course, we easily remember the role of the garrison commander in Ibadan in the recent past. He succeeded largely because most youth easily yielded themselves to be used as thugs by him and many politicians like him. It is a fact that we cannot easily controvert that take the youth out of political violence, there will be nobody to carry out all the schemings of bad politicians in our country. From the foregoing therefore, it is important for us to look at the role youth can better play in the ongoing democratic effort in Nigeria.

 What roles for youth in the current democratic effort in Nigeria?

 There is no gainsaying the fact that youth in Nigeria have several enviable roles they can play in the promotion of sustainable democracy in the country. But before we proceed to highlight some of the roles, it is important for us to stress that youth have to realize that no government can take them seriously or plan meaningfully for them as long as they, youth, are at the beck and calls of politicians when it comes to doing evil, committing crimes and being used to subvert the electoral system. For youth to be on the vanguard of democracy, they have to believe in democracy, have to be well educated and informed and be willing to defend democracy. If our youth are not educated and willing to defend democracy, it will be easy for politicians to continue to use them for their selfish ends.

 The following are therefore some of the roles that youth can play in the ongoing democratization efforts in Nigeria.

 - They are defenders of democracy. This is because we all know that democracy is the best system of government anywhere in the world because it affords us the opportunity to freely express ourselves. We therefore have to be on the vanguard to make sure it is not bastardized by selfish people. Youth are always on the receiving end each time democracy suffers.

 - Youth have to be actively involved in the workings of democracy by being active participants. They have to belong to political parties, make their voice heard in policy formulation and implementation. There is a popular Yoruba adage which goes thus, 'aisi nine, ni nko ba won da si'. Literally meaning that it is because I was not there that I have not made any contribution to what was being discussed. Youth have suffered greatly in this country that they have to be more actively involved now. Currently, there is the Ministry of Youth and Development and it has to really belong to the youth.

 - Youth have to drive the wheel of democracy by insisting on democracy working in Nigeria the way it has worked or is working in other countries such as UK, USA, France, Ghana, Egypt and South Africa and many others. We have to educate ourselves through a programme like this, help ourselves to prevent a situation where we surrender ourselves to be used to frustrate democracy and democratic governance in Nigeria.

 - We must be ready to prevent a distortion of the electoral process at all levels in Nigeria. We are aware of the fact that most youth have been used to rig elections, snatch ballot boxes, falsify figures and perform other criminal activities for the sake of money. We must be quick to remind ourselves that we fall easy prey each time the tide changes and those who some of us work for get to power.

 - We have to use our social network to wage war against all the enemies of democracy because it is democracy that can guarantee equitable distribution of resources, political patronage and development in a pluralistic Nigeria of today. It is when we fully deploy our numerical advantage in a democracy that we will begin to benefit maximally in the ongoing democratic efforts.

 - It is important to be reminded that when we find ourselves in political offices either as elected representatives of our people or we occupy an office, we should remember that we are holding such offices in trust for the teaming mass of youth in our land. We therefore have to ensure that the confidence reposed in us is not misplaced. There is evidence to support the claim that the youth in Nigeria have never had it so good. But I just hope that we will not betray the trust our people have in us through avarice and corruption.

 - Youth can stand for elective positions, campaign very hard and win elections. That can then give them ample opportunity to make the situation of things better. There is nothing that can be better than a situation where we are directly involved in governance.

 Conclusion

 There is no doubt that the role that youth can play in the ongoing democratization efforts in Nigeria is enormous. It is also a fact that several Nigerian youth are playing major roles in the drive, one can wish that they will not allow themselves to be misled by their youthful exuberance to make them abuse the privilege they are currently enjoying.

 Thanks for your attention.