TO JAW-JAW IS BETTER THAN TO WAR-WAR
Samuel Enyi Otsapa
Samuelotsapa@gmail.com
08038127832
080547886
Enough of the protests, beloved friends.
For the youths/young people to take over governance (although I prefer a “fruit-salad” type of democratic government having a fine mix of both old and young leaders – because while the new broom sweeps better, it is the old broom that knows all the corners of the room), we must all, as youths/young people, females and males, become genuinely interested in politics. And becoming interested in politics (and governance) means participation and participation means ensuring we vote and/or be voted for during elections.
This is why in a recently released book (as seen in Chapter 10 on the table of contents of the attached pictures), I and a colleague wrote a chapter on Youth Candidates and the 2019 General Elections in Nigeria. From our empirical findings, we see that a negligeable number of youths/young people (operated in the book as persons less than 41 years old) won elections into the National Assembly; a place that should originally be the designate representation of the people and democracy. Friends, 2023 is the time to change this.
Along this line, we must regularly remind ourselves, as I have done repeatedly, that Nigeria is not a largely homogeneous country like Tunisia, Egypt and Libya where protests, violent protests as with the Arab Spring, have led to governmental and societal changes.
For us, we have a country that is deeply divided and heterogeneous having more than 300 ethnic groups with more than 500 dialects whose people are also divided into Christianity, Islam and traditional religion. So for us, and unlike the Arab countries we are tempted to emulate, the faultlines that divides us are many. Thus, we cannot achieve the change we need in government and society through unending protestations that has already become an ethnoreligious tussle in the FCT that has led to the burning of vehicles and the touching of business premises.
It is because of our peculiar nature that we must now put an end to the protests, enter into dialogue with the government (however painful this may be) and begin to plan and strategize towards the 2023 general elections – because, and although this is a slower option, elections remains the best method for us, with our uniqueness, to change government and governance in Nigeria and her 36 states.
And when we occupy government, we can begin to work towards closing and bridging the gaps of the things that divides us by ensuring that fairness, justice and development becomes our lived reality such that in 20 years, we shall become a united heterogeneous nation under God. Nigeria is better together!!!
God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
