Generational Change in Nigeria a

Generational Change in Nigeria and Youth participation in Politics

Abubakar Alkali

It is relevant to put the records straight that I have never been a fan of my former Governor Attahiru Bafarawa. As a matter of fact, I have always thought that my dear Sokoto state deserves better than his 8 years as governor (1999 – 2007). However, Bafarawa became a somewhat instant hero to me when during an interview with the BBC Hausa service several months ago said that he cannot stoop so low to go to the Senate where he will have to raise his hands before he is allowed to speak. Bafarawa said having served as Governor of Sokoto state for 8 years, the right thing for him to do is to ‘step aside’ and give chance to the younger ones. This is the key ideology behind generational change in politics where leaders who served at higher levels should not seek any office lower than the one they have held but be smart enough to either seek a higher office or ‘step aside’ and allow the younger generation to take over.

I reckon this was the motivation for Bafarawa contesting for the Presidency in 2007 under his rather edentulate party, the DPP (I had difficulty remembering the name of the party). It was clear that Bafarawa deliberately wasted the meagre resources of Sokoto state to form a toothless party he formed in 2007 that was literally dead before the general elections in 2011 (A party that lasted for only 4 years). It was also clear that Bafarawa used the meagre resources of Sokoto state to run for the President in 2007 when even himself knows that he was not qualified and it was practically impossible for him to win the Presidential elections. As a matter of fact, it will take the camel to pass through the eye of the needle for Bafarawa to be the President of Nigeria. However, Bafarawa got politically excited and thought that he has nothing to lose by contesting for the Presidency since as Governor, he has unfettered access to the resources of Sokoto state and can simply dip his hands into the coffers of the state and take as much cash as he wishes to fund his pipe dream campaign.

Despite all these negatives about Bafarawa’s wild goose chase for the Presidency in 2007, there is still the positive side of it which is Bafarawa’s belief in generational change. This belief was predicated on the fact that Bafarawa believes that as Governor, his next destination should be the Presidency and not the senate and that he should leave the Senate to the younger ones while he seeks a higher office. This is the beauty of generational change in politics.

For a country to prosper and get in tune with global trends, it has to embrace generational change and allow the younger ones who are ‘current’ take over to enable them bring new ideas and new energy into governance. Political leaders in Africa always want to cling on to power and be part of the action instead of serving their due and giving way to the younger ones. Recycling of leaders stagnates development and perpetually keeps the country in the past instead of shaping it for the future. A case of movement without motion. It was absolutely right for our leader, President Muhammadu Buhari to have contested and won the Presidential election in 2015 despite his age because he wasn’t seeking for a lower office than the one he held before. The main doctrine of generational change in politics is that one must not seek for an office lower than the one he/she held before but can seek for a higher office. The significance of this doctrine is that as one moves up in politics, he leaves the lower office for the upcoming generation. Of course at some point, it is expected that one should retire and leave the political stage for the younger ones. If there is no generational change in politics, how could the younger generation grow and prepare themselves for the imminent task of taking over power at some point?

It is in the spirit of generational change that it is necessary to enact a law banning all former governors from contesting for the senate so as to give the younger ones a chance. The almost unending U-turn of our governors to the senate (The GovSen group) after completing their 2 terms of 8 years in office is giving politics in this country a bad name. This scenario is making politics in the country look like a commercial enterprises rather than a means to serve. Otherwise, how could one explain a situation whereby a former governor who is unarguably the ‘Oga’ of the 3 senators representing his state and who summons these 3 senators to ‘come and see him’ in his house at will, now stoop so low to contest and go to the senate where he has to raise his hands before he is allowed to speak? Often times he is not even given the chance to speak. Apart from the commercial angle to it, it is also alleged that the former governors also run to the senate after their tenures so as to enjoy immunity and escape the long hands of the EFCC. That is not going according to plan as Governor/Senators (GovSen) such as Senators Akpabio have lately ended up in the hands of the EFCC to answer charges of corruption.

Nigerians are desperately yearning for generational change and are absolutely tired of hearing same names every day. Everyday, on the political landscape, it either, Ibrahim Babangida OR Olusegun Obasanjo, Abdulsalami Abubakar OR Atiku Abubakar, Tony Anenih OR Audu Ogbeh, David Mark OR Bola Tinubu, Tanko Yakasai OR Godswill Akpabio etc etc. The question is ‘When will there be generational change in Nigeria? What Nigerians want now is a new set of young, dynamic and vibrant set of leaders between 35 – 50 years old who will take over from President Muhammadu Buhari and sustain his legacy to build a new Nigeria that all of us will be proud of. Nigerian are looking forward to having a 45 – 50 year old young Nigerian being President after President Muhammadu Buhari in 2023. As it stands out, Nigerians have placed all their hopes on our respected President Muhammadu Buhari to lay the foundation towards generational change in Nigeria by co-opting youths into his government as ministers and heads of government parastatals to prepare them for higher offices.

Today (20/10/2015), Canada has just had its new prime minister in the person of Justin Pierre Elliot Trudeau whose party, the Liberal party has just won the general election. Pierre Elliott was a toddler in 1973 when Gen Yakubu Gowon, the then head of state of Nigeria visited Canada during which he shook hands with the little Justin who was the son of the then Canadian Prime Minister, Pierre Elliott. That is generational change! But why is it that in Nigeria, we prefer to recycle our leaders instead of giving the younger generation the chance to grow in politics? The main reason why Nigeria is sensitive to generational change is that we still do not have a political system that works for the majority. The political system we operate today works only for the minority who use it to enrich themselves and manipulate it to ensure that they hang on to power until their death after which their children will take over. It is for this reason that political participation today has been deliberately made so expensive that you need to be a millionaire before you can contest for even a councillors seat. The youths are powerless because they don’t have the financial wherewithal to contest and win election. Take for instance; the cost of just a nomination form for the senate for the parties is about N4 million and N2.5 million for House of representatives. How could a youth afford such an amount when the average monthly salary for a youth who graduated from the University is about N50,000?

To help promote generational change, the high cost of nomination forms, campaigns and elections must be drastically reduced. The political parties must set the cost of their nomination forms from councillors to the President at affordable rates to less than N100,000.00 (One hundred thousand Naira Only). INEC must also satisfy its constitutional responsibility of funding the parties so as to arrest the current trend whereby the parties are hijacked by the money bags who sponsor candidates and later ask for political favours. Also, the youths in Nigeria must take the bull by the horns and get into politics. The youths should not allow themselves to be hampered by lack of funds and be psychologically downcast about political participation. To go into politics, what one needs are ideas and courage not cash. However, one cannot just have ideas and keep them to himself or herself but he/she must participate by first aligning with a political party and also contesting for political office if he/she is confident that they have something to offer.

For our dear country to achieve generational change in politics, there is the need to reform our political system to suit our ground peculiarities. As it is today, the constitution and the political system are generally tilted for the rich and the few against the poor and the majority. Nigeria needs a new constitution which will inculcate the required fundamental changes that are necessary to ensure a fair distribution of resources. We need to drastically reduce the size of government and invest the savings from this reduction into the communities to alleviate poverty and build infrastructure. We need social security in the constitution to give life to every Nigeria whether he/she is able to find a job or not and whether he/she can afford to work or not. It just doesn’t make sense for Nigeria to spend 90% of its national budget on recurrent expenditure and a paltry 10% on capital projects. What then is the essence of government when all that is done in government is to pay the salaries and allowances of government officials and their families? It just doesn’t make sense when the government spends more than N1 Billion annually to maintain a senator and a representative while leaving his constituents to sleep with empty stomach? There is the urgent need to change the appropriation formula of the national budget to 70% capital expenditure and 30% recurrent expenditure to free funds to fight poverty and build infrastructure. Each state has a governor, 3 senators, about 15-20 members of the house of representatives, more than 30 members of state house of assembly, more than 30 commissioners, more than 500 special advisers (Some states have more than 1000 special advisers to the governor), more than 30 local government chairmen depending on the number of local governments, thousand of councillors, millions of hobnobbers and political hangers-on, 36 ministers, their families and domestic staff, each minister has his own special advisers, etc etc etc. With this size of government, where will Nigeria get the funds to deliver the dividends of democracy to the people?. The size of government is simply too big for our country. What Nigeria needs today is a UNICAMERAL legislature with only 2 representatives per state. A minister must win an election in his/her state before qualifying to be a minister of the federal republic. All these changes should be included in the new constitution which will herald a new political system for Nigeria known as AFROCRACY because the current Presidential system Nigeria operates is too expensive for us.

Fair distribution of resources is sine qua non to a prosperous, just and egalitarian society. For there to be generational change in Nigeria, there is the need to empower the youths with jobs and education. Nigeria today has one of the largest collections of politically active and vibrant youths in the world who are systematically sidelined in politics. Just look at the role played by the youths in bringing about CHANGE to Nigeria on 28^th March 2015. For Nigeria to move from its current precarious state of alarming poverty amongst majority of its citizens, decaying infrastructure, lopsided development with the rural areas completely neglected, our dear country needs to embrace generational change to pave the way for a new, young, fresh, vibrant and patriotic crop of leaders who will apply new ideas to ensure in a fair distribution of Nigeria’s enormous resources and manage these resources for the benefit of all not just a select few.