From a former minister of Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Oloye Jumoke Akinjide came an advise to youth members of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, to go register and collect their permanent voters’ cards.
Akinjide, who spoke on the theme- Involvement of youth in Nigeria politics- 2019 in focus, at the Oyo State PDP Youth Summit 2018, said she was glad thhat the youth members of the party “already tilting toward the paradigm shift of a social and political re-engineering of the system.”
Represented by his media aide, Alhaji Isiaka Kehinde, Akinjide appreciated the youths for coming to the event with their PVCS, urging them to “go to your local government and wards to mobilise more people to collect their own and as a matter of duty, keep your leaders regularly informed of the progress.”
Urging the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to take reasonable steps to make democracy work in Nigeria, she explained that “one of the surest ways to go about this is by disinfecting the system from its moral virus, e.g disallowing under-age voters or by stopping aliens from neighbouring countries from getting PVC which in most places, are not even accesible to eligible Nigerian voters.”
She went further: “When the youth are involved in politics, they are just on the right tract to progress. A glorious path only those who have history in our land once threaded in their salad days. It is on record today that the “revolutionary army” that made our country’s independence possible are made up of well focused and goal-directed youths. They left an impregnable imprints on the sands of time and did well in the politics of their time.
“It goes without saying that those youth who are today political cannon folder and tools of electoral manipulations and poll rigging or who actively or by default willingly offer their “dirty hands’ as e-vermin to spread virus of misinformation and propaganda on social media just for a token fee never pause to askk that salient question of “why am I in politics”. Politics is an art and science that must be learnt before one can make a success of it,” she added.
Speaking earlier, the state youth leader of the party, Asiwaju Adekola Adeoye, said he was happy that the summit was coming at an important time, adding that ‘I see it as a challenge and point of duty that it is the youths that can rewrite the wrongs of this unpopular and unfriendly government that is noot ready to accede to the pllights of the masses despite the hues and cries of the people.”
Saying that youths are the agents of the expected transition from APC to PDP government, he said: “Although PDP ruled initially but we have learnt from the mistakes of the past such that we will adjust all loose ends so that you and I will not be losers.
Other speakers at the event were Senators Femi Lanlehin, Gbenga Babola, Hon. Mulikat Akande-Adeola, Oloye Sharafadeen Alli, Dr. Nureni Adisa, Barr. Jide Olanipekun, PDP national and South West youth leaders Rt Hon Udeh Okoye and Aremo Femi Adetola.
