As the 2023 general elections is fast approaching, a political economist, Professor Pat Utomi, has said youths are tired of bad governance and will change the narrative next year.
He stated this during an interview on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Tuesday, where he rooted support for the Labour Party.
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Utomi who is also a chieftain of the LP, said contrary to some believes that politicians who are popular on social media can’t pull the needed votes on election day, they can actually coast to victory.
Prof Pat Utomi speaks during an interview on Channels Television’s Politics Today.
He based his argument on recent elections conducted in Africa, citing how people ridiculed as internet champions won elections in Malawi, Zambia, Kenya and Botswana.
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Utomi noted:
Look at what is happening in Africa in the recent elections — Malawi, Zambia, Kenya and Botswana – all of the people that were ridiculed as internet champions won,
Africans are fed up with the government that does not work. Politicians display this obsessive self-love and they do trade off in transactions for their self-interest, forgetting the people. This is what has kept Nigeria below par.
The youths of Africa are saying this cannot continue. They proved it in Kenya, Malawi and they are going to prove it in Nigeria.
On the strategy deployed by his party to defeat the main political parties, Utomi said Nigerian youths are now willing to rescue their country.
According to the political economist, Nigerian youths constitute the huge population of Africa’s most populous country.
He added:
We have a strategy that is so clear. You know, elections in Nigeria have been producing low turnouts yearly even though the population is growing. Why is that so?
Traditionally, most of those votes (referring to previous elections) came from rigging. Electoral law has made it more difficult to do those things.
Young people, who typically say, ‘let them do what they want to do, have said enough is enough, we cannot japa, we have to stay here and save our country.’
And these young people constitute a huge part of the population. The strategy is to make those young people not just voters but protectors of the votes.
