Nigerian youth demonstrate support for Labour Party candidate Peter Obi. Image Source: Wikimedia Commons
The 2023 Nigerian general elections have come and gone. Despite the irregularities that marred the elections, with several international organizations like the European Union in Nigeria falling short of referring to the 2023 election as a complete sham, there are a few positives that can be gotten from the exercise, more so as it concerns the impact of the next generation of leaders who are the youths.
For the first time, the Nigerian state witnessed the active participation of its youth population in the electoral process. Seeking to do away with the plague that had been associated with the two dominant political parties, which are the All Progressives Congress and the Peoples Democratic Party, this young demographic sought relief with the Labour Party, whose candidate Mr Peter Obi offered a fresh breath to the conventional transactional politics which had remained an albatross on elections in Nigeria.
As a historical precedent, their support of the Labour Party has seen them clinch 8 (seven) Senatorial seats and 34 (thirty-four) House of Representatives seats at the federal level, 1 (One) state Governor and 68 (Sixty-Eight) State Assembly members across the country. While the icing on the cake, which remains the presidential seat, is currently being challenged at the electoral tribunal, several other positions at the level of the states are also being challenged at the courts. They could add to the growing number of the Labour Party.
This is remarkably significant as this party achieved such a feat in 8 months, going up against entrenched and long-standing parties in the electoral space. But through the sheer doggedness of its party stalwarts, its presidential and vice presidential candidates and the teeming youth, the Nigerian middle class and all lovers of good governance have become fondly known as the obedient movement. The Labour Party has become the real third force in the electoral equation.
Peter Obi and Pat Utomi at the 2022 Labour Party Presidential primaries in Asaba
Image Source: Wikimedia Commons
This is significant as many on the opposing side had given the party and its supporters little or no chance of making any significant impact. Despite the pessimistic outlook, those who know where the shoe of bad governance pinches remained undaunted and took their destinies into their own hands. Every criticism was used as a stepping stone to leap over obstacles, and every challenge was seen as a stone to break down the corrupt walls that had impeded the country’s progress for years.
Today, long-serving politicians not with the Labour Party are rethinking the way they had squandered the opportunities presented to them to serve, seeing as many of them lost their seats to the wave of change. At the same time, those within the party are conscious of the mandate given to them by the people and are eager to do right by those who voted them in. Today, accountability, good governance, competence and capacity are slowly becoming politicians’ lingua franca. A once dormant nation is gradually waking as its young population continues to challenge
it and decide the course its future must take.
While the pessimists might still be unconvinced that this is just a flash-in-the-pan moment, they cannot deny that, indeed, there is a resurging force ready to challenge the status quo and rewrite the future of this sleeping giant.
The next generation has tasted the blood desire for good governance and must be sated.
Okechukwu Nzeribe works with the Onitsha Chamber of Commerce, in Anambra State, Nigeria, and loves unveiling the richness of African cultures.
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