Sufiyan Sahabi
ARMSTRONG ALLAHMAGANI, Bauchi –
An aspirant for the National youth leadership position of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Sufiyan Sahabi, has lamented that Nigerian politics does not favour young people and is too expensive for them to participate in.
He said this while speaking with journalists on Wednesday over the agitation of power rotation/zoning between the North and South, noting that he is a “firm believer in equity and fairness.”
Sahabi further enjoined his party to give youths a clemency to run in the forthcoming elections adding that one of the factors working against youths running for elective positions are cost of nomination forms and funding for campaigns.
“The nature of our politicking doesn’t in any stretch favour young people. The finances required to purchase nomination forms and conduct campaigns are not easy to come by. Also, self doubt is rife and a strong limitation for ambitions,” he said.
He urged the APC to consider an inclusive, pragmatic and dogged young patriots who will not spare anything to get the country going in the right direction.
He said: “They should be adept at ideation and following through implementation at the right time. I think the underrepresentation of the youths is gross.
“Nigerian youths have shown that they have the capacity to hold their own at any level in the world, hence it is necessary they are given a more prominent opportunity to contribute to policy making, project delivery and the all round growth of the nation.
“When we come together and accept that we are all on constituency understanding that we are all in the same boat and we have to sink or swim together, we would get the impetus to band together and pull together in a unified voice ready to participate wholly in our developmental journey.”
Speaking on power rotation, he said: “Even though I know rotational power arrangement is not written in the constitution, I believe if the majority agree that it should be followed, it is only fair that it is followed.
“Ideally, as a people in a country, competence should have been our focus but if there exists any feeling of marginalisation which surely does exist, then let’s respect the feeling of our fellow countrymen.”
