Alphonsus Nweze
Nigerian youths have been urged to use their enormous potentials to bring a change in thier country instead of making themselves ready tools for the destruction of the country and their future in the hands of politicians.
The Divisional Police Officer (DPO), Fegge Police Station, Onitsha, Mr. Rabiu Garba, gave this advice recently in Awka, the Anambra State capital while addressing some youth during a seminar.
“65 percent of the population of NIgeria are made up of youths, while they equally constitute larger percentage of the voting population.
“Unfortunately, they do not use this enormous population to effect a radical change in the socio-political and economic sphere of the country.” He said.
He lamented that the youth unfortunately deploy their energies and population on working for political class as thugs and hoodlums whose own children are in far away Europe and America to acquire knowledge that will make them superior to the youths here.
Garba who won the best Police Officer’s award in 2021 said that in democracy, power belongs to the people and therefore the youths should use their power to vote out bad leaders.
He said legislators were mere representatives of the people, stressing that if the youths use their power, they would flush out those legislators who are not representing the interest of the people.
“The people can recall any of the legislators who is not doing well, since their duiies were spelt out for them in the constitution.
“The same thing is applicable to the executive, the president and his vice-president, the governors and their deputies.” He added.
“The legislators wielding the power given to them by the constitution through the people should constantly checkmate the executive” he informed.
Garba said that most of the youths don’t have Voter’s card which is their power as citizens of NIgeria to effect a change in government during election.
Consequently, on the day of election, some youths who were not used as thugs resort to playing games, watching television and cables or even engaged in drinking spree.
He lamented that Nigerian youths make themselves vulnerable and challenged Nigerian youths to be entrepreneurial and class conscious.
“develop yourself and your country because the developed countries of the world did not just develop on their own but relied on individual citizens”. He advised.
“There is no classless society. There is class in every society but there should be spirit of justice, reward system, equity, good conscience.
“Tribes should not matter. We are still where we are because of religion, ethnicity, clanishness. Your religion should be a personal communication with God.” He admonished.
He said his experience in Onitsha has shown him that ethnicity and religion are not our problem but our inability to do the right things, saying if people who were killing people would tell him that they would not shed the blood of a good man, how else will anybody convince him that justice, fairness and equity should not be the basis of our existence as a people.
