The presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC) in the 2023 election Omoyele Sowore said Nigerian youths are only interested in being Personal Assistants to the President and governors.
Sowore stated this in an interview on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Tuesday.
The activist comment on the attitude of young Nigerians to politics comes after the swearing-in of 44-year-old Bassirou Diomaye Faye as the Senegalese president.
Recall that Faye was sworn in at an event attended by several African leaders in Dakar on Tuesday.
Speaking on the development, Sowore said youths in the country are only scheming to become personal assistants to governors and other leaders.
“Our young people are concerned with doing what I call tag-along. They are more interested in becoming special assistants to governors or senators.
“I have not seen that clear aspiration on the part of our young people to become leaders.”
Sowore said Nigerian youths need to become more daring in politics to be able to replicate the new dispensation in Senegal.
The activist said, “You cannot be young, mission-driven, and a visionary and go and hide your bushel under some of these old people who have no idea of how to even operate a phone.
“Youthfulness is also important in the sense that you need leaders that are alert and capable and responsive and do not have to spend half of the time in the hospital,” he said.
Recall that the former President Muhammadu Buhari signed the Not Too Young Bill, which provides for the youths to vie for the presidency and other positions.
But Sowore said the youths need to “take power” and not wait for any law to make that happen.
“You take power. Nobody should give power to you by any constitutional amendment or law,” he said.
