Don’t Get Involved In Electoral Violence, Hon Bello Charges Youths

MICHAEL AKINOLA

As the Presidential election is just days away, former House of Assembly aspirant and a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Lagos, Hon Olaide John Bello, popularly known as OJB, has charged Nigerian youths not to get involved in electoral violence or anything that will mar the process.

In a statement made available to newsmen, Hon Bello posited that the electoral body, INEC, should have made it compulsory for all concerned stakeholders and political leaders to sign peace pacts against the use of youths for violence during the 2019 general election. He pointed out that many of the security challenges Nigeria was facing were due to non-involvement of the youths in the productive sector of the economy. He observed that electoral violence had been a recurring decimal in Nigeria, saying its frequency, character and dimension were frightening, even as the 2019 general elections drew near.

According to him: “It is now obvious that all the violence linked to elections is mostly perpetrated by the youths, who are not only in the service of the politicians but are financed by them so long as they do their bidding. With their seeming lawlessness and lackadaisical attitude to the Nigerian project, the youths are the willing ready-made weapons of politicians, who think more of their parochial interests than the development of the country. The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, should have mandated all stakeholders and political leaders across the country to sign peace pacts against the use of youths to disrupt the electoral process. I believe that would go a long way in checking any planned disruption especially in states where it had been common in the past.

Hon Bello urged youths to make democracy work in the country by ensuring that thuggery, vote buying, snatching of ballot boxes, pre and post election violence were stopped. He identified lack of empowerment as the major factor hindering youths’ participation in politics, advising that self empowerment was the only way to contribute meaningfully to the society stressing that this can only be realized by not relying on certificates. He posited that self empowered youths cannot be willing tools for perpetration of violence as exemplified by the nation’s founding fathers and believed that anyone who is old enough to vote should be old enough to run for office as well.

He said that he is optimistic that the President Muhammadu Buhari led administration and the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, will conduct free, fair and credible elections that Nigerians will be proud while urging his supporters to vote for the candidates of the All Progressives Congress, APC, across board.