2023: Speaker Gbajabiamila Says Youths Will Determine Who Wins

The Speaker of Nigeria’s House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila has urged youths to make the wise choice in choosing their candidates as the future of the country depends on it. He said young persons will determine who wins at every level.

Gbajabiamila spoke on the heels of the upsurge in the participation of young persons in the electoral process ahead of the make-or-mar 2023 elections.

The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC recently disclosed that out of the over 12 million newly registered voters close to nine million were young persons.

There has also been an up tip in the participation of young persons in the campaign of candidates of their choice, both on social media and other platforms, watchers of the political process say.

Speaking Gbajabiamila said whatever choice the youths make this time around will determine whether the country will move forward or not.

The Speaker who spoke virtually to participants at a Youth and Social Development Summit, organised by the Gbaja Professionals Volunteers Network, GPVN in Abuja to mark the 2022 edition of the United Nations International Youth Day, said Nigeria’s future “will depend greatly on the choices young people make in the lead-up to that election and at the polling booth.”

According to him, “It is unfortunate that the political conversations about the forthcoming elections have become dominated by the loud voices of division and derision for whom politics is a contact sport designed to inflict the greatest harm on the individuals and the body politic.

“These voices have elevated fake news over facts and the politics of grievance and victimhood over studied consideration of the policy questions and answers that will determine the fate of the young people who make up the majority of our population.

“You must resist this. It is time for the voices of reason and compromise, whose manifest desire is to be part of the solution, to seize the debate, and make their voices heard.

“This summit is part of that effort to refocus the public debate on matters of substance and consequence, and I am honoured to be associated with it”.