A professor of political economy, Pat Utomi has said that the Nigerian youths will be responsible for winning the 2023 election for Labour Party (LP).
Utomi, while fielding questions during an interview on Channels TV, opined that the youths will use the election to change how Nigerian politicians govern the country.
News360 info reports that the presidential candidate of the LP has become quite popular amongst the youths, thereby increasing his chances at the 2023 polls.
However, some political analysts have stated that the former Anambra Governor’s popularity amongst the youths does not equate his victory at the polls as they claim that the LP lacks structure.
Sharing his opinion on the political atmosphere in the country, Utomi insisted that the recent elections in Africa shows that politicians who are popular on social media can actually win elections.
The LP chieftain argued that young Nigerians, are tired of how politicians are governing them, stressing that the youths will prove a point in the 2023 elections.
He said, “Look at what is happening in Africa in the recent elections — Malawi, Zambia, Kenya and Botswana — all of the people that were ridiculed as internet champions won.
Africans are fed up with the government that does not work.
Politicians display this obsessive self-love and they do trading off in transactions for their self-interest, forgetting the people. This is what has kept Nigeria below par.
The youths of Africa are saying this cannot continue. They proved it in Kenya, Malawi and they are going to prove it in Nigeria.”
When he was asked the stretegy the LP plans to wield in defeating the other top political parties, the professor said that Nigerian youths who make up most of the country’s population are now ready to rescue the country.
He explained that in past elections, people often did not come out to cast their vote and this led to rigging.
Utomi argued that this will no longer be the case as youths are fed up with the situation in the country and are eager for a change.
We have a strategy that is so clear. You know, elections in Nigeria have been producing low turnouts yearly even though the population is growing. Why is that so?
“Traditionally, most of those votes (referring to previous elections) came from rigging. Electoral law has made it more difficult to do those things.
Young people, who typically say, ‘let them do what they want to do, have said enough is enough, we cannot japa, we have to stay here and save our country’.
And these young people constitute a huge part of the population. The strategy is to make those young people not just voters but protectors of the votes,” he added.
