Kwara Young Voters Alliance: Our Objectives
20/03/2018
By Sekinat Abdulsalam
Less than two weeks ago, specifically on the 9th March, 2018, we sent out a Press Release announcing the formation of a new alliance for young voters in Kwara. Since the publication of the release, we have received an encouraging response from key stakeholders, including an invitation by an officer of the Department of State Security (DSS) in charge of Political Parties and INEC. He, like many others who got in touch, wanted to know more about KYVA. It therefore becomes imperative to shed more lights on our objectives as a group.
While a lot of election time groups are springing up in every nook and crannies of the State, KYVA is not interested in being just another ‘me and friends’ political youth group. We do not believe in the slogan of ‘the more the merrier’. We do not even believe that the number of youth groups on display will determine the place of youths in the politics of Kwara. We believe in ideals and values, rather than a sheer number. We believe that when youths of different political orientation and backgrounds come together as an entity, they stand a greater chance of being accorded attention than when a large number of
small but largely ineffective groups permeate the political field.
While we are aware that many ad hoc youth groups exist out there, KYVA is a non-partisan youth alliance that is majorly interested in bringing young people together in the pursuit of a shared objective. We are not a critic of government, neither are we a promoter of opposition interests. Our objective is focused on sensitizing and encouraging young people to vote and to use their votes as a collective bargaining power.
The current Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, once told a young Journalist that when, on a final day of a general election, he had to choose between visiting a students’ hall of residence or an old people’s home; he chose the latter. The reason for the Mayor’s choice is obvious: it was in the old people’s home that he could possibly meet actual voters, people who drop whatever they are doing on election day and actually go out to vote. Like in most other places, when it comes to civic duties and politics, particularly voting, young people are most often at the tail end of the queue. This is the situation KYVA is working to change.
Again, while young people like to beat their chests about being social media influencers and online warriors, politicians have learnt to discountenance social media noise. They know most young people who make the loudest noise on social media end their activeness on Facebook or Twitter, they hardly join the queues on election day to vote. They know that what most young people do on ordinary days (rant on social media) is what they will possibly devote time to on election day.
In Kwara specifically, the norm, as far back as 1999, is that when those aged 60 and above trooped out to vote and be counted, the 18 – 24, or if you may the under 30s, simply stayed in and used the day to visit boyfriends/girlfriends or engaged in other forms of holiday activities. This explains why the late Kwara political strongman, Dr. Abubakar Olusola Saraki, engaged more with old people during elections and campaigns. And this may endured unless something innovative or radical happens in the coming years to change the culture of youth political apathy, especially in relation to voting during elections.
Although it is true that youth participation and political awareness is on the increase everywhere, not just in Kwara, the majority of young people who are of voting age, particular the under 24 down to 18, have allowed the minority older youths (30-35) to clog the space with their partisan and money-induced participation. We need young people who are driven by a desire to push for the protection of youth interests, rather than a quest for immediate financial gains. This is what KYVA sets out to do.
While politicians in the present dispensation would sweat away explaining issues relating to pension and cash transfer for old people, they spend less time talking about reduction in student fees, teenage pregnancy, school transportation and other issues that are of concern to young people. Even N-Power or other youth-focused policy of the government is influenced more by the need to nib in the bud the potential consequence of mass youth unemployment rather than any felt need to respond to the specific needs of young voters. Today, the older electorate has become a more powerful voting lobby that most politicians can’t ignore even if they want to. It is time young people build an electoral value that makes decision makers give them what they actually need rather than what the politicians think they want. We must end the embarrassing situation of being treated as recipients of favors and generosity of the benevolent politicians. We must become ‘unignorable’ by registering to vote in force, if possible in bulk, for politicians who fully subscribe to the promotion and protection of youth interests. This is the objective which Kwara Young Voters Alliance is committed to.
KYVA acknowledges the many obvious reasons responsible for the lack of interest in voting by young people. Most young people believe their votes don’t count. They believe whether or not they vote, the ‘bad politician’ who is accustomed to beating the system will emerge winner anyway. Young voters are put off by politicians who make public posturing of consulting electorate, but who in reality are more concern with perfecting their rigging plans which obstruct the choices made by voters. While all these are valid and justifiable reasons and concerns, refusing to vote at all would no doubt amount to a thoughtless protest by young voters. One of the objectives of KYVA is a strong commitment to ending youth voters’ apathy in Kwara State.
As young voters, whether we like it or not, the emerging reality is that most old people who find themselves in government believe they have much more important issues to bother their heads with than focus on youth concerns. Often, what is important to us as young people is not even among the top priorities of the old people in government. No 50
year old man or woman will possibly dedicate his energy to promoting the implementation of education maintenance allowance, or student loan or free student transportation. Which politician would promote issues that concern a largely politically apathetic demography? Even in rare occasions when the political class do manage to focus on youth issues, they do so as a form of favor for which they expect our gratitude. This explains while the more older people are invited to the top decision making table, the young get dumped at the base. Our excessively gerontocracy government cannot change in composition until the young also take active interest in politics and specifically voting.
Young people can reverse the circle of old people deciding our future without our inputs. We’ll do this by getting more involved and participating more actively. We’ll register to vote and mobilize our peers to do same. We’ll use our votes to collectively advance our shared interests as young people. This is the work to which KYVA will commit its energy in the weeks and months to come.
While carrying out our self-imposed assignment, we acknowledge the right of every young person to vote in any way he deems fit. A voter’s thumb is his personal ticket to use as he pleases. This we know. However, any young person whose isolated single vote would not make any impact in advancing the issues that matter to him as individual and other young people as a group; if his one vote would not increase the chances that the voice and demands of his generation will be accorded significant attention by decision makers; then it makes
better sense for such young voter to combine his votes with those of other young people of his age, think together about the political choices available and jointly take a voting decision that will advance our generational objectives.
While voting with your heart can oftentimes lead you to make emotionally-induced voting decision, Kwara Young Voters Alliance is inviting young voters to join us in voting with our heads so that we can as young people ‘think together and vote together’. It is time to play the same politics of self-interest played over the years by our elders. After all, politics is essentially about self interest. It is time we ask less of ‘what is in it for me’ and ask more of ‘what is in it for us’.
Now, what are the benefits of joining the Kwara Young Voters Alliance? One, if as young voters we come together and turn out in large numbers as actual voters, then we become a powerful block that must be listened to. The more votes we command, the more seriousness the politicians will give issues concerning us or any agenda we promote. And while we may not achieve this desire immediately, while we may be ignored for sometime; we will eventually be accorded recognition and attention once we are consistent and committed to our ideals.
Results of election after election indicate that voter turnout has fallen, not only in Kwara but elsewhere in Nigeria. Now, as young people, if we allow this situation to persist by playing computer games or gossiping with friends when we should be in polling booths on election day, voting and mobilizing our peers to do same in support of candidates and parties that support our interests; then we risk forfeiting a chance to decide those things that influence the extent of progress we can make in life as young people. Once we don’t vote and vote wisely by connecting our thumbs with our brains, rather than our stomachs, politicians will continue to capitalize on our lack of interest and cohesion. They (the politicians) will keep winning over a small voting minority of the electorate who will deliver victory to them, even without our participation or involvement. However, our involvement will make a whole lot of difference. It will put an unquantifiable and non-monetary value on us and end the season of being taken for granted by politicians. It’s time to be more disloyal to party and individuals and be more loyal to our shared interests as young people.
* *Abdulsalam is the Publicity Secretary of Kwara Young Voters Alliance (KYVA).*
youthvotersalliance@gmail.com
