This boils down to the fact that a lot of youths who will be able to make it to the corridors of power will either be the children of those in power now or the generations of those who made their wealth through dubious and heinous means, leaving the children of the poor masses with good intentions to continue to peep, struggling in futility to get to power and effect genuine leadership that will change the lots of their kindred for good. How can someone who graduated at 25 or 29 even 20 be able to vie for election? Will he be able to vie for any election without being supported by a family member, if any, or sponsored by a money bag who only wants to use him to build his personal estate or establish his business interest firmly? This explains why there is a lot of underhand dealings between some powerful elements in the private sector and those who hold sway in government. How many years will a graduate work to amass the kind of financial resources needed to prosecute election to success in the present Nigerian political space?
Why won’t the chief executive of a state control or use members of the parliament as rubber stamp when he was the one that footed the bills of their campaigns? Why won’t parliamentarians become subservient and a puppet in the hands of an “Almighty” governor or president, especially one that also knows how to bribe his way with lawmakers that are always ready and available for compromise because his mission is to take his own share of the “national cake”? With this illustration above, before a graduate would be able to gather the needed fund to contest election, the age limit prescribed by the not-too-young-to-run bill will have eluded him. In the Nigerian political system today, we have suppression and oppression by those who already occupy one political office or the other. Their style, as I am aware, particularly in the South-West, is that the serving political office holders, either elected or appointed, would use their positions and powers to oppress and destroy a potential opponent no matter how knowledgeable and promising he might be. No one escapes this evil Machiavellian practice even when you are both members of the same political party. It is worse when you belong to a different political party.
At the party level in the grass roots, it is very difficult for a poor person no matter how good and trustworthy he is adjudged to be even by those whom he wants to serve to pick a party’s ticket (nomination), unless he is sponsored by a money bag. Apart from the senseless humongous fees aspirants will have to pay at the party level in the name of expression of interest and nomination form by Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), those who wish to contest are customarily forced, most times against their will, to pass through some rituals of buying biscuits and soft drinks for party members at meetings, buying bags of rice for distribution at festivals, buying cloth for party leaders, exco and party members, with all kinds of inducements.
When a party leader, an exco member or a notable party member or a popular community leader is having a ceremony, you must play a role as a “good aspirant” so that you are assured of the votes from that community. This is the basis of our political participation. Everybody is induced to get their support. It is an aspirant who can subject himself to these rituals and play along that will emerge a party candidate. He is the right candidate. Right now in my community, the leaders there have perfected plans to bring a popular governorship aspirant in the state to come and fix a road in the area, a condition to make them support his governorship aspiration in the 2019 polls. Since 2005 at 33, I have been aspiring to contest election in my local government so I can truthfully serve our people. Till date, I have not been able to secure a party’s nomination as a candidate. I am still gasping for breath. It is not that I am not qualified as a person or popular among my people who are not party card-carrying members but for reasons highlighted above.
Members of your community are denied the right to act on their preference for your candidature when your party has denied you a ticket and offered it to those who can meet its unholy demands. The shameless leaders will even say it in public and at their meetings that “if you don’t have a deep pocket, you have no business aspiring for office.” I recently shared on Facebook a video of such statement by an elder statesman who was once a minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. With the scenario and experience narrated and shared above, how will the new signed Not-Too-Young to-Rule Bill affect eny real change in our political landscape? How will the bill put a stop to oppressive gerontocracy and recycling of old leaders, their children, lackeys and cronies?
• Bello, a journalist and author, is based in Ibadan.
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