Women and youth constitute voting force for 2023 elections ― Activist

An anti-corruption activist, founder ‘Follow The Money’ and Chief executive of the Connected Development (CODE), Hamza Lawal has called on the Nigerian youth and women blocs to effect leadership change in 2023.

He said a Nigerian leader should be one that would relate to the issues of development and ensure they are tackled head-on for the progress of the nation.

Lawal who spoke from Germany on a live television programme with Channels TV on Wednesday Morning said issues of development and education and job creation should dominate the discourse among the presidential candidates as the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) ban has been lifted on campaigns.

“Today we are still dealing with maternal mortality and newborn deaths. So what are the ideas? What are the solutions to dealing with these issues?

On education, he said: “The recent statistics are, you know, over 10 million children out of school, how are they going to ensure that children go back to school and actually stay in school?

“What are the plans on investing in infrastructure, so these will pose as issues for discussion on how they can be solved

He noted that the power of the Nigerian youth and the women as a strong force for deciding the leadership in Nigeria must be fully harnessed for the best option in national leadership as well as the sub-national levels.

According to him ” If we organize ourselves better, and maybe have the content so as we go into 2023, again, for us to be that force that every politician, every political party recommends, we must then come together.

“We must come together, to have some sort of conversation and dialogue and come up with a consensus.

“Can we look at all the candidates that are running for office? We currently know that the script is currently not working for us.

“We say we need to flip the script so that Nigeria can achieve the sustainable development goals, the 2030 development agenda, but it must have political push and 2023 provides a unique opportunity where we can provide landslide victory for whoever becomes the consensus candidate for young people in Nigeria.

He maintained that the advantage posed by the electoral bloc for the Nigerian Youth and Women must not be wasted in 2023, as it would be a decisive election on national development.

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