The Vice Chancellor of the University of Abuja, Professor Abdul-Rasheed Na’Allah, has disclosed the university’s plans to deepen the political participation of young Nigerians in the next year’s elections.
Na’Allah spoke in Abuja recently at the 2023 election town hall organised by the Abuja Leadership Centre which is a TETFund Centre of Excellence in Public Governance and Leadership domiciled in the university.
The VC, who said the institution would provide the youth with the necessary leadership training and other capacity required to boost their confidence, noted that the University is living up to expectations by leveraging on its strategic location in the nation’s capital to contribute to the development of Nigeria.
He challenged the Nigerian youths to actively participate in the processes that would culminate in the emergence of a new set of political leaders in next year’s elections.
“This Centre of Excellence on Public Governance and Leadership has provided the opportunity to help develop leadership fortune for this nation. We are now committed totally as a university to support and change the leadership fortune of this nation,” Na’Allah said.
Also speaking, the former military governor of Kwara and Kano states, Air Vice Marshal Mohammed Umar (retd), called on Nigerians to choose good leaders in the 2023 general elections, stressing that the country needs to overcome its crisis of leadership recruitment before the expected growth and development can come.
On his part, the former INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner for Akwa Ibom State, Mr. Mike Igini, said there would be a major paradigm shift in the 2023 polls, stating that voters now have the ultimate power to determine winners of elections.
He said: “INEC has designed a system that has brought power to the people, that is why many politicians are now afraid. With the introduction of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS), rigging and other forms of voting manipulations by politicians have been curtailed by the device. It’s important that the youths seize the opportunity to vote out bad leaders.
“Polling unit, ward and local government collation centres are now mere ceremonial collation centres as results entered into the BVAS are automatically loaded into the cloud system. The amended electoral Act prescribes severe punishment, a prison term of not less than one year or N10 million fine for electoral officials that attempted to change election results.”
Earlier, the Director of Centre of Excellence, Professor Philip Afaha, in his address, disclosed that the town hall meeting was targeted at young people in order to boost their participation in the next year’s elections and subsequent electoral processes in the country.
Efaha, however, registered his concerns that the political activeness of the youths in social media has not translated to real political involvement, stressing the need for young Nigerians to transform the same passion into reality.
