A former President of the Inter Party Advisory Council (IPAC) and National Secretary Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP), High Chief Peter Ojonugwa Ameh, has urged youth in Nigeria to take drastic measures against those who have held the country down since independence.
According to Ameh, the youth should take their destiny in their own hands and create for themselves an enabling environment for free, fair credible elections.
Ameh who in an “Open letter to my young citizens of Nigeria,” spoke against backdrop of the rejection of the electronic results transmission by the National Assembly, advised the youth to desist from aloofness during elections thereby allowing politicians to decide the outcome through a process “driven by fraud in order to perpetuate themselves in power.”
While reminding the youth that “nobody will voluntarily give you power”, he stated that “this is obvious from the overwhelming rejection of the clause for electronic transmission of election results by the National Assembly”.
He further noted, “it should also dawn on you now that nobody willingly creates an enabling environment for you to witness credible elections where citizens will decide the outcome in free fair and credible elections. But they are more comfortable with a process driven by fraudulent means in order to perpetuate themselves in power without your consent. Democracy without clear legitimacy is partially forceful leadership by design.
“The decision is yours to make and the future is yours to take today, yes today.
It is practically impossible to trace back to exactly when the promise to build a Nigeria that can compete developmentally and globally was made but we all can find a middle ground to agree that the promise has failed repeatedly to become reality in the lifetime of so many young people before yours.
“This time is yours and for it to turn a positive outlook from theirs then things must be done differently by taking drastic measures against those we have held this nation down since independence.
“The most sacred right we have as Nigerians is the right to vote and be voted for so to be active and effective citizens in a democratic government, we must take this responsibility very seriously, he said.
The ex IPAC president recalled that in 2019 with an active voters register of about 84 million voters, only 25 million voters decided the outcome of the presidential election, wondering what happened to the remaining 59 million voters.
