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By Dirisu Yakubu

National Co-ordinator “Got Your Back Nigeria”, a political pressure group, Prof Chris Mustapha Nwaokobia Jnr, has said the 2023 general election will be different given the role young people would play in determining the next President of Nigeria.

Prof. Chris in a press statement on Tuesday described Gov. Yahaya Bello of Kogi state as a man capable of improving the lots of the country if given the opportunity.

The statement reads: “Our nation and young people are rising up and speaking up. Before now, the question has always been about who has the deepest pocket, who has the war chest, who has stolen the most money and who can deploy the most resources to win the high office of President? Tinubu (Bola), Atiku (Abubakar) and their foot soldiers are still visibly locked in that past.

“The question today is manifestly different. The young people are asking, why not us? Why can’t one of us be President? Why can’t we galvanize and produce a President amongst us? Who says we can’t out perform the old? What are they going to give Nigeria that they haven’t given? Why can’t they trust one of their mentees with power come 2023 or are they so poor in mentorship and mentoring that they do not have a mentee they can trust?

“The odds are different, the times have changed and the traditional political order is up for a rude awakening. The young people have chosen one of their own for the high office of President come 2023, and they are doing so across party lines, across the nation, and regardless of what Partisans think.

“The young people are saying that after 61years of trying the same tendencies at the highest level, we want to produce a President whose loyalty is to the nation and to her largest population demography, and not to a few godfathers. The young people are saying that the time for a new nation, a new Nigeria and a new deal is now, and there is no going back.

“There is a consensus that all the political parties and indeed the two major parties must settle for young candidates, and at all levels, it should be between the ages of 55 and below, and this is centred on the time tested call for a new tendency and orientation in leadership, for when you have tried a certain normative over and over without visible and viable change, sanity calls for a new deal and a new thinking.

“Any leader above 60years of age who has not mentored a young person he/she can trust with power at the centre come 2023 is a failure, and Nigeria is not ready to reward such failures anymore.

“Going forward, the vibrant young people who predominate our voter demography and dominate the population demographics are united in the call for young people to take back our country through a peaceful ballot-based revolution come 2023. It is a call for national redemption. A call for effective, efficient and effectual leadership. A call for 21st century compliant watchmen and women across the various layers and levers of leadership and across Partisan divides. It is a call for the Nigeria of our collective dreams where though tongues and tribes differ, we stand in brotherhood. Yes, only the young people of today’s Nigeria have such entrenched predilection. And together we shall berth a united and prosperous Nigeria”.

“In Governor Yahaya Bello GYB, the young dynamic governor of of Kogi state, the young people have found their own, they have found a detribalized, a broad-minded, a patriotic and a proactive leader who sees the growth, progress and development of Nigeria as his unalterable commitment.

“The urgency of now is profoundly manifest in the call of the young people to support fellow young people in the quest for national redemption.