By Victoria Ojeme

Participants at a virtual youth summit organised by the Nigerian Diaspora Organisation Americas (NIDOA) and the Nigeria Diaspora Network (NDN) have called on the eligible young voters to desist from vote buying.

Some of the panelists, who spoke at the 2nd edition of the zoom meeting Saturday night, said that the act had done more evil than good in the country’s political system.

Ms Kemi Roland, the chief executive officer of IIIimite Access, described the issue of vote buying as “an hydra-headed problem and a vicious circle.”

According to her, it is the citizens themselves that can decide to liberate themselves, by saying enough is enough.

“Many of the politicians spend money, give voters money to get into office.

“And of course, anybody spending money to get into office, sees it as an investment that must be recouped.

“Therefore, every single time voters collect money from a politician, it means they are mortgaging their future.

According to her, the voters are simply saying that you (politicians) can go away with our roads, you can pocket it; you can go away with our healthcare, you can pocket it, etc.

Roland, who ccntested for an House Assembly seat on the platform of All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2019 in Kogi but lost at the primaries, said voters need to be continuously educated on the need to refrain from vote buying.

“Unfortunately, citizens in Nigeria has been dehumanised so badly for so many years that it is going to take a lot of time to get this done.

“But I believe it can be done and until that is done, we may never see any difference in our political landscape.

“So we need to continue to educate voters that they are the ones that can break this vicious cycle,” she said.

Comrade Abdulrahman Bapullo, Chairman, Nigerian Youth Congress, Adamwa, frowned at the increasing rate of vote buying in the country’s electioneering process.

Bapullo also expressed concern about the negative effect of money politics in Nigerian democracy.

He said he was a victim of money politics and godfatherism when he vied for a seat in the Adamawa State House of Assembly election in 2019 but could not get the ticket.

He said to fight against money politics, people with good intention about Nigeria must be ready to get involved in the political process.

“And you cannot get in the political process without having the platform which is the political parties.

“But our problem in Nigeria today is the party system; internal democracy is one of our major problems that is stopping the country from providing the best of leaders that will take the country forward.

“If people that know how to make policies, people that are intelligent, people that have solutions, if they can join the party system, especially young people, it will be a welcomed development,” he said.

According to him, we have a lot of young people that are very intelligent, who have very practical solution, but the election is going to be very difficult for them because there is money politics and godfatherism in the system.

He said the moneybags would always try to frustrate people with good intention from getting into power for their selfish interest.

“The fundamental problem we are having in Nigeria today is the party system where someone that has not even gone to a secondary school is the one that will choose a leader for you. What does he know about development?

“So we need people that are deserving, people that are not sycophant to join the party system because that is where the decision of choosing those leaders are.

“We need people; people in the Diaspora that desire for change. If they can come back to the country.

“Those are the people we need in the system and that is the only way we can remove money politics in the system.

“if not, people that have money will continue to rule this country, even if they don’t have anything to offer,” Bapullo said.

A legal practitioner, Mrs Kesi Seun-Adedamola, however, called on the youths to be active in politics for better development.

“We’ve got to take it, it’s not going to come to us easy. Have you seen any one that wants to give up power? The youths have to say it is our turn.

“And we need to talk less and do more; we have to demand for what we want, not just interacting on twitter,” she said.

On his part, Dr Nelson Aluya, Chairman, Nigerian American Public Affairs Committee, USA (NAPAC USA), said it was time Nigerian youths begin to talk together to carve a new future for the country.

Aluya, who said leadership is paramount in every politics, stated that leadership does not only referred to the man at the helm of affairs alone.

“As long as you make decisions that affect other people’s lives, you are a leader.

“So, we must begin to look at Nigeria in that respect; everybody has a role to play

“We must connect these individual leaders and pull resources together so that we can move forward and have a definite objective, achievable goal for our future,” he said.

Aluya, who is s also the Immediate-past president of New Jersey Medical Association (NJMA), said Nigerian youths need to connect with one another because power is most effective when concentrated.

According to him, your vote obviously is your strength.

“And the votes that you come together to cast will determine eventually who leads you.

“You and I have to get it done,” he said.

Aluya, a medical doctor with specialisation in pediatrics and internal medicine, said every politics is local.

“How many of us know who the mayors or counsellors are? We must begin to know the basics,” he said.

According to him, if you must change power, you have to get close to power

“And how do we begin to do that? By getting involve in the process,” he added.

“Even as we come together to learn to cast our votes, we should begin to build our structure, identify those young ones right now who are untainted, who are not corrupted yet into sponsoring them even to higher levels, to a point where they can begin to run for House of Reps, they begin to run for governorship poll, and hopefully in the future, run for senate and even the president.

“To begin to be influential at local level and global space, we must begin to resolve the issues that concern us,” he said.

Aluya said to ensure success, two prongs need to be activated.

“Number one is internal reconciliation and strategy formation which means we must come together, resolve our issues because of our differences

“And we do that by hearing one another talk, understanding where we have gone wrong with one another so that we begin to hear each other speak and learn from one another

“As we do that and reconcile our differences, then we begin to form a strategy for future, a path for future, a formulation for future that will be a success for each and everyone of us,” he said.

According to Aluya, the other prong is external association and affiliation.

“How do you do that? As a people, when you come together with a common mandate, you must begin to look for people who are on the outside of your circuit; outside of circuit of who have same ideology with you, who can be on the same platform as you work, and who understand that your success is also mean their success,

“You begin to identify each and everyone of them and begin to form affiliations with those organisations.

“The association you must form is association with individuals who don’t give a damn about you, who don’t care about you but have the tools that you need to do what you need to do. You must begin to reconcile with them and form association with them.

“And you may begin to make them see reason why the resources that you have are potentially beneficial to them as well

“And that is how we must begin to look at a broader picture both within home and abroad so that we can become relevant in the global space,” he said.

The Chairman, NIDOA/NDN Planning Committee, Mr Sam Atolaiye, said the essence of the summit was to bring all Nigerian youth together, motivate them, get them involved and give them a sense of direction to drive transformational impact and positive change in the country.

“Let us ensure we vote right. Let us ask politicians questions on how they want to change things for better and how these will be done.

“Let us vote based on their ( the politicians’) credibility and not on the amount of money they have,” he said.

While NIDOA’s mission is to promote the spirit of patriotism, networking and cooperation among Nigerians in Diaspora, for their individual and collective success in the countries they reside, NDN is an organisation for volunteer professionals of like mind working with accomplished patriotic Nigerian professionals striving for the development of the country.