By Joseph Chukwujekwu
The All Progressives Congress (APC) has mandated its youth wing zonal strategic lobby committee to lobby and mobilize people at the ward and state levels nationwide to ensure victory for the party in the forthcoming general elections in 2023.
The committee was inaugurated on July 22, 2022.
The party hierarchy had the foresight to acknowledge that its anticipated victory in the Presidential election next year would be galvanized by a movement to be fueled by vibrant youths.
The APC believes carrying the youth along is necessary because these past two years, young people have regularly shown that their voices matter: they engaged in issues of governance, convinced their peers to vote, as well as took a stand against injustice. Indeed, they are agents of social change.
APC is a party known to have brought change in Nigeria’s democratic history following its victory in the 2015 polls. It is a no brainer that the party is in the forefront of harnessing the rippling, abundant energy and skills of the youth to ensure that its presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, wins and is sworn-in as President in 2023.
There are various advantages the APC has in its ranks since President Muhammadu Buhari assented to the Not Too Young to Run Bill in May, 2018. For one, the legislation paved the way for youths to possess a pathway to achieve their political ambitions, aspirations and dreams and also give them a sense of inclusion in Nigeria’s democratic process.
It is well known that most youths are devoid of tribal or religious sentiments due to their obsession with and frequent handling of global technological tools, their exposure to and assimilation of largely Western education, manners and mores which have profoundly made them more liberal and open-minded.
To make a difference in the longer term, APC knows it is essential that young people are engaged in formal political processes and have a say in formulating today and tomorrow’s policies and politics.
The party believes inclusive political participation is not only a fundamental political and democratic right but also crucial to building stable and peaceful societies.
Furthermore, APC believes is developing policies that respond to the specific needs of younger generations for them to be adequately represented in political institutions, processes and decision-making, and in particular in elections.
