Former Senate Leader Abdul Ningi has blamed the country’s underdevelopment on the youths’ support of underperforming politicians, charging them to use their numbers during elections to kick out politicians that do not perform.
“But let me say, as a practicing politician, nobody wins elections without the youths and at the same time nobody rigs elections without the youths,” Mr Ningi said.
Mr Ningi stated this in Katsina on Thursday, at a two-day North-West Zonal legislative interactive session organised by the National Assembly’s Senate Committee on Electoral Matters.
The lawmaker told the youths that whatever they allowed to happen in the country would prevail and challenged them to take responsibility accordingly.
“Youths are at the centre of whatever happens to this country, whatever we are doing to you now is to assist you find your level and realise your destiny.
“Have it at the back of your mind that it is what you allow for the society that will prevail.
“You could see what the ENDSARs protests have brought to Nigeria and others. You could see how the youths turned around the mindsets of policy makers,” Mr Ningi said.
The lawmaker urged young Nigerians to consider their role in the country’s history, saying “Young people should go back to history to find out where Nigeria was in 1960 to where and what Nigeria is today.
“What are we facing? It is important for the youths to think again.
“A lot of you have mentioned vote buying and rigging, which is actually very practical in this country,” the lawmaker said.
“Gentlemen, if you allow yourself to be played and dribbled with, then it is you and only you.
“If you didn’t choose to, there would not be bad governance in this country, because, if you decide none of us go to the Senate, the story finishes and what do you do?
“You campaign against that man, and when a legislature is in his seat, it is not him that takes himself back to the National Assembly, it is the youths,” the senator further noted.
“It is not about sharing money or distribution of rice, make no mistake.
“If I bribed you before voting for me and I’m successful, I will first make sure I recover my money.
“And it is from your constituency allowance because you allowed yourself to be bribed,” he added.
(NAN)
