The convener of the United Action for Change, Dr Muiz Banire, SAN has admonished Nigerian youths not to be used as thugs to unleash violence during the forthcoming General elections.
Banire said this on Sunday in his weekly leadership talk, a platform where he mentors young Nigerians.
The former National Legal Adviser of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC told young people not to sell off their future by selling their votes during elections. He argued that there is a nexus between the quality of lives and votes.
He wrote, “My patriots, today’s episode or version of our discussion on good governance. Remember as usual that your vote is your life, guard and protect it jealously. We shall be discussing thuggery and violence in electoral process.
“Elections at all levels are expected to be peaceful and orderly. However, our experience as a Nation does not depict this expectation. Rather, elections are often marred by violence and thuggery, right from the nomination level to the general elections.
“To a large extent, the violence does not occur by accident but more often than not, propelled by the politicians.
“They are the people who most times engage the thugs to manipulate the process. Honestly speaking, at times the candidates are not involved but triggered by their supporters. This is part of the price of desperation by the politicians, particularly those without alternative contact addresses.
“That is, those who do nothing other than politics. Who are the people found useful in this regard, they are mostly the youths. They find them attractive because of the level of abject poverty they have subjected them to. This class because of their joblessness, immaturity and vulnerability are often exploited.
“They are paid some miserable amount of money to distrupt the process by attacking the people ferociously. They maim, injure and wound innocent voters, at times, leading to fatality. This is to deter potential voters from coming out to vote, sapping the free will of voters in the choice of candidates, falsifying results, hijack of ballot papers and materials as well as stuffing the ballot boxes with multiple thumbprinted ballot papers.
“They take advantage of compromised security agents or absence of any of the security agents at the polling booth. The interesting thing is that some of these thugs have barons that are not only known to the security men but even their communities.
“The people in the area are however unable to resist because of lack of security for them. It is either that the barons have compromised the security agents or the politicians have obtained security cover for their illegal activities for them.
” This thuggery and violence perpetrated often impacts negatively on the electoral process. For how long are we going to live with this?. I believe that if we truly seek good governance. It is a vice we need to tame .
“How do we do this?. Our journey must start with the education of these youths not to allow themselves to be used as thugs. Most of the sponsors have their children abroad . Secondly, we need to let them know that their joblessness is deliberate. They want to retain them at poverty level so as to render them continuous tools.
“Thirdly, we need to let them know that whatever amount they are being given is a fraction of their entitlements from the common wealth. Again, that their facilitating free and fair election would confer on them and their children higher quality of life. It will not be equally out of place if we draw their attention to the various religious admonition against violence.
“The second layer is for us to educate the security agents about the implications of compromising the electoral process for the politicians, as it affects them and the general public at large. They need to be proactive in terms of engaging these thugs and their sponsors.
“The Barons needs to be kept away or at barest minimum, bind over to be of good behaviour. The evil of violence is huge and and must be addressed seriously if we want a free and fair election that is capable of giving birth to good leaders. There is no waiting time for this campaign again, we need to move out quickly to deliver this sermon. Remember that your vote is your life, safeguard it” .
