Pat Utomi, professor of political economy, says Nigerian youths will use the 2023 elections to change how politicians govern the country.
Utomi spoke on Tuesday during an interview on Channels Television.
Ahead of the 2023 elections, Peter Obi, presidential candidate of the Labour Party, has been tipped in some quarters as the likely winner of the next year’s polls owing to his growing popularity among Nigerian youths.
However, some political analysts have argued that the former Anambra governor does not have the required political structures to win the presidential election.
Speaking on the chances of LP, Utomi, a chieftain of the party, said the recent elections in Africa show that politicians who are popular on social media can actually win elections.
The professor added that Africans, including young Nigerians, are tired of how politicians are governing them, stressing that the youths will prove a point in the 2023 elections.
“Look at what is happening in Africa in the recent elections — Malawi, Zambia, Kenya and Botswana — all of the people that were ridiculed as internet champions won,” he said.
“Africans are fed up with the government that does not work.
“Politicians display this obsessive self-love and they do trading off in transactions for their self-interest, forgetting the people. This is what has kept Nigeria below par.
“The youths of Africa are saying this cannot continue. They proved it in Kenya, Malawi and they are going to prove it in Nigeria.”
Asked what strategy LP plans to engage in to defeat the traditional political parties, Utomi said Nigerian youths, who constitute the huge population of the country, are now willing to rescue their country.
“We have a strategy that is so clear. You know, elections in Nigeria have been producing low turnouts yearly even though the population is growing. Why is that so?
“Traditionally, most of those votes (referring to previous elections) came from rigging. Electoral law has made it more difficult to do those things.
“Young people, who typically say, ‘let them do what they want to do, have said enough is enough, we cannot japa, we have to stay here and save our country’.
“And these young people constitute a huge part of the population. The strategy is to make those young people not just voters but protectors of the votes.”
