 In May 2018, the Not Too Young to Run bill was signed by President Mahmoud Buhari. It was believed that it would pave the way for Nigerian youth to foray into politics and make their impact on the country. However, the results of the 2019 election show that even if there was a positive trend in youth participation, with youth candidates increasing from 21% in 2015 to 34.2% in the 2019 election, the number of youth aged 18 to 29 voted into elective positions in Nigeria is less than 1%. How heartbreaking. Now, further, there is no use in the new cabinet formed by President Buhari, and neither is there a use in the National Assembly. Looking upon these results and others that have come up since then, can we say Nigerian youth are simply not ready for leadership? If so, how can we help them in their preparations? Joining us to discuss this is Abhiullah Aloroni Shola. He is the 50th president of the JCI in Nigeria. Thank you very much for joining us. Thank you for inviting me. Let's start by talking about JCI, because we hear about these, you know, from young people in universities most times, and I have often wondered what the JCI does. Yes, it's a non-governmental organization, but I'm made to understand that you give to society and really nothing in return, but you're trying to be nation-builders. So how many young people, what's the percentage of young people that the JCI has been able to recruit in the Nigerian space? So firstly, JCI actually equip young people, young persons that wish to be a leader would be necessary tools and resources that will help you to solve some challenges within your locality and at the same time benefit the society. You lead the world. And looking at the membership strength, we have over 5,000 active members and we have over 7,000 alumni. So we have our organization that exists in colleges and it also assists among the working class members. Interesting. Now talking about, you know, active citizenship and us young people being more interested in leading, what role has JCI played in that? And let's not even go into the politics part of it, let's leave politics out of it, let's talk about leadership, being ready for leadership, knowing that you need to step up to the plate. Okay, so in our own organization we train members to be a leader and by the virtue of that you would have been given opportunity to lead at a particular time, at one time or the other. Maybe you probably rose from a project here, you be appointed as a board of director, you also be given a responsibility to lead as a local organizational president. As at that time you execute leadership traits you've learned in the organization. So we can boldly say that we have a leader in our organization, we have young ones that can be trusted with task and they will execute it without putting their whole self interest ahead. I remember sometime in 2014, if not 2015, if I'm not mistaken, former president of Lusia Gorbassando was talking about young people not being ready to take on the range of power from what he saw, from his prism. But you've been working with young people, you're a young person, you're the 50th president, congratulations. How ready are we for whatever that is ahead of us? Nigeria, of course, is burdened on every side with all kinds of problems as we speak. And every time we hear them say, oh, it's time for the young people, it's time for the young people. Where are the young people? Okay, so now we also can look at that when you look at the history. When President Lusia Gorbassando was a military president, how old was he then? President Bawari was also a one-time head of state and how old were they during those period? They were at their early 30s. So why can we then see now that the young ones are not actually ready to lead? We have among us that are very, they are young, but when it comes to them executing leadership quality, them leading certain group of numbers, if we entrust them with some responsibility, you can rest assured that you can go back and sleep, they will do it as it is suspected and it's going to be benefit to this nation, benefit to the society, and everybody will be glad. I see a lot of Nigerian young people succeeding in entrepreneurship in the tech industry. We see a lot of them outside the country. Even within the country, they seem to be holding forth for, but then we look at the percentage of the people who are plugged into those areas and are pace-setters, it's their tiny percentage. So how is JCI reaching out, not just to the people within the JCI, what are you doing to empower other young people who are not your members? I've heard all kinds of things about the generation of young people, the millennials and the distractions that we face, or sometimes the brick walls that we get from the people who are older than us and those who have come before us, so how are you actively getting young people to understand that they do have a responsibility, whether it's within the politics or outside of politics? So in our own national organization, for instance, we're having an event on Thursday, a digital global economy summit, because COVID-19 brought a lot of opportunities to us. It opened our eyes to a lot of untapped opportunities. So we're having close to 1,000 youths seated, discussing on digital global economies vis-à-vis the new types in our environment in the country, in the whole world at large. So we are trying our own best, what I see is that our input in bringing young people to come together and to also join the fold is still an infinitesimal of the numbers of the youth we have in the country, but because of the fact that we also have the local organization almost in about 30 states in the country, so gradually we'll get across to every members of the youth, but I want to challenge the other youth to also try as much as possible to join the trade, to join the international and Nigeria, so that next leadership trades that they need to learn before they actually get the opportunity to probably become a local government, a chairperson, a mayor of Asof Assembly, they would have probably been under a tutelage of what we call a leadership class, and that can help their performance in the future engagement. You're a young person. Let's step away from JCI now. Let's talk about you as a young person and what you see in your daily life. Young people in October of 2020, it's gradually going to become a year now, decided to hit the streets because they were asking for good governance. They were asking that they not be stereotyped by policemen. They were asking for an end to police brutality. We all know the aftermath of that campaign or that protest. Now, how do you get a young person to even get involved or get interested in turning Nigeria around? Yes, we see a lot of conversations going on on social media. That same social media has been shut down by the government. So again, it does somewhat box the young person in. So as a young person, do you feel that every time you have to come up for air to be able to make anything happen? Or do you even feel like your two cents is important in this country? So, me as a young person personally, so I feel every of my minutes matters a lot and every of that minute can also count for the development of the nation. So I don't have to sit at the corner of my room and then feel that government can do it all. So all I need to do as a youth is to be proactive and to be deliberate, to see that what can I do as a youth of this nation to contribute to the development of the country. And when we look at the issue that you cited, what I feel that actually caused the fallout is because there was no direction. And in any sense, if you fall in the room and we did not appoint a leader to give us the direction to which we want to channel our request towards, then it could probably hint in a way that would not actually foresee. So I feel that's the only reason why I said for us, we just feel like, okay, we need to assign, we need to allow somebody to take a lead. Once that person can take us to maybe a nearest nation, somebody else can also be given opportunity to take it up. So in our own organization, it's always one year to lead. You'll be allowed to be a president in January 1st and December 31st. So whatever you can do to make your own impact, to make your own contribution to the organization, whatever you do it within that one year, because all that must also be given opportunity to lead. What do you think about young people participating or being involved in partisan politics, not because they want to run for office, but because they want their voices to be heard. So we hear that thing of, oh, politics is a dirty game. You know, it's best that you stay away. And this is detailed for not just young people, but even women. As much as we hear every day that women need to be involved, we hardly see these women, because society in itself is a barricade. I don't know what the JCI is doing to also educate its members, not just its members, but the people that you're also reaching out to, to get involved in partisan politics. So usually whenever election is forthcoming, we usually carry out advocacy to sensitize citizens, not only the youth, the women, the hard dots, so that we can have a free and fair election. And there's no way you want to trace the fallout of any election without tracing back to those politicians, because they have the one that engage those youth with the necessary things they actually need, the thoughts they could use to have that office. But once we can have a leader that is, they have these interests of the masses in their heart and it's not only about what you want to gain from that office. If you're leading for the interests of the society, then you don't need a gun to win your election. Because you want to sack us. Do we have those people in our political class as we speak? Do you think we do have those people? You can't take it out of elections. You can't take it out of elections process. You can't take it out of politics. But do you think that we have leaders in our political class now? Just wrap your mind around it, that I have the mind to lead the heart of the people. I'm talking about the National Assembly, the executive, all of the people that are leading us today. So when you have, in a situation whereby you have two people, two persons out of 100 that have the interests of the hearts, the interests of the masses in their hearts, do you know that you cannot feel the effect? And that was why I would say it's an infinitesimal of the numbers of the totality of what we have. We have some of them out of assembly that are still leading. They are leading, they are serving their people. They are not keen about the resources they want to get from that office. They are leading to sad people. But they are, it's very man-used among the numbers we have, both in the House of Assembly and in political classes. You see the average young person today is very money-conscious. It's all about, for the want of a better word, blowing, that is the street word. Everybody wants to blow, everybody wants to be successful. Nobody's thinking about the processes that you need to go through. In fact, nobody wants to worry themselves, they just want to get to the top. And that's also a systemic problem. So how do you, how do you even convince that person not to get into advanced free fraud, to get into smuggling or want to run to another country to do whatever a sharp practice is to be able to gain wealth? If the whole society and the system in itself, a country that you call yours, is practically built or set up against you? So sometimes we don't have to probably look at what the people you see as your leaders, the people you see as the people that you see that should have given you direction to take a decision. You have to be yourself, you have to believe, you have to live in a way that you know you are representing your family. And whatever you do, when it's, it's back on you, it's back on your name. I came from a, I'm a Yoruba person and I always believe that our name is important. Somebody will say, don't let your father's name be sparked. Do you get, so if you can live with that mentality, then we can then live for the betterment of our country because whatever we do, action or inaction, we always have a faith on where it comes from. And that's where you say, somebody will say Nigeria in a particular country did something and whenever I did something, the name of that person would not ring much bell as much as the name of the country. And that affect us as in Nigeria. Final words to the average young person who's watching you? So we want to charge them to, to also be, be, they should lead by example, they should try as much as possible to join our own organization so that they can also have opportunity to lead at a particular time to also learn. Like I said, we, or as JCI, I will not provide platform for them to be a good leader. And we are that organization that develop our leaders for change your world. And for us to have a better society, it begins with me and you. All right. Well, Abiela Olorunishola is the 50th president of JCI Nigerian. He's been our guest tonight. Thank you very much for being here. Thank you. All right, we'll take a quick break, but I want to first thank you for being part of the conversation tonight. Let's hear what Nigerians have to say as regards to preparing the young person for leadership in memory return. I'll be saying my goodbyes. For us to involve youths, I'm telling you it's not right yet. They're not right for it. The only people that could get involved when you say youths, get people who are really interested in the politics. They could be the youth of middle age, people who are knowledgeable, people who are very, very, they have a wide scope of experience. At their place of work, and they could start from their local governments. If there can be a conducive environment that youth can participate without gorgeous, and if government can create a good platform, platform in the sense that it will not be money-driven, people that have vision, that have mission, that are articulate. They have passion for change in this nation, who have the ability to join political parties. Now they are saying it as a joke, a joke in the sense that best brains are not being attracted to politics now. But if there is a conducive environment, if there is no enmity, things are working in order. More youth will participate in politics. One of the things we can do to improve or to involve youth in these days, politics is one. First thing is to bring down the age barrier, which youth can be eligible to be listed for positions. And then two again, the old generations or the old people now should know that they have missed their home time, because this time is actually for the youth. Like people do say during the Abbasan Jals era that youth are the future leaders of tomorrow. And because of a lot of things that are going on now, because the one, youth doesn't have money to sponsor their political career. And there is something I do advise the youth. You have to learn, you have to start from somewhere. So our leaders are not trying. They don't want to bring the younger ones up. You have to put your head in. Like I have to give the kudos to the other, some of the state government, some young youth ones are now getting themselves involved in the health assembly post. Advise us, SPA, SPA this is better. From then you can raise small funds than to sponsor your political career. And that's it on Plus Politics today. It's just Monday. We'll be back tomorrow. I am Mary-Anna Khan and we'll be having more conversations talking for development. Have a good evening.