Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has come down hard on politicians who use other people’s children as political thugs while their own children are in “safe havens” attending the best schools.
According to a Wednesday statement by his media aide, Kehinde Akinyemi, the ex-president made this known while delivering a paper titled, ‘Demystifying Leadership Capacity Deficit of African Youths: Our Future is in their Hands’ at the Inauguration Edition of King’s College London Global Leaders Engagement Series in London, United Kingdom.
Obasanjo also decried the situation where leaders take unilateral decisions purportedly about the welfare of the led without seeking their input.
He said, “Enough of using other peoples’ children as experimental subjects and keeping ours in safe havens. Enough of using other peoples’ children as political thugs and ballot box snuffers, while we send ours to Ivy League schools.
“Enough of thinking we know what is right for young people without their input or the courtesy of asking for their opinions.”
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In the same vein, Obasanjo appeared to take a swipe at the Not Too Young to Run Bill recently signed into law by President Muhammadu Buhari, saying it was one thing to reduce the age for youths to contest but another for them to afford the costs associated with contesting.
He said, “If constitutional changes are required, let us begin now. If policies and political party structures have to change, let us begin now. Of what use is a law that allows young people contest for a particular office only to be confronted with the hurdle of outrageously exorbitant cost of party nomination forms and campaign costs?
“I see hope in that the future of Africa is in the hands of its youth. I see hope of a continent where the creative energies, intellectual prowess and ingenuity of our youth is capable to lead us to our promised land. I see hope in the courage of our youth to hold government accountable and their resistance to tyranny and despotism.”
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