We should be worried about the young jokers who want to be presidents

The internet has been throwing its head backwards and having a laugh at the expense of a young presidential aspirant who was a guest on Falz’s interview series.

This young presidential aspirant displayed a worrying lack of depth on major policy issues, couldn’t tell what the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are, had a hard time explaining what his views on philosophy and economics were and left everyone confused with regards to what exactly he wants to achieve should he be elected Nigeria’s president in 2019.

He was the 2018 definition of emptiness.

Yet we really shouldn’t be laughing at the crop of young presidential aspirants who are daily turning themselves into a joke on the internet, for the simple reason that the office of President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria is no joke. It’s a serious matter to run for president in a nation of 180 million people. Running for president is no circus.

Since President Buhari signed the not-too-young-to-run bill into law on May 31, 2018, a cast of characters 35 years of age and under, have picked up the presidential nomination forms of their parties and have indicated intent to run for president alongside the likes of Atiku, Saraki and Buhari. We should all applaud their courage and conviction. We should all applaud their belief and chutzpah. We should all encourage them to run and give the old politicians a run for their tainted monies.

What we shouldn’t applaud is when they make it look like young people have no knowledge of their country’s history or problems, are better off dancing the shaku shaku instead and don’t know what feminism really means.

What we shouldn’t applaud is their emptiness when it comes to the brass tacks of reviving the economy, proffering solutions to our security challenges and how they intend to fix the unemployment problem. What we shouldn't applaud is their lack of depth on policy proposals. What we shouldn't applaud is a political field of young Nigerians who come across as though they haven't thought the entire governance thing through.

One young female presidential aspirant who got herself into a bind for her views on gender equality, has even been accused of stealing from the meager coffers of her party. The other young presidential aspirant takes to the internet with motivational soundbites that mean absolutely nothing when you strip them bare. The other day, I was listening to another who is better off running as Chairman of a local government because his lack of governance experience was dripping through his every word.

The old political class has failed Nigeria and we really should vote all of them out and replace them with younger crop of Nigerians with fire in their bellies and ideas seeping through every pore of their mortal bodies. But to get there, the younger generation must be more interested in politics beyond every election cycle, they must arrive interviews with practical solutions to our nation’s problems at their fingertips, they must infiltrate the more established political parties with a view to seizing control in the long term.

Not-too-young-to-run advocates and beneficiaries must begin to sound and look the part. Thus far, they have done themselves little favours.