I got my PVC! Now what?

Gbenga Oguntayo 11:28 - 30 May 2018

With around 60 million voters making up the youth population, 2019 is an important moment for us and we simply have to get it right.

We are however too attached to our biases to make the decisions that create this reality.

In 2015, there was a monumental shift in the political consciousness of the voting class; especially among the youths. We moved from ‘I don’t care’ to staying glued to our TV, monitoring the results of the election as Prof. Attahiru Jega read out the results. We voted out the incumbent, we felt empowered. There was hope again.

Fast forward three years, after executive economic sabotage and state sanctioned massacres, Nigerians find themselves in a worse physical but similar emotional state as 2015. Eager to exercise our constitutional right and experience the hope and euphoria of March 2015, the youth population, the largest voting bloc in the country, through various means is being encouraged to ‘get their PVC’ so we can vote out another failed incumbent.

In 2015, the political awakening was focused solely on voting out the incumbent while paying little mind to the quality of candidate we were voting in its place - a mistake for which this writer also stands guilty. One could say it’s the result of the ingenuity of the APC campaign or the naivety of newly awoken youths to the political process, or both. As 2019 draws closer, we are gearing up to repeat that mistake.

Journey to a total awakening

A fundamental truth we need to know and internalize when it comes to elections is who we are voting in is more important than who we are voting out and in a country with a subpar legislature incapable of initiating and following through with impeachment proceedings, the importance of this truth is even more salient. This is the truth we all failed to look at in 2015 as we were too focused on removing GEJ’s underwhelming administration we did not pay attention to the character and track record of who were bringing in.

It was a monumental mistake.

Considering 2019 is on the horizon, we are being presented another chance to rectify that mistake but the conversations and sentiments are still thematically driven by 2015’s manner of thinking.

Less than a year to elections, there is a sizeable percentage of the country’s voting population who have no idea of candidates who have shown real interest in serving this country as president. Another percentage that lives on social media thinks we simply need a young candidate as if age is a credible factor for good leadership –

‘We are tired of the old guard’, they say. Whilst I’m definitely not denying the legitimacy in their displeasure at the class of ‘66, the real problem isn’t their age but the age of their ideas and their individual character. This blind prejudice to age ignores objective qualities in a potential leader and that is how you get leaders like Yahaya Bello and candidates like Sowore who have nothing to offer but are happy to ride the young generation tide.

Those who might say there is still plenty of time to vet candidates ignore the fact people tend to be set in their choice of candidates when it’s close to elections. With the Nigerian version of campaign season more effective at gas-lighting impossible promises than it is at screening out candidates who lack practical solutions to the Nigerian problem or the character to back it up, it is crucial that we ask all the right questions before we get to the junction of no return.

The mentality of ‘just vote him out, if the next person is bad, we will vote him out again’ is not a sustainable method of ensuring national growth. With each bad choice, our level of development is significantly reduced, diminishing the starting point of growth. We simply don’t have the luxury of playing Russian roulette with candidates anymore.

So how do we determine the right questions?

What are we trying to achieve?

A phrase I encountered on Twitter and has helped contextualize my decisions in a humorous but effective way – ‘what are we trying to achieve?’ – frames our focused interests against a candidate’s ability to achieve them. So, what really are we trying to achieve?

Whoever is going to be our President come 2019 will be leading us into a new decade. A decade that is set to be a significant one in human history politically, economically and technologically. With various nations around the globe having set their goals for this decade, whoever will be president will be tasked with figuring out Nigeria’s direction and role in this decade.

Individually, we all have personal goals we would like to see the government put structures in place to make it possible and easier for us to achieve. These goals however can only be achieved by raising the national growth baseline and to do that, a few things have to be put in place.

These things should inform our choice in next year’s presidential election.

Restructuring

If Nigeria is going to survive and thrive during and after this decade, we need to devolve power from the center. From security to infrastructure to a diversified economy, devolution of power from the centre is the most sustainable and efficient way of achieving this.

Whoever the youth voting bloc will be pitching its tent with in 2019 has to be committed to restructuring. He has to be committed to the idea personally and politically. Not the lip service the current administration has paid to it.

Free market enthusiast

Come election season, there will be plenty of sensational specifics to attract voters but our focus has to be a candidate who appreciates the importance of a free market in driving economic growth. Our socialist style of governance didn’t, doesn’t and will never work. Backing a candidate who understands this and is prepared to make us into a truly capitalist economy is the way forward.

The implementation of capitalist values that drive economic growth has to be our preferred candidate’s choice of economic policy. It doesn’t hurt if the candidate has a track record of running a successful private business.

With around 60 million voters making up the youth population, 2019 is an important moment for us and we simply have to get it right. Letting go of inherited biases based on religion and ethnicity are extremely important. We also need to dust off widely-held fallacies about age and follow the Thanos path to success by outlining our goals and working effectively to achieve them.

Hopefully, come 2019, we will not simply be voting out an incumbent but also putting our future in more secure hands.

Written by Seun Adelowokan.

Seun Adelowokan. Humanist. Big believer in common sense. Arsenal lover.