The lawmaker representing Iseyin/Itesiwaju/Iwajowa/Kajola federal constituency at the House of Representatives, Mr. Shina Peller has explained that youths in the country with the right leadership skills are not willing to join politics because of the system.
Peller, who is the founder of Lead Generation Initiative, revealed this in an interview with Independent.
He noted that this lack of interest is why they settle for the entertainment industry in search of solace.
“The truth is that youths in Nigeria have lost interest in national matters. The belief is that they have continuously been sidelined in the political circle and that there is nothing they do that can change this narrative. This explains why they take solace in the entertainment industry and spend most of their time with reality shows like Big Brother Naija and others.
“The situation is quite unfortunate. While many may argue convincingly that it is our system that doesn’t encourage active participation of the Nigerian youth in politics and governance, the unwillingness and unpreparedness of the majority of us (the youth) to get involved in active politics, decision and policy-making has further worsened the situation. Many of the young Nigerians who possess the required leadership skills and qualities to move our country to a greater height have refused to join politics on the premise that the system isn’t encouraging. Rather, we have continued to sit on the fence and lament endlessly about bad leadership and maladministration of our country. Let us agree that truly our existing political system isn’t encouraging, does this mean we have to keep watching as things deteriorate?
“The best approach is for us to join those running the system, and then make our impact and influence count in a way that we can normalise the system. Like I always say, if the capable young ones refuse to make themselves available to govern the country, people will have no option than to settle for the available, which may not be capable and whose outputs may remain undesirable,” he said.
