Role of Youths on the Forthcoming Local Government Polls in Jigawa State

Role of Youths on the Forthcoming Local Government Polls in Jigawa State

Þ When I interact with a community of Civil Society Organisation in Jigawa State my heart becomes full with pleasure because:
a. The civil society organizations are the building blocks of democracy and wherever they are given free hands to operate, democracy would be raised to higher level.
b. Secondly, Jigawa state has in the past being deprived of vibrant civil society organizations which shielded those governments from alternative political and economic policies
c. Thirdly, that Jigawa state, being a predominantly rural formation would now become exposed to ideas which would enable her to face the challenges of modernization and development.
Þ I have no doubt that the organizers of this lecture (who are themselves youth) are aware that the youth of Jigawa state had played a vital role in the past three general elections – 1999; 2003; 2007; in the state.
v If it were free and fair elections, they are the one who made it
v If the elections were rigged still are the youth
v Those who have been tear gassed, incarcerated, shot at and killed in cold blood are the youths
- Who are the youths in Jigawa state and what are the socio-economic conditions that have produced this calibre of youth
a) The youths in Jigawa state constitute those young men in their early twenties and early thirties

v Some of them are students in various tertiary institutions in Nigeria
v Some others have passed out of the tertiary institutions, are working but have not become full family men and are not solidly fixed and become stable in the work system
v Others who are most dangerous politically are those who have finished post-primary schools but have not gone further to higher institutions or got work to do.
v There are many others from very poor peasant background living in the villages, doing nothing except to assist their fathers with farm work during rainy season or do rural form labour in order to survive
b) All these have unsatisfactory socio-economic conditions in the society:

v In those years of Saminu Turaki students were given papers of grant of scholarship but for years no money backing
v Those who have managed to get work are seeing the reality of wage exploitation
v Those who had finished post-primary schools doing nothing are gradually becoming street boys – street boys in Kano and Kaduna as well as in Nairobi, Kinshasa and Abidjan are living by violence

c) The politicians recruit their agents, mobilisers, and campaigners from the above social categories of youth

v Unfortunately when the politicians recruit them to do such dirty jobs only very few would be raised up that they could live even without that dirty job
v The majority become political agents without salaries. Therefore, they must survive by violence, rigging of elections and by doing all other things which the electoral law does not allow.

- Nevertheless, democracy is a great institution which has evolved over time with in-built mechanism and process of resolving any kind of problem.
a) I do not want carry you into the academic discourse on this matter. Because democracy is not the concern of scholars alone.

v It matters much to political actors who are charged with the governance of peoples
v In this respect democracy is about conflict and resolution of conflict
v Where there is conflict and talking of resolution of conflict implies that there are different groups of people or interests each wanted to capture an object.
v In this case, in Jigawa state some political party formations exist. By the last general elections there were many but three i.e. PDP; ANPP; and AC were stronger.
v Some few conflicts and political violence occurred between the parties, and PDP came out victories
v The other interests might have had remained alive to contest the ruling party in the coming local government elections.
b) The Electoral – representative system is where these differences are slugged out

v This is because ordinarily elections is the only mechanism through which political change can and should properly occur – especially against stronger opponent holding state power
v Furthermore, for a serious political actor elections have legitimising, deliberative and representative functions, which every party will like to have the opportunity to create
v Then of course, historical experience of Nigeria’s political development shows that those who control the state institutions monopolises means of physical coercion and access to state resources, which are all used against those who do not
c) In order to get all these advantages political actors strive by all means to win elections – at whatever level – and by all means including violence

v Although in Jigawa state the violence is not as much as in Kano, Enugu, Lagos, Jos, and many other cities in Nigeria, yet some pockets were noticed in previous elections.
v These take many forms and in different stages: the stage of the political campaign clashes; the subversion of the election procedures by INEC in favour of a candidate or political party; the violence which accompanied counting of ballot papers; and of announcement of the results.
v All these militate against elections as fundamental instruments of democracy which undermines the entire democratic processes
v The outcome is lack of good governance; personal rule; silencing of associational groups in the democratic system; etc
v The electoral and or the legal system does not help matters
v In order to seek redress you have to be rich enough and have all the people behind you to gather a lot of evidence to show to election tribunals or the courts that you want justice.
v But on the other hand evidence hardly count in dispensing the cases.
v Therefore the electoral system serves more as a measure of increasing the dissatisfaction and disaffection of the people (even the youths who benefit) from the democratic system

- In such uncertain situation, a democratic system has what democratic theories call “in-built mechanism” to check the excesses of undemocratic practices in the system

a) The Civil Society played a significant role in this checking and balancing project to build a stable democracy

v I am not going to carry you into the academic disputes over the conception of civil society
v They are those associational groups and organisations independent of the state which advocate and strategise policy and policy alternatives for social, political and economic development
v These could be of different forms e.g. political like the Y.D.C; Community Development like all the CBOs; Professional Associations etc.
v Unfortunately, Jigawa is not blessed with strong civil society. In reality, until the coming of PDP Government, the Civil Society did not exist at all.
v Indeed, the strength or otherwise of civil society a state has will also to a large extent determine the role that society could play in bringing about political and socio-economic changes in the polity.
v In short, the size of state involvement in societal development and the success of state in relation with the society is determined by whether civil society is allowed to operate independent of government.

b) History has documented the facts of how and wherever democracy succeeds and becomes stable – in Europe and America, the Civil Society played a decisive role.

v The civil society organisations are the carriers of information; of public enlightenment; of giving political awareness; as conflict resolution agents between political actors/parties; etc.
v In elections, they are the volunteers, the monitors; the agents; etc.

- It is in this spirit that the youths in Jigawa state have a great role to play in the coming Local Government polls in the state

v There is no doubt that the greatest forces of change (even because of their number) in Jigawa state are the youths.
v They are the greatest because other groups like of professionals, workers, traders, organised farmers, etc. are rarely seen as political pressure groups, perhaps because Jigawa is a relatively underdeveloped and predominantly rural-based economy.
v Yet the experience of the youth in democratisation, if there is any seems subservient to the interest of the state. This is most especially during the first eight years of civil democratic rule in the state
v So we need to state with emphasis that while the youths must play its part in the coming local government pools, it must go beyond the coming elections.
v As such there are the long-term objectives:
a) The socio-economic conditions of the different social categories of the youths formations are not the same, so the basis of the youths speaking in the same voice and acting in common is zero. However, through a civil society organisation like the Y.D.C a genuine united youth could be built with a common interest to push for fair democracy and economic development in Jigawa state.
b) Accordingly the youths could form various types of civil society organisations on different subject-matter but with a common forum to share experience in promoting the common interest of Jigawa
c) In order to assist the state government these organisations are to remain autonomous associations. This is one way to ensure that experience is acquired and to build leadership, discipline and organisation.
v On the short-term objectives during the coming local government polls the major issue is what would the youths and the Y.D.C do to avert rigging of elections

a) The youths now are mobilised by politicians of all characters distributing very little money and promising to give more. Very few hours to the polls I wish they could be demobilised and educated about dangers of money politics.
b) I wish it is long time to the pools so that elections education programme including the translation of the Electoral Act 2004 could be developed for mass education and awareness of the youths who are at all time the dominant forces during elections.
c) As being educated on the provisions of the Electoral Act, the youths are to be empowered to check INEC because as previous elections show in all parts of the country the election commission is a big rigging machine
d) The empowerment could take many forms one of which is to be allowed to independently monitor the elections and come out with results publicly
e) In monitoring of elections you are not to be identified with any political actor or party in the elections.
f) As a civil society organisation the Y.D.C has diverse responsibilities. You could develop enlightenment programmes targeted to INEC and its officials in Jigawa state. Therefore, constant meetings with the commission to map out procedures for better elections.
g) The youths in many non-governmental organisations are to work as a league with other institutions like the media, women organisations, community-based organisations, trade unions, etc. in order to attain the goal of sanitising elections, both in Jigawa state and the country al large
h) Whether elections were free and fair or not the post-elections political scene (i.e. after announcement of the results) is always tense which must be handled carefully, otherwise it degenerates into violence – by the youths.

The youths sector of the civil society has a great role to play here. What would you do? It is over to you to decide.

- Finally, by way of conclusion let me say that I am not unaware that civil society organisation like the Y.D.C needs financial support to achieve a high level of performance.

v There are many ways these can be raised
a) If the government has interest, it can make contribution by seeing the programme which contains a definition of the objective to be achieved.
b) There are also donor agencies which can also assist
c) Individuals and other organisations may contribute to achieve a given objective
v But all these must not erode the autonomy of the organisations.

M.M. Yusif
13/02/08
Initially to be presented at YDC forum in Dutse Jigawa State