Youths raise fear over elections, to engage Presidential candidates

A group of concerned youths in the southwest part of Nigeria yesterday expressed dissatisfaction over the lingering economic challenges facing the country bordering on scarcity of both fuel and cash, saying that the burden is taking a toll on the youths.

At a press conference organized under the umbrella of youth groups called Youth Awake Now (YAN), South-West region held in Lagos, the leader of Yoruba Youth, Comrade Eric Oluwole said that attendant results of the scarcity of fuel and cash in the country has grounded the socio-economic activities of youths in South west.

They said they were unsure whether the February 23 election would hold as planned because of the current challenge which is pushing the youth to the precipice.

According to them, many people who live in Lagos don’t vote in the state while they need fuel and cash to move from the state to their places of registration.

Oluwole said, “These conditions are aggravated by the worsening fuel scarcity across the country, with its adverse consequences, which, literally, have grounded the socio-economic activities of our peoples, making living in Nigeria now difficult and almost unbearable.

“We feel saddened by the prevailing conditions in which Nigerians generally, in recent weeks have been forced to eke a living, compelled to do so by the artificially induced scarcity of physical cash due to the hasty and untidy implementation of the currency design, currency swap and cashless policies by the Central Bank of Nigeria as approved by the federal government.”

He therefore urged the federal government to proffer solutions to the bottlenecks around the supply of fuel and circulation of new naira notes.

“Also we call on President Muhammadu Buhari to order the CBN to reissue the old notes in large quantities back to the Nigerian economy to bridge the gap; while simultaneously releasing the new notes also consistently for weeks into the economy in accordance with the advice of the council of state,” he added.

Ahead of the general election billed to hold February 25, he said the bodies of youth groups will thoroughly engage presidential candidates’ manifestos, adding that will aid in making informed decisions to the youths while exercising their franchise.

“We have observed the developments in Nigeria ahead of the 2023 elections. There is cash crunch, rising violence, increasing poverty and a dangerous slip into ethnic violence. When this happens, the youths are not the weapons that will be used, they are also direct victims of violence.

“After extensive meetings and engagement across Nigeria and in the south west, we have come out with a mass-based plan to mobilize Nigerians against violence, before, during and after the election.”

He stressed that this concerned youths’ movement is geared toward good governance and rebuilding Nigeria into a nation state that takes good care of all composite groups and individuals indiscriminately.