Back in secondary school, our teachers lectured us on a topic called political participation. The basic idea of those lectures was to tell us that being politically active was important and beneficial to a youth, but looking at the Nigeria of today you begin to doubt the authenticity of the idea.

Youths of today are being used politically, politicians get into their heads clamoring for votes and at the end of the day what do they get?. Failed campaign promises, like the N5000 promised to unemployed youths which the current government blew into the wind. It's sad to see youths being used as political thugs, who go about risking their lives for politicians who don't even know they exist. The decision to use youths as political cannon fodder is breeding and amplifying negative attitudes among the youths of today.

There are youths out there who would gladly insult and get violent with their elders, just because they're in different political parties. Social media has become a tool for youths to debase themselves online, using political and ethnic differences. I'm well aware of the flawed foundations of this country and its democracy, but that shouldn't give youths an excuse to antagonize each other in cyber space, while there are more productive ventures to engage themselves in. Let's not forget the ridiculous things people do in the name of politics, e.g burning brooms, carrying coffins with opposition party colours on it.



Political participation also seems to be breeding lazy and unenterprising youths, there are many out there who feel entitled to sit down and wait for government jobs, as compensation for their efforts during elections. Others engage themselves in dubious empowerment schemes which usually fizzle out after a while, the idea of finding ways to empower themselves so they wouldn't have to rely on any government, is often times not considered at all.

To be honest with you, I hardly see any concrete reasons for youths to be cracking their heads over Nigerian politics, the political scene isn't even favourable to us. How many youths are ministers, governors, senators etc, after all we live in a country where the minister of youth is 52 years old, that tells you the kind of system we run. Now I'm not saying that youths should never get involved in politics, I'm just saying that youths should play politics with common sense, and not give themselves away to politicians who will only use and dump them when they achieve their goals.

At the end of the day everyone will have his or her own opinion, that's mine up there and I'd like to know yours.

cc Lalasticlala

Youths need to liberate their minds from politics, this frees up time, money and energy for self improvement.