Everyday I engage with our generation and the one coming after it, I see that we are quite politically ill informed. The average young person has bought an ideology that makes them uninterested in politics. We somehow hibernate for 45 months in 4 year cycles. We become active for 3 months before the elections, and go back into our political commas once the elections are over. Somehow the political class has successfully sold us a lie - “Politics is not meant for people like you”. People like us are good in corporate careers, some of us are good in business, a few of us are better off relocating, and the rest of us can if things do not add up quickly enough, settle for civil service. After all, political power, which is what administers and manages all the resources, is better suited to thugs, area boys and miscreants. They sold us that we should not be caught dead hanging out with, or batting with these ones, it’s better we face our careers to global standards or build our businesses to enviable heights. What a sickening paradox.

We live in a country, where our career priorities are turned upside down. We don’t understand that we should all be involved in Politics, even those among us who studied political science, don’t see how it connects with our national realities. The key question is, what is politics, and why should good people be interested?

Politics are the actions or activities concerned with achieving and using power in a country or society. In the words of one of my Mentors - Politics as a contest for power to control resources and influence the people. It is the acquisition of power for governance. The ideal purpose of power it to allocate the Nations resources fairly. Taking into cognizance the weak, the vulnerable and defenseless. Poverty is the result of inequalities in the distribution of wealth. So in an easy formula, politics is securing power for governance, and governance requires creating an enabling environment for the pursuit of prosperity and happiness.

Our challenge in Nigeria is that our young people do not understand how to run this contest in other to win this contest. This is what we need to begin to change. It doesn’t start in November 2022, it starts NOW!

Here are a few RESET buttons you need to press, and PARADIGMS you need to SHIFT.

1. If you LIKE, let FIRE be dripping from your FOREHEAD, and smoke coming out of your eyes, you will not win Presidency by votes by trying it out in 4 year cycles even if you try 5 times. Presidents are popularity contests among the majority grassroots, not among elites. It requires political structure - which in English means at least 119,973 polling agents in 774 local governments. To build this political structure, you don’t only need grassroots people, you need alignment with stakeholders and wholesalers in the power Game - Sitting Governors, Traditional Rulers, Past Presidents, Religious leaders with cult followership, Military Generals - Past and Present, Labour Union leaders and Money Bags to mention a few. House of Reps and Senate require much much less, and are good starting points, but not if you still strike out on your own without a solid platform. Trust me when I tell you that all the 70+ other political parties are to merely create some distraction, when you add all their votes together, they will not clock 1m as usual.
2. The DOOR of service open to good people who don’t have political structure is on the back of loyalty and direct service to their candidates of choice. The sure bet for competent people is riding on the backs of structure owners or holders. Their ticket is service, lack of personal agenda and loyalty. I have seen few men in office as intelligent as Babatunde Raji Fashola, yet if not for service to Tinubu, a Gubernatorial ticket could not have been won by him. People like Prof Osinbajo, Ambode and even Obasanjo rode into office on the back of someone else’s political machinery. Good Bible guys like Joseph, Daniel, Nehemiah, Esther e.t.c have their roads to power marked clearly - Service to the Power holders. Good men and women will influence the deployment of power.
3. Campaigning for an officer without their buy-in and awareness doesn’t bestow any special value on you. Also the power of your votes is overrated. In a country where over 80% are poor and listen mostly to radio, you can’t expect the elite 20% who will be most absent at the polling units to decide the direction of the nation. Last election had 29.4 million out of 65m voters (43.6% turnout). If we repeat the same feat this year, we will have 40 million voters, 35 million of which are likely to be poor people. So, as an elite you don’t really control much. Also, if you really want to be a stakeholder or let’s say a retailer in the power game, then when you are supporting a candidate, the candidate needs to know you. Of course if you are not interested in political power, you can simply be a good citizen and vote, but if power for resource control is a dream, repackage your swag.
4. The easiest route to owning a political structure is to become Governor, install the next Governor and continue building the base and structure. This is not the only way, another way is ensuring you are on top of people welfare and humanitarian activities in your community or state of interest - cater for the basic needs of the ordinary people. Make them know that they are important and you care. You can also do this by being a party faithful, being a money bag that can bankroll the parties activities or handling a national project that gives you access to doing things for the “ordinary people”. For case studies on these, analyze Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Dr. Saraki (senior and Junior), Chief Lamidi Adedibu, Atiku Abubakar and Muhammadu Buhari. You can figure out which one each one did. This is the strategy currently being denied Amosun and Rochas.
5. Learnt the weights of actions in your local political economy. Sometimes, walking Tinubu’s Dog on Saturday’s and helping to run his errands will give you more political capital than running for Presidency. Who is Sanwo-Olu that we should vote for him? Yet today, there is almost nobody more popular in Lagos. While Prof Yemi Osinbajo was serving as Attorney General in Lagos, Pastor Chris Okotie, Prof Pat Utomi and Gani Fawehimi of blessed memory, were running for President. Guess wisdom is justified by her children. The way to the kings palace is through the servants quarters. If you want to be relevant in 2023, find someone to serve today! Running for Senate and House Of Reps are usually rewards for faithfulness to the political structure holders

There are more points, but I think I need to stop quickly before this becomes a book on politics in Nigeria today. Let’s give it to the two strongest contenders today. Forget all the rubbish people are saying about either of them. Atiku Abubakar is a great political strategist and President Muhammadu Buhari has built a massive political base on the merit of his perception as a man of integrity and truth. Yes, they are both cut from the old, and both have some baggage (Choose your Baggage), but none of them is as evil or wicked as they are painted. Yes they have ambition, but in their own little ways want to contribute to a Nigeria that works. To my generation, we do not yet have what it takes to wrestle power from this generation, if it’s by ballot, it will need careful and strategic planning - Rome was not built in a day.

After this elections, there will be an anticlimax, and people will return to their hustles and leave politicians to their resource control for another 3.5yrs. After then, we’ll come back again to use our wishful thinking and quick fix methods to recommend another way forward. Ko le werk! It’s time to Ji-Masun. - Come online. Let everybody carry their body - Gbe Body Eh By Adeolu Akinyemi

Nonsense from the pit of hell.

This is wannabe intellectualism with no substance at all.

OP has no idea about politics and how politics evolve, with new ideas, innovation and new thinking.

First, it is not about winning elections. It is about shifting politics. No one has business in winning elections, if they can not shift politics.

You shift politics by challenging the status quo and by disrupting the idea that without structures it cannot be done. It is called Disruptive politics. In disruptive politics, you do not build old stupid structures or follow that archaic techniques of our great grand fathers that costs time, money and energy. We live in the 21st century. You instead use alternative structures and resources to not only create value but to shift the narrative and push the boundaries of politics.


Pushing politics is exactly why it is possible to win an election in Nigeria as a youth, new political party or fresh entrant.

While they spent billions, you can spent thousands and achieve an equally good result that will even be more sustainable.

Disruptive politics is not business as usual. You don't need to be corrupt and require the support of sitting corrupt governors or administrators whose will is to have the status quo remain the same. You shift politics because you have passion to change the situation not because you want to win election for election sake. This is what the OP is saying.

Taking the case of Nigeria, here is how you can win the Presidency without necessarily building any useless structure.

1. There are over 84 million registered voters of which there are 51% youth voters less who are than 35 years of age. 18% are between 36 and 50. There are 22 million registered youth voters.

The statistics show that by appealing to the youth population alone, you can win an election overwhelmingly, since you may need around 15-17 million to win based on historical elections.

To win an election, you can appeal to this population by reaching out to them at their schools and packaging specific programs for them, not just talking to them trying to convince. This would work to a certain extent though. Building a program can be, for example, providing free GCE/JAMB classes for students from SS2 to those who are already out of secondary schools.

If well thought out, the program must be different quality and can be packaged at cheap prices to the political party or new president. Program can include free computers and coding classes including arts and technical lessons for students who are out of secondary school. In order words, making them employable and giving them tools and training to move on the next level of the lives.

Any political party that can arrange such can appeal to about 5 million youths whose schools, states and local governments have failed them. A political party can even arrange employability/ employment structures that links graduates with real employments. All of this can be done through IT without spending too much. Nothing stops a political party from setting up job centers for potential job hunters, who can be linked to real employers who can provide real jobs. There are jobs in Nigeria, it's all just messed up. An aspiring President or party can take the challenge and build his popularity on that.

You can champion entrepreneurship opportunities, by for example, preparing people locally and convincing banks to give them small loans. If achieved, youths will come in millions because they are looking for opportunities. Imagine if party XYZ is doing the Tradermoni in a more organised and sensible fashion. This does not mean that an individual or party have to spend their own money. They can organise it.

2. Reach out to all Universities in the country and start practicing what is your manifesto before it is the turn of elections. For example, one of the new generation contestants, Kinsley Moghalu says he would raise N1trillion venture fund, which he would spend towards housing and education. Moghalu can for instance, use his private sector connection and influence to raise half of this finance, not as a sitting government to touch the lives of Universities by establishing scholarship funds. Imagine, if you are a University student and get 1 million naira towards your study from Moghalu's party. Why would you not vote him? Yes, not every benefactor will. 60 percent will do.

3. Experiential Marketing: I have not seen enough innovation among the new political parties and this can be done without any God father or stupid past governor. With experiential marketing, you go out and appeal to people's conscience on the streets, unit by unit, street by street. It is affordable because I have seen new political parties do something similar but not in the best way they should be done. For example, a political party can hire community halls around town, turn them into temporary cinema's at night, where they preview latest movies. The opportunity can be used to capture, educate and register local electorates. Millions of potential voters can be easily convinced in this way.

4. Get contentious: In contentious politics, as a political party, you do everything possible to sponsor campaigns, movements, people and youths to see the failure of the status quo and speak against it. Donald Trump is a perfect example. It can be done in Nigeria too by not only speaking against the status quo and the need for change but by actually sponsoring campaigns, maybe bill boards, that shows that the government of the day is foolish and needs changing.

5. The quickest and easiest way is not to become a governor or chairman, or senator. By doing so, you will eventually become part of them and they will soil your good name. You can start from the top and nothing is wrong. You just need to get your strategy right. In the recent African elections, new presidents have not necessarily started from below. They start where they like but the build the necessary structure and strategy.

6. God fatherism is foolish. The OP suggested walking Tinubu's dog or something like that. This is at best idiotic. No serious minded young politician should do that or kiss the ass of any old, unrepentant politician. Tinubu's and other God fathers have nothing to boast about. It is all about their stolen money and corrupt influence. Their influence can be broken they are studied properly. God fathers get broken in Italian mafia politics, they were broken in old France, in American politics and upcoming Nigerian politicians can do it too.

Too much ideas, but I will stop here for now.

Bosekunle:
Everyday I engage with our generation and the one coming after it, I see that we are quite politically ill informed. The average young person has bought an ideology that makes them uninterested in politics. We somehow hibernate for 45 months in 4 year cycles. We become active for 3 months before the elections, and go back into our political commas once the elections are over. Somehow the political class has successfully sold us a lie - “Politics is not meant for people like you”. People like us are good in corporate careers, some of us are good in business, a few of us are better off relocating, and the rest of us can if things do not add up quickly enough, settle for civil service. After all, political power, which is what administers and manages all the resources, is better suited to thugs, area boys and miscreants. They sold us that we should not be caught dead hanging out with, or batting with these ones, it’s better we face our careers to global standards or build our businesses to enviable heights. What a sickening paradox.

We live in a country, where our career priorities are turned upside down. We don’t understand that we should all be involved in Politics, even those among us who studied political science, don’t see how it connects with our national realities. The key question is, what is politics, and why should good people be interested?

Politics are the actions or activities concerned with achieving and using power in a country or society. In the words of one of my Mentors - Politics as a contest for power to control resources and influence the people. It is the acquisition of power for governance. The ideal purpose of power it to allocate the Nations resources fairly. Taking into cognizance the weak, the vulnerable and defenseless. Poverty is the result of inequalities in the distribution of wealth. So in an easy formula, politics is securing power for governance, and governance requires creating an enabling environment for the pursuit of prosperity and happiness.

Our challenge in Nigeria is that our young people do not understand how to run this contest in other to win this contest. This is what we need to begin to change. It doesn’t start in November 2022, it starts NOW!

Here are a few RESET buttons you need to press, and PARADIGMS you need to SHIFT.

1. If you LIKE, let FIRE be dripping from your FOREHEAD, and smoke coming out of your eyes, you will not win Presidency by votes by trying it out in 4 year cycles even if you try 5 times. Presidents are popularity contests among the majority grassroots, not among elites. It requires political structure - which in English means at least 119,973 polling agents in 774 local governments. To build this political structure, you don’t only need grassroots people, you need alignment with stakeholders and wholesalers in the power Game - Sitting Governors, Traditional Rulers, Past Presidents, Religious leaders with cult followership, Military Generals - Past and Present, Labour Union leaders and Money Bags to mention a few. House of Reps and Senate require much much less, and are good starting points, but not if you still strike out on your own without a solid platform. Trust me when I tell you that all the 70+ other political parties are to merely create some distraction, when you add all their votes together, they will not clock 1m as usual.
2. The DOOR of service open to good people who don’t have political structure is on the back of loyalty and direct service to their candidates of choice. The sure bet for competent people is riding on the backs of structure owners or holders. Their ticket is service, lack of personal agenda and loyalty. I have seen few men in office as intelligent as Babatunde Raji Fashola, yet if not for service to Tinubu, a Gubernatorial ticket could not have been won by him. People like Prof Osinbajo, Ambode and even Obasanjo rode into office on the back of someone else’s political machinery. Good Bible guys like Joseph, Daniel, Nehemiah, Esther e.t.c have their roads to power marked clearly - Service to the Power holders. Good men and women will influence the deployment of power.
3. Campaigning for an officer without their buy-in and awareness doesn’t bestow any special value on you. Also the power of your votes is overrated. In a country where over 80% are poor and listen mostly to radio, you can’t expect the elite 20% who will be most absent at the polling units to decide the direction of the nation. Last election had 29.4 million out of 65m voters (43.6% turnout). If we repeat the same feat this year, we will have 40 million voters, 35 million of which are likely to be poor people. So, as an elite you don’t really control much. Also, if you really want to be a stakeholder or let’s say a retailer in the power game, then when you are supporting a candidate, the candidate needs to know you. Of course if you are not interested in political power, you can simply be a good citizen and vote, but if power for resource control is a dream, repackage your swag.
4. The easiest route to owning a political structure is to become Governor, install the next Governor and continue building the base and structure. This is not the only way, another way is ensuring you are on top of people welfare and humanitarian activities in your community or state of interest - cater for the basic needs of the ordinary people. Make them know that they are important and you care. You can also do this by being a party faithful, being a money bag that can bankroll the parties activities or handling a national project that gives you access to doing things for the “ordinary people”. For case studies on these, analyze Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Dr. Saraki (senior and Junior), Chief Lamidi Adedibu, Atiku Abubakar and Muhammadu Buhari. You can figure out which one each one did. This is the strategy currently being denied Amosun and Rochas.
5. Learnt the weights of actions in your local political economy. Sometimes, walking Tinubu’s Dog on Saturday’s and helping to run his errands will give you more political capital than running for Presidency. Who is Sanwo-Olu that we should vote for him? Yet today, there is almost nobody more popular in Lagos. While Prof Yemi Osinbajo was serving as Attorney General in Lagos, Pastor Chris Okotie, Prof Pat Utomi and Gani Fawehimi of blessed memory, were running for President. Guess wisdom is justified by her children. The way to the kings palace is through the servants quarters. If you want to be relevant in 2023, find someone to serve today! Running for Senate and House Of Reps are usually rewards for faithfulness to the political structure holders

There are more points, but I think I need to stop quickly before this becomes a book on politics in Nigeria today. Let’s give it to the two strongest contenders today. Forget all the rubbish people are saying about either of them. Atiku Abubakar is a great political strategist and President Muhammadu Buhari has built a massive political base on the merit of his perception as a man of integrity and truth. Yes, they are both cut from the old, and both have some baggage (Choose your Baggage), but none of them is as evil or wicked as they are painted. Yes they have ambition, but in their own little ways want to contribute to a Nigeria that works. To my generation, we do not yet have what it takes to wrestle power from this generation, if it’s by ballot, it will need careful and strategic planning - Rome was not built in a day.

After this elections, there will be an anticlimax, and people will return to their hustles and leave politicians to their resource control for another 3.5yrs. After then, we’ll come back again to use our wishful thinking and quick fix methods to recommend another way forward. Ko le werk! It’s time to Ji-Masun. - Come online. Let everybody carry their body - Gbe Body Eh By Adeolu Akinyemi

If you have time, please respond.
I have more lessons to teach you about politics.