Nigeria is a densely populated country of approximately 200 million people. In accordance with recent statistic, the youth make up about 60perc of Nigeria's population. Apparently, one of the major indices for assessing the state of a nation is the general well-being of the youths. The youths of a nation are always at the receiving end of the effect of bad governance. Taking Nigeria as a case study, are the youths faring well in every material respect, are they well positioned to have a say in the grand scheme of things, do the youths have hope in the actualisation of a better Nigeria! Let's not play the ostrich, the average Nigerian youth will definitely answer these questions in the negative. Bad leadership particularly at the center, is a virus that has bedeviled the nation over the years, as a result the future of the average Nigerian youth has been left hanging in the balance. It is heartrending that Nigeria's unemployment statistic has skyrocketed to a staggering 33.3perc (Nigeria currently ranks third in the world), Like they say, numbers do not like. It's an established fact that stagflation and insecurity which are off-shoots of bad leadership has brought the nation to her knees. The effect of these pointers to retrogression is that many have resorted to cybercrime and all sorts of criminal activities as seemingly the only foreseeable way out of the economic doldrums, some other persons of means have left the shores in search of greener pastures, unfortunately, many are stuck here and constrained to slugging out their survival one way or other. Despite the aforesaid, the youths have over the years been apolitical, and as such have failed to carry out their civic responsibility of exercising their franchise by engaging in political activities. This has resulted in the youths being qualified pejoratively as keyboard warriors. If you fail to go for what you want, you are constrained to taking whatever comes. In the words a medieval Greek Philosopher Plato, "one of the penalties of refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors".

A take-home from the #ENDSARS protest is the fact that when Nigerian youths act in unison, they are almost unstoppable. Having said that, I am firmly of the opinion that an #ENDSARS part 2 cannot savage this nation. We must be actively involved in the political process. This is the time to relegate to the background the age-long stereotype of politics being perceived as a dirty affair no one other than the well-known politicians should engage in. No one can cause a change from the outside, it is only through actual participation that we can proffer solutions to Nigeria's predicaments. In the words of Abraham Lincoln, "the ballot is stronger than the bullet".
The percentage of voter turnout in the 2019 election stood at 35.66 % with a total of 84 million registered voters and a turnout of 28.6 million (this is very poor and unacceptable).
The Northwest had the highest voter turnout in the 2019 election which was won by Muhammadu Buhari. Kano, Kaduna and Katsina comes first, second and third with a voter turnout of 1.96million, 1.71million and 1,62million respectively. Lagos comes fourth and is the only Southern state among the states with the highest voter turnout with 1.16million votes. Jigawa, another Northwestern state comes fifth with a total vote of 1.15million.
The South had the least voter turnout in the 2019 presidential election. Bayelsa tops the list with a vote of 336,000 and Abia comes second with 334,000 votes. Ebonyi, Ekiti and Cross River follow. A chunk of those who did not turnout to vote in the 2019 Presidential election are the youths known rather to opt for meddling with their phones at the comfort of their abode. Sometime in 2018, the extant President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria signed the "NOT TOO YOUNG TO RUN BILL" into Law which amended some provisions of the constitution by reducing the age limit for eligibility to contest elections in Nigeria. However, lack of finance has been a major huddle against youth participation as it relates to contesting elections under the platform of the major political parties. The purchase price for the APC Presidential form is a whopping 100 million while that of PDP is 40Million. The APC also fixed N50 million for governorship aspirants, N20 million and N10 million for senatorial and House of Representatives aspirants respectively, and N2 million for state House of Assembly aspirants. This is quite exorbitant, in the light of the fact that this is a country in which about half of her populace are living in abject poverty to the extent that Nigeria is now dubbed "the poverty capital of the world". Nevertheless, let's not focus on the negatives, young Nigerians can register their own political parties and contest elections under more convenient platforms. We may want to give ourselves a million and one reasons not to strive to halt this unfavorable status quo of ineptitude at the upper echelon of leadership. Some may keep reciting the old mantra of "only the two major political parties have structure". Now let's bring the issue of structure home, what structure does the two major political parties have aside focusing on buying votes of many electorates (for meagre sum) particularly in the rural areas. These electorates in the rural areas (whose votes are being bought by the major political parties) have been very religious in carrying out their civic responsibility as opposed to their urban counterparts. This is a clarion call for the youths to rise up to the occasion in 2023. We can't keep fiddling while Rome burns. Being indifferent to our civic responsibility has a costly effect in that, bad leadership has a domino effect.

It won't be business as usual in 2023.