The 2027 elections in Nigeria promises to be very exciting. As always, the political activities are gaining momentum. Permutations are almost on steroids and the people are having a blast discussing the possible outcomes. The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) is seemingly the beautiful bride as some members of other political parties like the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Labour Party (LP) and some other parties keep defecting to the APC. There are defections from the APC but into the APC seems more in comparative terms.
On the other hand, the PDP and LP, two of the most vibrant opposition parties seem to have some internal party issues that have in some ways coloured the type of opposition they have provided in the last two years. Even though the APC as a political party has its own internal issues too, the power of incumbency is a strong force in Nigerian politics. The new party of the said political coalition, African Democratic Congress (ADC) is just trying to organize what the politicians call the ‘coalition’ to unseat the APC at the center.
Whether the word, ‘coalition’ as implied by the ADC meets the political semantic value or not, fingers are crossed to see the outcome of the political journey of those involved. The Roundtable Conversation is watching events closely and the conversations would continue. Given the history and nature of politics in Nigeria, it would be interesting to see how this coalition works. Already, many Nigerians believe that the coalition is a collection of strange bedfellows who might not have enough political muscle and patriotism to push out the APC from power both at the federal and state levels.
As the politicking hots up, many Nigerians seem to be complaining about the fact that the Nigerian political parties are made up of the same old politicians who have been in the business since 1999 that civilian democracy returned to the country. What this means is that the same politicians who have stirred the ship of governance for more than a quarter of a century are still the ones in all the parties in Nigeria. The country has had some achievements in the period but the poverty index seems to be higher incrementally. For Nigeria to have more than 133million people in multi-dimensional poverty presently says a lot.
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However, majority of those complaining about the roles older people are paying in politics are from the younger generation who feel excluded alongside women. They complain of marginalization but the fact is that as President Tinubu is often quoted as saying, “power is not served a la carte”. You have to fight for power. No one gives you power just because you desire it. How proactive have the Nigerian young people being in politics? Have they really stood up to be counted? What of the Nigerian women? Why is it that despite the fact that women constitute more than 50% of active voters, they are always largely insignificant on the electoral maps?
The Roundtable Conversation had a chat with multiple award winning matriarch in the Nigerian arts and entertainment industry, veteran actor, journalist and cosmetologist, the irrepressible Taiwo Ajai-Lycett. We wanted to find out her views about the brand of politics in Nigeria where some intellectuals of both genders, women, the Gen-Zs and millennials often feel excluded from politics even when they are often the most impacted by bad leadership at all levels.
She feels that the younger generation must deliberately try to convert their internet and social media activism to functional radical political value with better critical thinking. Granted that times have changed, the younger generation must realize that their lives and future are at stake. Without serious and consistent engagement with the older politicians on the field, nothing will change. Lamentations neither influences nor makes policies. Only deep and persistent engagement in the political field can alter the situations for the better. Mere social media analysis and trolling older politicians cannot change the narrative.
Ajai-Lycett believes that now more than in the past, education and exposure have impacted young people globally and it is then left for the youths to valuably utilize their education and modern innovations. Those the young people berate as old and uneducated have persevered in the political field and the prize is their occupation of the political field and power influence. The young people seem to be more interested in mundane things like fashion, easy fame, personality worship and how to be rich without investing time and hard work. She believes that the young people often focus only on discussing personalities than issues that would impact their lives. Whether we like it or not, politicians decide what happens to everyone especially in democracies so the young people must not look in through the window, they must be at the table participating.
When it comes to the issue about gender equity in politics, she believes that it is a global problem but it appears that women in other climes struggle more to overcome the misogynistic attitude by throwing their towels into the ring. She gave examples of a Kemi Badenock, a Nigerian-British who has risen to become the leader of the Conservative Party in the United Kingdom. She didn’t get there by being ‘a Woman Leader’ in the Tory party. She has paid her dues and might just be on her way to becoming the next British Prime minister following in the footsteps of late Margaret Thatcher, Theresa May and Liz Truss.
While there are socio-religious issues affecting women’s political participation globally, women in Nigerian politics have for long accepted to be treated as second class citizens by the male political class. She insists that the position of ‘Women Leader’ by Nigerian political parties and the acceptance of same by the women is not only an insulting tokenism but an acceptance by the women that they are mere appendages. Why don’t the men have ‘Men Leader’ positions? It is because they believe that women must be considered incapable of leading.
Fallacious as that thinking is, the women have not seen anything wrong in that. They have not seen the devaluation embedded in having the position of ‘women leader’ which on a good day is just a subtle relegation of the leadership qualities of women to fellow women. The women further enable the insult by organizing other women to vote for men no matter how incompetent they are. The moment women in politics realize that they have to own their value as competent, thoughtful, compassionate and multi-tasking humans as opposed to men, things would begin to change. They will then stop feeling triumphant when some tokenism is thrown at them.
She believes that the older women in politics must educate and mentor younger women so that they would be confident enough and use their intelligence to work for themselves. Beyond this, they must not be mere, ‘city women’ who just go home during elections. The grassroots mobilization can be very rewarding. Being intellectually savvy does not win elections, mobilization at the grassroots level must be done by serious women including those in the corporate and business world who have what it takes to lead.
Many women tend to isolate not just themselves but even their children from integrating at the community levels. Men seem to be more grounded and use this effectively during the elections. Women must engage more and desist from being errand ladies recruiting fellow women to vote for men by helping the men give out tokens before elections. Women must galvanize and re-orientate women and the young ones because it is in the nature of women to nurture and educate. This is very valuable in politics. Politics is about numbers. If the women can expediently use their numbers, Nigerian politics would change for the better.
In all, the matriarch believes Nigerian politics would change with more people willing to make sacrifices for the people now and in the future. Presently there is over reliance on Europe and America and some in the Asian blocs. Today, the global political dynamics is changing and it is a wakeup call for Africans, nay, Nigerians to put their best foot forward. Women and the young people must work their way up the political ladder. They must learn to network like the men. It is funny that even women often look down on each other based on the wrong-headed narrative from socio-religious societal grooming about leadership. The world knows better now that critical thinking, a profound pillar for leadership is not an exclusive of any gender or age. Networking is a very vital rule for political success so both women and the young people. Power is never willingly yielded so every demographic must fight to clench power for the good of the country.
Women and the young people must dismantle the narrative of genderizing power or ruling by age. Why do we have words like, female member or a youth representative? These are semantic manipulations that seek to keep the status quo, an ill-wind that blows no one any good. Men seem to have successfully made politics and leadership very hierarchical. This makes it appear like patriotism is measurable in gender terms. No one can measure patriotism based on unbalanced opportunities.
Ajai-Lycett believes that to make progress, we must as citizens treat the causes of our socio-economic problems rather than the effects, a system that has always failed to work for deevelopment. The variables must shift. Women and young people ought to not just read the memo but memorize and act accordingly. 2027 election is less than two years away but in politics, 24 hours is a long time. Like the saying goes, politics is too serious to be left in the hands of politicians. Women and the young people must move from passive participation to getting truly involved and re-strategizing for better functional results for development. Inclusion is not out of entitlement mentality, its done through grit and hard work.
•The dialogue continues…
