Senegalese President: Nigerian youths only interested in being PAs

The presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC) in the 2023 election Omoyele Sowore has faulted the attitude of young Nigerians to politics in light of the swearing-in of 44-year old Bassirou Diomaye Faye as the Senegalese president.

Faye was sworn in at an event attended by several African leaders in Dakar on Tuesday.

While this has elicited hopes that other African countries especially Nigeria will follow a similar path in electing young people, Sowore says youths in the country are only scheming to become personal assistants to governors and other leaders.

“Our young people are concerned with doing what I call tag along. They are more interested in becoming special assistants to governors or senators,” he said on Tuesday’s edition of Channels Television’s Politics Today. “I have not seen that clear aspiration on the part of our young people to become leaders.”

Sowore who spoke from New Jersey in the United States (USA), said Nigerian youths need to become more daring in politics to replicate what happened in Senegal.

“You cannot be young, mission-driven, and a visionary and go and hide your bushel under some of these old people who have no idea of how to even operate a phone,” Sowore said.

“Youthfulness is also important in the sense that you need leaders that are alert and capable and responsive and do not have to spend half of the time in the hospital,” the AAC flagbearer said.

‘You Take Power’

Ex-President Muhammadu Buhari signed the Not Too Young Bill into law, empowering youths to vie for the presidency and other positions.

But Sowore said the youths need to “take power” and not wait for any law to make that happen.

“You take power,” he said. “Nobody should give power to you by any constitutional amendment or law”.