John Ameh, Abuja
The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr. Yakubu Dogara, said on Monday that an “over-reached generation” of men and women had taken the political leadership of the country hostage.
He recommended that the solution was for Nigerian youths to fight courageously to assume control of the political leadership with an agenda for generation-shift development.
Doagra expressed his views at a session the National Institute of Legislative Studies organised in Abuja for the Speaker to exchange ideas with students’ leaders from various universities in the country.
According to Dogara, without a fight, it is useless for youths to assume that anything will change dramatically so long as the same overreached generation continues to lead Nigeria.
He noted, “This country belongs to you but it is under the stranglehold of men and women of a generation that has overreached itself.
“The truth is that nothing will be ceded or conceded to your generation without a fight. In this endeavour, your voices mean nothing if you don’t have the votes.
“Therefore, all students in Nigeria must not only register to vote and cast their votes during elections, they must also ensure that their votes count.
“There is no other better way by which you will earn respect for yourselves and ensure that the gifts you have taken to the university to polish ultimately benefit your generation.”
However, he clarified that the nature of fight he recommended must be devoid of violence or criminality.
The Speaker explained, “It was Martin Luther King, Jnr., who said that, ‘freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor, it must be demanded by the oppressed.’ Indeed, ‘the man dies in all who keep silent in the face of tyranny’, to paraphrase Prof. Wole Soyinka.
“The culture of protest that I endorse must be uncompromisingly peaceful and non-violent. It must be based on selflessness and not aided by ambition or corruption. It must be for the right reasons and procured only by the purest of motives.”