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| His Excellency Prince Frank ukonga chairman SDP/;IPAC -Edo state with Mr Ajayi- chairman Edo Youth council in Benin. |
Frank Ukonga Lecture 41: “The imperatives of inclusive youth
participation in politics and governance, as the causal nexus of synergy of
social economic and industrial development of Emerging Democracies of the
world-A functional Overview”- Delivered to the National Youth Congress Summit
in Youth House-Benin City Addressed to mobilize the Youth to embrace active youth
participation in the PVC and ongoing Voters registration exercise in Edo state
of the Nigerian Federation.
Appreciation: I
appraise all the dignitaries attending this all important occasion and the
Nigerian youth council chairman – Edo state chapter Mr. Innocent Ajayi, and his
Exco members for putting up this remarkable event of mobilizing the youth of the
Nigeria state ,most especially the Edo state youth towards active participation
in politics and governance and I am highly elated that you Have invited me as
the guest speaker and special guest of Honor ; otherwise all protocols
observed-
Topic: “The imperatives of inclusive youth participation in
politics and governance, as the causal nexus of dynamics of social economic and
industrial development of Emerging Democracies of the world-A functional
Overview:’
The Lecture: The believe of the protagonists of Greek’s Socratic
/Aristotelian philosophy hold it truth self evident that “when good people
abstain from politics and governance of their polity it gives room to the bad
guys to take over the governance of the polity and they would loot and waste
away the resources of the sovereignty-And this truth is alive today and would
hold strength till the end of time.
Whence the imperatives of mobilizing the useful [good]
aspects of the polity which is predominantly the youth avangardt that makes up
the larger percentage of the production forces of the sovereignties would be
historical and dialectical as altruistic & rectitude towards the attainment
of egalitarianism by any emerging democracy or nation state in the quest for
revolutionary attainment of social economic and industrial prosperity…
As a social Democrats , I belong to the Social Democratic
Party-SDP-, it would be most important for me to acquaint your exalted leaders
of the future of our sovereignty with the rational kernels of your position as
youth in the synergy of social classification and class struggle, addressed to
mobilizing the youth of the world with a focus on the Nigeria youth brigade, as
the sin qua non, to take their rightful place in the social economic and
industrial entropy of the emerging global pluralism and of course espouse on stratagems
useful to the attainment of this lofty idea of overall inclusive youth
participation in governance of emerging nation states and the world in
generality…
Social Democracy is the philosophy of central left which
hold it true as adamantine the equality of all men and women of subsequent
creation- as all men are born equal- Basking on this philosophical foundation
we as social democrats with reverence to the forerunners of social democratic
ideals of Karl Marx, Fredrick Angels, Lenin, Mao, Anahagoras , Pythagoras,
Franz Fanon, Marcus Garvey, Secou Toure, Samora Michael, Patrice Lumumba,
Booker T Washington, Chief Obafemi Awolowo,Alfred Olympio,Julius Nyerere, Keneth
Kaunda, Kwame Nkrumah, Nelson Mandela etc…posits the following observations;
That human beings determines consciousness is a catechism,
we hold as consequential from our fundamental philosophy and that it is the
interactive activities of human being that is the driving force of all social
economic and industrial prosperity of all civilizations historically and
dialectically… this is the core of the materialist view of creation and its
dynamics based on the Darwinian theories of evolution as the causality of human
presence on our planet earth refuting all idealism and transcendentalism as
causality of human ontology as a faulty reducio de absurdum…
Consequential of the above we hold dearly to the Marxist
philosophy of class struggle both in its historical and dialectical materialism
as scientific which in three fundamental theories
was able to furnace out the rough golden rules of creation and the
social relations that emerged historically among all of the human family till
date…in this context the Marxist philosophy believes that our world is knowable and a product of aposteriori
Knowledge, and deterministic; which invigorates
enterprise out of demand and supply factors and are directly related to the
production and the subsequent production relations evolving from simple forms
of the early man to the complexproduction relations of the 21 century mankind…
This would not be a lecture of delving into all of Marxist
philosophy but it is necessary to give you the background of your importance as
youth avangerd to the social economic and industrial prosperity of nations and
to expose your all important factor and why social democrats embrace youth
development as the topmost priority in governance and economic prosperity of
nation states…
Whence, the factors of production which respects land,
labour, capital and entrepreneurship respect the human factor of proletariat;
of the labour force of which the youth vanguard makes the highest percentage of
the production/ labour force of Nations Nigeria inclusive..Whence the youth
active participation in the governance of the Polity cannot be undermined nor
wished away…but should be respected and given their rightful place in the
schemes of governance of the sovereignty…
But unfortunately the youth have been marginalized in the
participation in politics and governance of their polity be it in Nigeria,
Ghana, the United state, Russia or china…the story is the same…why is this ?
The first reason for youth marginalization in governance of
varies countries is the capitalist system of social and economic order which a
long the time have marginalized the bulk youth of the world to poverty,
joblessness, redundancy, lack of qualitative education, lack of entrepreneurial
skill of adaptation to the changing emerging technologies of the generation X, these
hindrances create apathy and youth frustration from participating in governance
and politics-
…in this context the capitalist system has been able to succeed in shrinking
virtually all the wealth of the world to be owned by less than 10 % citizens of
the world while the rest 10 % wealth of the world to be shared by more than 90%
citizens of the world…this abrasive gap between the rich and the poor where the
bulk of the youth are born into the poverty group of 90% and a few youth of the
world less than10% are born into the rich and supper rich class then in that
mutantis mutandis you would have a larger percentage of youth born into poverty
and in Nigeria we have about 15 million youth called almangiri in the
North which is a large army of brilliant
youth born into poverty and in the southern Nigeria we have area boys making up
of more than 20 million youth roaming the streets of Lagos, Ibadan, Benin city,
Enugu, Okenne, Igarra, Akure etc with no jobs nor skill nor hope of coming out
of that unnatural poverty trap caused by the abysmal back lash of a social order
of over successful capitalism; like the
male spider syndrome capitalism has gone moribund and it is only the government
of social democracy that can redeem Nigeria and the entire world form the evils
created by capitalism and it cabals..
This lead us to the theory of class struggle.. and as the
middle class has virtually vanished from all countries , Nigeria inclusive and
all what we have are the supper rich and the poor miserable of the semblances
of the improvisation of B Victor Hugo
and George Elliot classics that captured the situation of the Nigerian youth as
a sin qua non of worlds’..in the celebrated classic of the” Weaver of Ravelor” – where she improvised
of a wondering race of men and women who are remnants of a disinherited ,
exploited and dispossessed race-
The youth restiveness to escape this poverty trap is the
backlash of decades of living dangerously as a Nation! Youth restiveness,
though reactionary and embarrassing to capitalism and its dubious philosophy of
mundane capital accumulation of ROI- Return on investment ; which has shortchanged
the entire youth of the world and robbed them of their birth rights as citizens
of the world… In the case of Nigeria, bad governance, corruption, inept
leadership, nepotism, tribalism, larceny of state and private holding,
mismanagement and lots other factors are responsible for the poverty of the
youth class-
Youth class? Yes!- this would not fit within the academic
classification of class nomenclature but for the purpose of mobilizing the
youth of the world it would be observed that the proletariat class of the
exploited the youth are more than 80% in that class of the down trodden of the citizens
of the world so in the theory of approximation and synonym the proletariat
class could as well be adapted as the youth class of the exploited and
dispossessed,. Please accept by novae definitions albeit bitter…but the truth
is bitter…
Is there a means of solving this problem of escaping the
nagging youth poverty, exploitation, redundancies, joblessness and frustrations?..
yes; your way out of this quagmires as a class of exploited is to unite under
youth brigades and participate actively in the politics and governance of your
polity…by registering as voters, by collecting your permanent voters cards, by
contesting elective positions and using your votes wisely to vote into power credible
honest and dedicated leaders with vision, and staunchness to carry the sovereignty
to the desired standard of equity, economic and industrial prosperity…
Next on the line of hindrances of youth participation could
be summed up as youthful exorbitance, too much playfulness as observed by a
Russia celebrated classic writer Turgenev, who improvised of the youth of
contemporary time as…”A brilliant class of peoples who simply jokes away their
lives” out of un seriousness, lack luster mentality, lager mentality, lackadaisical
attitude of I don’t care to life, cultism, keeping bad company, crimes,
prostitution ,drugs, unprotected sex causing HIV/AIDS Pandemic etc…all these negative
vices and attitudes impacts on your life and it impairs functional productivity…
Remember that tough times never last it is the tough peoples
that last…so you would be confronted by as wide range of problems and
temptations as your jockey along time and space but it is your determination to
succeed despite all odds that can lead the youth to success in contemporary debauchery…as
observed by Nikoli Gogol in the Notes of a Mad Man ..”when he observed a youth
cadre that are so timid and visionless not capable of taking courageous task
even for their own survival talk more of being able to live in the spirit of
their heroic ancestors”…and that description fits expertly as the present
disposition of the Nigerian youth and that of the world in generality..while
another great writer of Russian genre adds up the summary of the path to true
greatness; Fedorov Dostoyevsky observed
that-“ power belong to those who can muster the courage and pick it up”…whence
the power of governance belong to the
youth class if only they can muster the courage and pick it up..And with this
courage you can repair the damages to you class….
How can you pick up the power of governance as advised by
Fedorov Dosteryevsky in his classic of the Brothers’ Karamazov?... virtually
all emerging democracies of the world the youth class form over 60% of the voters
in general polls…so if you use your votes wised as one united block whoever you,
the youth vote for en block certainly
will win in the election…so your voters cards
and your using it wisely is the key to picking up the power….and that
makes it imperative for you to come out en mass to register in the ongoing
voter registration in Edo state and to collect your PVC and use it to vote into
power credible leaders that would listen to you and solve your problems in an
inclusive philosophy..While you can also put up candidates from among
yourselves to contest and represent you and in this way you would have solved
the problem of redundancies and youth neglect by leaderships in Nigeria and on
a global basis…
Conclusively the government of SDP- if voted into power has
promised to partner with the youth of Nigeria to assist them actualize the 40%
youth participation MDG Target by the African Charter of youth Development by
the year 2020. Secondly we have given same quota of 40% to the youth in the
2015 election to bring up credible youth leaders to contest the polls on the
platform of SDP in Edo state of Nigeria and perhaps in some other states. Same
also goes for women. Youth and women are exempted from paying the exorbitant
nomination fess in our party to encourage them to participate in politics and governance
while we promise to support their campaigns…and if we win our cabinet would
also in that order give 40% of all the employment to the youth and women as
well.
Thank you all for inviting me to this great occasion and
would greet you in the customary style…of ……...ALUTA CONTINUA, VICTORIA ASATA…
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