Former Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has emphasised the necessity of political participation to achieve holistic and structural change in developing societies.
Osinbajo made these remarks at the Technology, New Media, Citizens, and Governance (TNCG) conference held in Lagos on Thursday.
The event themed ‘Technology: The Present and Future of Political Action in Africa’ was convened by Enough is Enough Nigeria and BudgIT.
Delivering his keynote titled: ‘Technology as a Catalyst for Political Action in Africa’, at the event, Osinbajo argued that avoiding politics under the guise of remaining pure hinders the scale of reform required in critical sectors.
“In a democratic society where the objective of political action is to make substantial and structural change, this may only be possible within the context of partisan politics,” he said.
Osinbajo stressed that political action must result in measurable and tangible outcomes, warning that protests alone, while powerful, are not sufficient to resolve deep societal issues.
“Political action must lead somewhere. It must move a step closer to resolving the issue that cripples our society,” he said.
Citing examples like Nigeria’s #EndSARS movement and Kenya’s Gen Z uprising, Osinbajo highlighted how social media and digital platforms have been used for real-time communication, awareness creation, and mobilisation. He, however, argued that protest alone cannot lead to structural change the people clamour for.
Osinbajo noted the economic toll of protests, particularly in poor societies where many depend on daily earnings.
“In poor societies, every day of protest is valuable. It means that millions of informal workers and traders make a huge sacrifice because they earn on a daily basis,” he explained.
He added that while protests generate a sense of power and excitement, they must evolve into concrete political action to achieve lasting change.
“There is a sense of power and excitement that comes with protest. Political action must go beyond protests and the euphoria that it brings,” Osinbajo said.
Osinbajo criticised the elite and civil society’s reluctance to engage in politics, describing the notion of “not getting your hands dirty” as counterproductive.
“The puritan stance of the elite, which of course includes those in civil societies, is that we should not get our hands dirty in politics. This will not achieve change at a scale in any important area of concern,” he stated.
He urged those seeking meaningful reform to embrace political power, despite its challenges.
“For the depth of change that is required in developing countries, political power is required,” he said.
Reflecting on his tenure as attorney general of Lagos State between 1999 and 2007, Osinbajo credited his political role for enabling him to implement significant reforms in the justice system. He noted that his earlier efforts as a university lecturer had yielded little progress.
He also disclosed that himself, Pat Utomi, Wale Edun, the current minister of finance and coordinating economy, and later Tunde Irukere drafted the social programmes in the All Progressives Congress (APC) manifesto long before he was selected as the party’s vice presidential candidate in 2014.
Osinbajo said his emergence as the vice president made possible the implementation of the programmes which include, N-Power, school feeding, conditional cash transfer and the likes.
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