Babatunde Raji Fashola, minister of works and housing, has said that unlike what is suggested by economists that everything remains the same, politics draw its oxygen from changes in the society and that constitute the differences in each election cycle.
Fashola said one of such changes in recent times is that young people who can’t vote in 2019 have attained the age that allows them to legally participate in elections and that matters.
The former governor of Lagos state made the submission during his lecture as the guest speaker at TheNiche Annual Lecture 2022, organised by TheNiche Newspapers at Agip Recital Hall, MUSON Centre, Onikan Lagos.
Also speaking at the event, Tanko Yakasai, a first republic politician who was also the chairman of the occasion noted that the country is currently at crossroads.
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“I feel it is my place to emphasise that Nigeria is at the crossroad. the current political leadership is far from being optimal. The system has succeeded in creating political entrepreneurs running the country as a private institution at the expense of 200 million Nigerians,” Yakasai said.
“It is shameful that Nigeria is known to be heavily endowed but poor. The dismal performance of successive government in harnessing natural resources and a large population has been blamed for insecurity, youth restiveness, banditry among others.”
Themed ‘2023 elections and the future for Nigeria”, TheNiche Annual Lecture is a yearly intellectual discourse, aimed at proffering solutions to some of Nigeria’s most daunting problems, according to Ikechukwu Amaechi, managing director/editor-in-chief of TheNiche.
“Twenty days from today, campaigns will start ahead of the 2023 elections. The idea of the lecture is to inform Nigeria that elections have consequence. The decisions of over 90 million Nigerians in 2023 will determine Nigeria’s future,” Amaechi said.
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