Saraki challenges youths to leverage their numbers to take over in 2023

Nigeria’s former senate president, Bukola Saraki has asked Nigerian youths to participate in the 2023 general election, TopNaija can confirm.

While sharing at a luncheon to commemorate the Independence Day anniversary in Abuja on Friday, Saraki said youths should be involved because the country has not gotten leadership right.

The former Kwara governor said the conversation Nigerians should have ahead of the forthcoming general election should be about the quality of leadership they want.

“I think what we have not been able to get right is leadership values. I think what we need to talk about is quality of leadership,” he said.

“Until young people like you take it upon yourselves to say ‘what kind of Governor do I want’; ‘what kind of Senator do I want,’ or ‘what kind of President do I want’, things will not change.

“If you take charge and ownership of this entire process, when you get the right type of President who has been voted in by you and knows that you have the numbers and capacity to vote him out, he will pick more young people like you when he picks his cabinet.

“At the end of the day, this is how it works as you go down the line. This is why you must take ownership of this process to show our generation that you are ready and serious about deciding the direction of Nigeria.

“If you look at the numbers, they work in your favour. Even if you can register just half of the 18 million unregistered youth voters that are between 18 and 35, your voting bloc will decide everything.”

Bukola Saraki was the 13th President of the Senate of Nigeria from 2015 to 2019 and Chair of the 8th Nigeria National Assembly.