Even with so much noise about the not-too-young to run law, Nigerian voters, comprising mainly the youth, could not elect a young person as president during the 2023 polls. In fact, the nation went into the presidential poll with three main contenders whose age bracket disdains the age classification of a youth.
None of the three front runners during the presidential polls – Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Peter Obi and Atiku Abubakar – was a youth. Tinubu was 71 as of the time of the election, Obi is 62, while Atiku is 77. It was clear from the get-go that Nigeria was not ready for a youthful president. How else can one explain a situation where we have these set of people jostling to govern in a country where the law prescribes 60 years as retirement age?
But this is not a peculiar Nigerian problem; it seems to be an entirely African thing. Despite being a continent with the youngest population, Africa has the oldest presidents in the world record. Here is a short list: In Cameroon, Paul Biya is 91; Uganda’s Yoweri Museveni is 79; Republic of the Congo’s Denis Nguesso is 80; Nigeria’s Bola Tinubu is 72. In Algeria, Abdelmajid Tebboune is 78. Ghana has 80-year-old Nana Akufo Addo as its president. In Zimbabwe, we have Emmerson Mnangagwa who is 81, while Teodoro Nguema of Equatorial Guinea is 81.
A report on the continent’s oldest presidents showed that the mean age of the ten oldest leaders is 80.2 years. This, juxtaposed with the average age distribution of the continent which is just 19.4 years, showed that one out of the continent’s ten oldest presidents is four times older than the regular African.
These old, analogue and archaic-thinking men who commandeer the continent’s political space and are making it practically impossible for the tech-savvy youths to assume leadership are part of the reasons why the continent is still grappling with a mountain of development challenges.
For instance, because of their jejune way of thinking, these utterly old African leaders are fond of approaching the issue of unemployment strictly by creating welfare schemes. In Nigeria, all the president could think of as a means of assuaging the current economic hardship was to encourage state governors to distribute palliatives – rice and cash. Because such things don’t address poverty, we are still where we are.
The only solution to poverty is work. While creating a welfare scheme may seem like a conventional way of addressing the issue, investing in the tech industry and supporting the urban pop culture to help provide lots of jobs is the way to go. It takes a young and, I dare add, tech-savvy president to understand this.
Senegal stands out
Well, with 7.3 million registered voters and an election that witnessed a 61.30 percent turnout, Senegalese elected 44-year-old Bassirou Diomaye Faye as its president. Many believed that this election may well be the beginning of a radical break from the existing tradition whereby old people hijack power.
But is the emergence of Faye as Senegal President truly suggestive of a power shift from the old to the young generation on the continent?
Africa is a continent where a large majority of its population are under 30 and are frustrated by a lack of economic opportunities. As a matter of fact, the youths are desirous of good leadership and a break from old elites who have clung on to power for far too long. Perhaps this explains why many believed that Faye’s victory provides hope for the teeming young people on the continent.
As Ugandan opposition leader, Kizza Besigye rightly stated, “Senegal’s extraordinary electoral process has demonstrated, again, that with a well-mobilised, resilient and well-led population, it’s possible to non-violently achieve the desired democratic transition in Africa”.
For Senegal and Senegalese, Faye’s emergence marks the first time since independence that the opposition is winning an election in the first round. It reminds me of what happened in Nigeria during the 2015 general election where, for the first time since the return of democratic rule, the opposition wrestled power from the ruling party.
However, almost one decade later, opinions among Nigerians are divided as to whether that victory was a curse or a blessing.
While Nigerians welcomed the opposition APC’s takeover of power in 2015 with high expectations, the last nine years of governance under the party has been an utter mess. The party, especially its first president, Muhammadu Buhari, who governed in the last eight years, performed woefully.
An average Nigerian believes, and rightly so, that the last eight years under the ruling APC was nothing but colossal waste. The government that came on the mantra of change succeeded in changing the nation’s situation from bad to worse. It promised to combat corruption, address insecurity and retool the economy. None of this happened. Almost one year after the takeover of power by yet another APC government, the nation is still battling to get its bearings with blame-shifting gradually becoming a state policy.
Senegalese voters must learn a lesson from Nigeria and do all it takes to ensure that President Faye does not derail or else they will end up with the sort of change APC thrusted on the Nigerian nation.
Beyond the euphoria
As President Faye settles down for the real business of governance, he must appreciate the enormity of the challenges ahead of him and do all it takes to be a good case for the youth. Senegal is bogged down by a plethora of challenges that can only be addressed by good governance.
The most recent survey data that are publicly available for Senegal’s multidimensional poverty index (MPI) show that 50.8 percent of the population is multidimensionally poor with 18.2 percent classified as vulnerable to multidimensional poverty.
Like most African countries, Senegal is battling corruption and unemployment with available records suggesting that dearth of jobs, rising cost of living and poor health care are some of the reasons responsible for the migration among the country’s youth. So even as Faye and his supporters celebrate, they must realise that the challenges ahead are herculean.
With a 20 percent unemployment which has forced most of the country’s youth to migrate in search of greener pastures in Europe, Senegal is in a dire strait. The new president must roll up his sleeves and confront the challenges of the nation headlong, beginning with putting in place critical measures that include investment in agriculture, to reduce unemployment.
Concerted efforts must be made to create jobs for the youths. The tech sector offers a huge opportunity with enormous potential that must be harnessed to the fullest. The fact that the surest way of addressing poverty is to create jobs cannot be overstated. President Faye needs to prioritize job creation to drastically reduce migration, especially among the youths.
Faye must be told in an unmistaken term that he bargained for the job and he got it. Blame-shifting is not for him at all. He must resist the temptation to unnecessarily shift blame as we in Nigeria have been witnessing since the past eight years.
Above all, I expect President Faye to redefine the relationship with Senegal’s former colonial masters. His plan to leave the CFA Franc is plausible. The regional currency is a towering reminder of the remnants of colonialism.
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