The rallying call for youth participation in the electoral process ahead of the 2023 general elections in Nigeria is reaching its crescendo.
The 2020 protests that rocked the country under the umbrella of the highhandedness of the operatives of the defunct arm of the Nigeria police, Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), was the precious opportunity judiciously utilised by youths to express their frustration over the leadership failure in the country that has thrown them into a state of hopelessness.
- But there have been campaigns urging them to wake up from their political slumber and determine those who will steer the ship of the country for another four years from next year. Popular Nigerian standup comedian, Lawrence Osarenkhoe, popularly known as MC Casino or OfficialMCCasino is also urging the youths to arise, register and collect their Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs) before the exercise.
OfficialMCCasino also admonished the youths to stop selling their vote to politicians, urging them to vote for leaders who have the capability to move the country forward.
“The role I think the youths can play in restructuring Nigeria. First, let everybody get their PVC. Secondly, let’s not vote with sentiments, let’s not sacrifice integrity on the altar of sentiments, let’s not sacrifice our antecedent on the altar of ethnicity”,
OfficialMCCasino sated in a recent interview.
“What I’m saying is, if somebody is a Yoruba or Benin and he is contesting for the president of this country, and I know he lacks the leadership ability to lead us a people, we should not support that person because he is from our linguistic bracket.
“Let’s look for a candidate that has the capacity and the masses should stop collecting money from politicians, because when they get into office, the first thing they’ll do is to collect the money back. All the money they gave you, are going to collect them back, they are not fools now. Most of the roads you are complaining that they have not done, my brother, you don eat the road”, OfficialMCCasino added.
OfficialMCCasino,, who was a Students Union Government vice president at the University of Benin in 2010, revealed that he used his position as a popular humorist in his undergraduate days to fight for the rights of students.
“I find out in my life that I have this follow-come activism spirit in me. I want to speak for others, I don’t like oppression, I hate when people are being opposed, when there by an individual or institution, so i found out that the only way I can legitimately fight for the rights of other people, fight for the oppressed is to be part of the student unionism and by the grace of God, after my tenure, I was given an award as the best executive for that year, that was 2010/2011 academic session. Our achievements are there, and we left some granite-cast legacies there”, declared OfficialMCCasino.