Leadership Antecedent Markets Youths Coming Into Politics – Osun Law Maker | GOVERNMEND
Contesting in an election is expensive but not really expensive if you have a good track record to reference. This will make people trust your capacity without expecting money or materials as a means of buying their mandate.
Seyi Oyetunbi reported:
The law maker representing Obokun State Constituency, Hon. Adewumi Adeyemi, preferably called Irekandu, while speaking on GovernMend during the monthly virtual interview that lasted 2hours, has described the increase in youth involvement in politics as an elixir to malgovenance.
He stated that the youths have to join active politics. “Money should not be a reason to stay out of politics. I know many feel they don’t have the required influence and money to contest with the old people, but I want to tell you that, that’s not the case. Using myself as an example; I finished from Federal University of Technology, Akure (FUTA), while I was in school I was playing a huge leadership role, as a matter of fact I became the Students’ Union president towards my final year. I wasn’t doing it because I knew I would end up in politics, I did it because it was need-based – there’s a leadership vacuum that I felt it would be a platform to fix everything I considered dysfunctional. All of these helped me after many years after I had graduated by the time I decided to represent my constituents.” He added.
He said, while financial constrain may not allow a young man have a political spread only if he has no leadership antecedent. He explained that when he needed to raise fund for his campaign, people he had no encounter with donated massively, alot of financial, material and moral help were just coming forth. The law maker was not surprised because of the community development project of promoting education that he singlehandedly carried out as a Corp member, during his compulsory one year service as one of the countless projects he had carried out.
His foundation that serves as his philanthropy wing was created while he was an undergraduate. In his opinion, a youth who’s indeed a leader must have things to show for long before incubating the idea of contesting in an election. He maintained that we need youth to change the outlook of our society – alot of developments need to materialise with the efforts of the youths.
During the question and answer phase of the interview, he was asked to explain how he managed to emerge victorious against all odds, he responded, saying: “my antecedent did the work; many were ready to support my candidacy due to their understanding of what I stand for.”
Source: GOVERNMEND
