The National Chairman of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Kabiru Turaki, has warned Nigerians to avoid accepting instant gratification in exchange for their votes during upcoming elections across the country.
Turaki warned during the Bala Abdulkadir Muhammed Colloquium organised to mark the 68th birthday of the Governor of Bauchi, held in the state on Monday, ahead of the 2027 general elections.
The PDP Chair, who spoke directly to the youths, advised that exchanging their votes for “money and spaghetti” denies them both moral and legal rights to hold their leaders accountable for good governance.
He advised youths to rather get involved in politics and make sure they elect good leadership representatives into offices.
“I want to speak to the Nigerian youths. Power is never given. Power is taken.
“If you sit down and expect that power will be given to you- you are 18, and they will tell you that youths of today are leaders of tomorrow.
“You are 28, 38, you will even get to 68, and they will still continue to tell you that. Don’t worry, you are youths, you are leaders of tomorrow. When will that tomorrow come?
“It is often said that a society gets the quality of leadership they deserve.
“If you are not going to cast your vote until you are given money – you can not come and say you cannot vote until you are given spaghetti.
“You can not say you can not vote, but you will carry fresh green leaf, depicting that your vote is for sale, and you expect that there will be quality representation. Certainly not!
“At that point, you will have neither the legal right nor moral right to demand quality leadership for your people”, he warned.
He advised youths to get involved in politics and also elect good leaders into office.
“Let us know that we need to get involved in what happens around us.
“It is important that we stand up, Nigerians. When you look at the Senate of yesterday, today, if we are not careful, the quality of legislation will be decreasing with each passing day.
But is this the responsibility of the senators and legislature? No! Some of the problem is the Nigerian factor.”
Turaki said he disagreed with the earlier speaker, Datti Baba-Ahmed, who was also the vice-presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in the 2023 elections.
Baba-Ahmed had argued that the independence of the Nigerian Senate has been weakened by repeated interference from the executive arm of government.
“The most important defining attribute of the Nigerian Senate, I’ll like to put them as four: the independence that it has struggled to maintain, largely due to repeated incursions by the executive arm of government,” he said.
He also said the Senate has been denied “variety and vibrancy”, while questioning whether senators represented the executive or the people who elected them.
“The Senate struggles to know who they represent. Is it the almighty executive, led by the president, or is it the people that the Senate is representing?” he asked.
Baba-Ahmed said lawmakers who prioritise the interests of the people could face risks to their political careers.
The former LP vice-presidential candidate said he looked forward to a Senate made up of more members willing to defend citizens’ rights and assert the independence of the legislature.
“The second is that the Senate has been denied variety and vibrancy. Again, too many examples for me to mention. The third is that the Senate struggles to know who they represent,” he said.
“Is it the almighty executive, led by the president, or is it the people that the Senate is representing? This third point is, in fact, too fundamental because unless you have people like Kaura and my humble self that tend to enforce through independence across them, you’ll have to make a clear choice.
“You represent your boss, you represent your benefactor, and you represent your leader. If you represent the people, you’re at risk; your seed is at risk.
“I long for a senate that is full of people like Kaura because, as I said, he is simply that leader you will not know of until the people’s rights are breached.”
Responding to Baba-Ahmed’s stance, Turaki noted that attention should be on electing quality legislators who will make laws capable of improving the quality of life of Nigerians.
“I disagree with my brother Datti Baba Ahmed when he said that the focus should be where we should be going because he feels very strongly that there is no difference between yesterday and today.
“I disagree because there is a world of difference between yesterday and today. And unless w e understand yesterday and discuss today, then it may hamper our progression to tomorrow, as far as legislation in this country is concerned.
“And even at that, for me, the attention should not be on legislation. The attention is on quality legislation, because every day, laws are being churned out at the legislature.
“But the question is: are these legislations fundamental to our needs in this country? Will the legislation add value to the lives of Nigerians? Will these legislations, for once, attack the problem of; for instance, hunger, unemployment, poverty, the problem of insecurity that we are facing today?
“It is not that when a bill appears in the executive, and I am not restricting myself to the legislative alone.
“Maybe when it is the matter of taxes alone, and you find the executives operating with unimaginable speed, and add burden to already suffocating Nigerians. Certainly, that is not what we employed the senators and other members of the National Assembly to do”, he argued.
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