Leadership Question and Development: The Role of Youths in Politics of Taraba State

 

By Comr. Isa Mohammed

During the 3rd Edition of Taraba Youths Round Table Sponsored by 1000 Youths Like Minds with the theme “Understanding Leadership, Governance and Development” Held on 6th February, 2021 at Shield Hotel, Jalingo

"Leadership Question and Development: The Role of the Youth in Politics of Taraba State"

There is a common saying that there are four kinds of people in the world: those who watch things happen; those who let things happen; those who ask what happened and those who make things happen. Leaders are those who make things happen (Munroe, 1993), Becoming a Leader.

Introduction

One of the fundamental problems bedeviling Nigeria has been the lack of qualitative and selfless leadership at all levels of government. This problem has become more pronounced than ever before with the return to civil rule in 1999. In the academic literature, there are over 35,000 definitions of leadership by different scholars. The importance of leadership to the development of a nation or organization cannot be over-emphasized.

Leadership and development are intertwined and will forever remain inseparable. This is as a result of the level at which the two concepts are studied and understood by scholars. The character, nature, and quality of leaders in any society conditions the level of development.

 Hence, good governance is a result of good leadership in any society. According to Madubuike (2008), Nigeria is one of the unfinished national projects of the twentieth century. The leadership question and politics are some of the key issues that affect Nigeria’s development aspiration. 

A World Bank Report published in 1989 categorically declared: “Underlying the litany of Africa’s development problems is a crisis of governance”. By ‘governance’ is meant the exercise of power to manage a nation’s affairs. Good governance as a concept originated from African scholars that studied state-society relations in Africa (World Bank, 1989; Mkandawire, 2010).

As a bastion of democracy, the youth's major obstacles in politics have been on the quality and quantity of representation, youth inclusion in governance, and struggles towards the domestication of various youths conventions and policies in Nigeria and Taraba state. For instance, the 30% Youth Affirmative Action (YAA). There is also the lack of mentorship for the youths and among the youths.

The point of departure of this paper is that, the youth have been used and abused in the electoral process by the political class through god-father politics as political thugs and underdogs in the political space. Pathetically, the youths suffer political exclusion in governance in all ramifications. The situation has adversely affected youth participation and representation in politics. 

Therefore, it is in this context that this paper will examine the role of youths in the politics of Taraba state specifically from 1999 within the purview of youths’ contributions to democracy, party politics, good governance, economy, and sustainable development.

The paper is divided into five sections beginning with the introduction. Section one explores what is leadership and leadership question? While section two deals with leadership and development: the nexus. In section three, the role of youths in Taraba politics is highlighted. Section four is on the youth agenda for political participation.  Lastly, in section five, the way forward through a generational change expectedly wraps up the paper.

Mohammed write from Department of Political Science and International Relations

Taraba State University, Jalingo