A legal luminary, Barrister Niyi Akintola (SAN) has advised the youths who may want to venture into politics to have means of livelihood before doing so.
Barrister Akintola stated this while speaking with Rulers’ World shortly after delivering his speech at a colloquium with the theme “Political Parties and Democracy in Nigeria since 1960” organised by a public affairs analyst, Mr Azeez Fatai Adesokan recently.
Niyi Akintola, who was the keynote speaker at the event said as noble as party politics is, anybody that wants to take part in it should have seasonal means of livelihood.
According to him, “well, it is noble to take part in party politics, it is what one should encourage but I will advise that anybody that wants to take part in party politics should have seasonal means of livelihood, that’s my personal opinion. To me, being in politics should not be a profession, it should be an occupation. My leader who brought me into politics, late Chief Bola Ige of blessed memory, said that clearly to us, “you must have season means of livelihood” but what we are having now is that some people have turned politics into a career, some people cannot point to a particular means of livelihood for them. Politics has become their major industry.”
Speaking further on whether there are any criteria required before joining a political party, Barrister Akintola, who is an APC stalwart and one of the aspirants for the gubernatorial election in Oyo State, said what is required is that an individual must have demonstrated capacities to lead, citing the example of when he joined politics as a member of the State House of Assembly in 1992.
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“When I joined politics as a member of the House of Assembly, I had the advantage of seeing those who are in politics in the first republic through Hansard, I read about them. Those who participated in politics were the best in their communities, not just anybody. But what do we have today, because of lack of something to do, many of them don’t have jobs, They just jump into politics. That is not my idea and that is why many of our youths are having problems because that is what they are now taking as their major industry. Many of them are becoming social problems after serving as local government chairman, councillors or commissioner for four years and after four years they become a nobody.”
The colloquium which was held at the Fresh FM multipurpose hall, had dignitaries from all political divides in attendance. They include former Minister of Communication, Barrister Adebayo Shittu, Professor Adeolu Akande, Chairman Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC), Chief Adebayo Adelabu, APC gubernatorial candidate in the 2019 general election in Oyo State, House of Representatives member, Hon. Tolu Sadipe, Senator Ayo Adeseun, Mr Abimbola Adekanmbi, former Commissioner for Finance, Oyo State, Minority Leader, Oyo State House of Assembly, Hon. Asamiya Alarape, Chairman, Oyo House of Assembly Service Commission, Barrister Abdulwasih Musa among others.
The colloquium which came in two sessions had Professor Babatunde Oni from the Faculty of Law, the University of Lagos as the Keynote Speaker, Hon. Tolu Akande-Sadipe, member of the House of Representatives as Lead Speaker while Dr Abdulwasih Musa, Mr Abimbola Adekanmbi, Ayodeji Ismail Kareem, Hon. Asimiyu Alarape and Mr Demola Layade as panellists. They spoke on the importance of Youths and Women in Nigeria Economic Development and Democracy.
The second session had Barrister Niyi Akintola as the keynote speaker and Professor Adeolu Akande as speaker. They, with other members of the panel, have spoken on the Political Parties & Democracy in Nigeria since 1960.
Hon. Tolu Akande-Sadipe in her remark stressed the importance of giving women a chance to exhibit their God-given skills in administration outside the home for the country to move forward.
According to her, “when you look at the population of Nigeria, you look at the population of women to men and look at where the women are and where the men are in politics, there are twelve (12) women in the midst of 360. A woman has intelligence, a woman has the education, a woman has administrative skills, after all, they are running the homes, taking care of the children, that’s the administrative skills, and that all should be allowed to showcase those skills outside the home. It is a God-given skill. So in Nigeria, we need to have real orientation, we need to rethink this issue of patriarchy because it is patriarchy that is holding us back and it is not allowing us to use our resources as they should be used.
Also Speaking with Rulers’ World, Mr Abimbola Adekanmbi described the event as a good development in Oyo State politics to have an intellectual discussion that would bring all political divides together to share their views on a topical issue.
While congratulating the convener, Mr Fatai Adesokan, for coming up with such a brilliant idea, Mr Adekanmbi noted that a lot of the things shared at the forum would help to further deepen politics in Oyo State and Nigeria as a whole.
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