Chief Chima Anyaso is chairman of Ceecon Energy Oil and Gas. In this interview with journalists in Lagos, Anyaso talks about his political ambition ahead of 2019. Anayo Okolie brings the excerpts:
What is the motivation behind your humanitarian and poverty alleviation activities?
There is no way you can curb insecurity, fight crime, stop kidnapping or stop armed robbery without youth empowerment. Who are the people that are kidnapping and stealing? It is the young people; the old people cannot carry arms, because they cannot run.
If in the course of trying to rob or kidnap somebody, they are faced with a counter response they cannot run; so it is the youth that have the energy. Why we are interested in alleviating poverty among the youth is so that that energy is channelled to a better and more productive use. If the youths are empowered, they will not have time for any unnecessary criminal activity.
You have been under pressure from your people to go into politics. How are you responding to that? Have you decided to go into president?
Finally, yes. Politics is one thing that every youth, as a matter of must, should venture into directly or indirectly, because we are the ones that are complaining and it is about time that we got involved so that we take our destinies in our own hands and fix our future.
When I say directly or indirectly, does not mean that you have to run for any elective position, rather it means that you must belong to a political party, must have your voter’s card which gives you the right to vote for your preferred candidate and be voted for, because you cannot sit down there and be complaining about the strength, capability, legitimacy and looks of the older folks; what about you, what is wrong with you, you that is so healthy, strong and intelligent.
As an individual, I am strongly moving a campaign to get the youth involved in politics. We have started with #NN19 (New Nigeria 2019). Before the end of this year we will launch it so that all the youth will know what we are talking about; because by the grace of God, come 2019, we will have a new Nigeria that everybody will be happy with and, by the grace of God, we will have more percentage of youths in positions of authority than we have ever had before in this country.
If you are elected into a political office in 2019, what would be your focus?
My focus will still be on the same direction, which is the youth. Like I said earlier, I am a firm believer in education and that it should start from the cradle (primary education). I am going to make sure that the younger ones are educated; from there we will move to the youth and see how we can channel their focus and their mind-set to the right things, which is positive productivity. That is what I believe will save this nation going forward, because when the youths are educated and empowered, then we would have a truly bright future.
How do you intend to motivate the youth for your 2019 agenda?
You see that fear is our problem, but we are going to solve it using the social media because that is where we have our strength. Ninety per cent of the old folks do not know how to use the laptops, ipads and ipods; some of them don’t know how to use the internet. We, as youths, know how to use and operate these things. It is going to be a movement/campaign and we are strategically going to get all the youths involved. We don’t need money; all we need is our strength which is in our numbers, so we are going to educate ourselves so that we become more involved. We would allay their fears, engage them and we will be constantly involved with them because they know us and we know them.
We would get down to the grassroots, eat with them, drink with them, dance with them and get them to understand the realities on ground. We will get them to understand that it is their votes that count and not their money, and if they have the ability to vote then they have all the money they need. The youths make up about 70 per cent of Nigerian population, so what else are we talking about? It is the population that is important not the money and this is what they need to know, it is ignorance that is the problem. If we agree and stand together, how then is it possible for us not to achieve our dreams? If it is by rigging, how will the old people rig us out? Are they the ones who do the rigging? They use this same youths for the rigging.
We are no longer going to be available for their rigging purposes; so if we say we no longer available for rigging and political thuggery, we want to make up our mind and say now we want to be responsible, we want to take back our country, we want to vote for ourselves, we want to vote for the right candidate and we are going to protect the votes.
What is your advice to the youth, particularly, ahead of 2019?
My advice is that the youth should brace up, be focused, be organised, come together and make our voice to be heard. The opportunity is there, 2019 is very clear for the youth. We must be responsible, and when the old folks see our level of togetherness and responsibility, they will give us the opportunity. What we are asking for is an opportunity to serve, to give back to our country; we are not going to disrespect our elders, we are not in any competition with our older political leaders.
They are our political fathers, and we would respect them as much as they would respect us and give us the opportunity to participate in determining our future, which is what we are asking for. We are going to do this respectfully and decently. One thing I can assure our political fathers is, if you are not qualified, don’t just think of participating because if you are depending on Nigerian youths to rig election in 2019, it is not going to be possible. We have started the campaign and we are going to sustain the campaign until we become responsible and say no to thuggery and rigging.
