Ojie Iniegbeboh, the member-elect of the Edo State House of Assembly representing the Igueben Constituency, has revealed the real problem that Nigerian youths face when it comes to political participation in the country.
According to him, the main barrier to youth participation in politics in the country is a lack of funding.
He said;
Cash — you must have it. If you don’t have money in the first place, you have no business in politics.
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) member-elect said during a live appearance on Friday’s edition of Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily that finance is a big deal for youth in politics.
He submitted that;
Finance is a big deal to contest in an election. If you don’t have the finance, you can’t go anywhere. You spend money moving around from ward to unit levels to the state secretariat.
You spend money, so you must have some good finance. To be able to purchase your forms, you must spend finance. To be able to go round the delegates of the primaries, you must spend finance.
Recounting how he pulled through, Iniegbeboh narrated how he had to go to the various delegates during his party’s primary election and other influential party members to contribute to his expenses.
He advanced that;
We were already spending a whole lot of money trying to hold delegates because we had over 150 to 200 delegates we were supposed to see.
We had to spend money, buy gifts, lobby them, plead with them; it wasn’t easy but at the end of the day, God saw us through which I emerged as a candidate.