Involvement in politics is particularly significant for young people, as they are recipients of the fruits of the existing political systems. Yet, this involvement needs critical scrutiny, as politics is not a single-day business where one sells and buys.
It is a serious engagement as one’s political decision goes a long way to affect everyone’s life, peace, productivity, freedom, and dignity.
Based on the current state of affairs, both locally and globally, it is of significant importance to engage in and familiarise oneself with local politics. While career development seems to take over our lives as we struggle to grow and earn, all that can be shattered because of a poor political setting and players, whose priorities and delivery are far from what many would consider as of value or even remotely good.
Involvement in politics is particularly significant for young people, as they are recipients of the fruits of the existing political systems. Yet, this involvement needs critical scrutiny, as politics is not a single-day business where one sells and buys. It is a serious engagement as one’s political decision goes a long way to affect everyone’s life, peace, productivity, freedom, and even dignity.
It’s a thought I posit with confidence that young people can actually determine the course of political life, given the dependency of the current political systems, especially in Africa, by simply being clear and consistent with two things: “Yes” and “No.” If endorsement of political causes is based on genuine patriotic spirit, there are high chances that young people will not be used as mercenaries for corrupt politics.
For instance, in Tanzania, demographic data from the 2022 census show that around 77 percent of the population is aged 34 and below, while about 42 percent are children aged 0-14. We can never cite this data enough because it reminds us of the immense potential of young people.
Now the question is: Is the patriotic passion in our young people prior to elections reflected in the results of the elections? Are those said to be elected representing the mind of the corpus of the electorate? The largest portion of the electorate is also young people, a population group that seriously dissent corruption and poor governance. Young people of today, though, have continuity in terms of patriotism; they have exemplified a clear discontinuity in the line of camp politics. All they express is their quest for just and fair governance for the common good.
In the online spaces where young people speak their minds regarding African politics and even local Tanzanian politics, their disapproval is real, the questions are realistic, the doubts and anxiety of disappointment, deception and political abuses are all heard time and again. There are observable realities that have caused this. We cannot invalidate these opinions as mere ‘online opinions’; people always use the means they feel are safe for them when it comes to whistleblowing and calling for accountability.
Undeniably, these problematic dynamics are similar for most African countries, though extremes differ. Regardless, they should not be taken as normal just based on the fact that they are common.
While it is important for young people to nurture the mindset of growth that envisions true and integral progress through genuine personal participation and involvement, the puzzling question is why it is difficult to translate demographic power into policy power.
The answer, among others, is a kind of sabotage of the process by young people who accept to engage in politics from the other end while aware that such kills the dream of a better democracy and political engagement, which will make life better. The political pyramids and dynasties depend a lot on the participation of young people as functional missing links, however little their participation.
Many young people are forced to engineer ideas they don’t endorse, and to fight wars they don’t understand. There can surely be a change if young people learn to have a personal, genuine stand with regard to the wide spectrum of socio-political affairs, especially when endorsement and choice of leaders is involved. “No” should mean what it says.
Though it may sound idealistic, there would be fewer sham elections around the continent if young people really chose to stand for the truth they discern deeply within. It is contrary, however, as money can buy good people. Money can buy young patriots and make them foot soldiers and vote-vendors for despots; money can also rent crowds of young people for rallies, and money can make young people material co-operators in campaigns of the people they don’t genuinely like.
The result is that young people become not just recipients of bad politics; they also become victims of economic pressures and even collaborators in dissenting systems. Every little sum of money invested in the circle of deceptive politics, whether as cash hand-outs or whatever is given, is a deprivation of the common good that is already in serious deficiency.
The youth can break this cycle, a choice that comes with a price. Unless the real problem is faced, there will be no progress. This begins by nurturing integrity from a personal level, refusing to be bought or pushed to compromise one’s conscience, and not to influence others in the same path, and in our time, especially through social media. Cooperation of any kind with corrupt circles is a deep betrayal of the dreams of this 77 percent majority.
Shimbo Pastory is an advocate for positive social transformation and a student at the Loyola School of Theology, Ateneo de Manila University, Philippines.
