Hon. Prince Rotimi Agunsoye, Member, Representing Kosofe Federal Constituency, expressed his disappointment for the low turnout of the youths during the just concluded Lagos East Senatorial District bye-election which took place in Somolu, Kosofe, Ikorodu, Epe and Ibeju Lekki on Saturday, 5th December, 2020.
In an exclusive interview, Agunsoye known for supporting youths was shocked at the rate at which the youths stayed away from pulling units and commends the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for a successful election.
“I got in here about quarter past 8:30am to cast my own vote but INEC people they were here but haven’t started. Immediately they set up their equipment we went into voting properly and I was the first person to cast the vote here. I will tell you one important thing, the card reader, good enough that they have a card reader here but the time spent on one person was too much, like 5/6 minutes. I think by now they should have been through from that but I give it to INEC, they are doing mavelouslly well but they still need to improve with that card reader.
What I will say here is that people stayed back at home, not coming to vote. With what we are experiencing in the country, its not the best; we still need to come out to cast our votes to elect the candidate of our choice. The person that will give quality representation is important. Look at what happened in America despite the fact that Trump is still there he serve only one time, the people came out to vote and Trump couldn’t believe it. So I will advise the governed, that to make their votes count is very important, that’s the only way you can move the country forward” he said.
When asked about his reaction to the #EndSars protest and the low turnout of youths at polling units, Agunsoye said: “Thank you very much, the last protest were in two folds, the one by the enlightened youths, they came out en mass to protest, peaceful protest nothing wronged with that before the protest was hijacked by hoodlums, now l thought the youths would have coordinated themselves and come out to show with their votes that they mean business, but with what I can see they’re not coordinated at all, you’ll see that the people you are seeing are the middle aged and the aged people that are coming out to cast their votes, where are our youths?
I believe in the youths, I believe solidly in the youths, the government of the day is for the youth and the future is for them, so where are they? We can’t see them around, I am saddened, they need to come out with the kind of work they did during the protest, honestly I was thinking about that, I was afraid that look this people (the youths), they were more than prepared but I tell you this has shocked me, this called for a serious meditation that why the youths could not organize themselves with the social media they use in calling their people to come out and protest, why couldn’t they do that? By coordinating their people to come out to vote and elect the candidate of their choice.
Well, we still have a long way to go and they still have a long way to go as well but we’ll continue to do what we can do to make life meaningful for the people. It’s not life that matters but the courage you put into life, that’s what matters. Nobody should be discouraged about what’s going on because one thing I know for sure Nigeria will be better”.
On the issue facing Nigeria, Rotimi Agunsoye said that there is hope for this country but the problem we are having is the problem of insincerity in all ramification of life.
“The leaders or the leadership of the country are not sincere and the governed are insincere as well. When we are talking about insecurity in the country, we know what to do, we know quite well that if we spend money on intelligence gathering, we will solve the problem, not that we don’t know but are we spending money in that regard? One of the questions we should continue to ask ourselves.
Again you see, do we get things by merit in this country? We know those who can solve the problem of this country, are we allowing them to get to the position of solving the problems? We know quite well that we have challenges in the county but instead of allowing people that can solve the problems, that can do something to do away with all our challenges, we’ll not allow them to do it, so how do we now move forward? That is very important in the aspects of the youths and the middle aged to come out and use their votes, we should allow the people who can do the job to get to the position, we should allow people to get things done by merit, we’ve done away with merit in this country”.
Speaking on his take on 2023, Hon. Agusoye said in whatever factors, calculations, tactics “we take into play don’t ever forget the factor of God, in the book of Romans 9:15 when God said unto Moses I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy on and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion on, if you go to verse 16 where He says It is not of him that willeth or whom that runneth but of God that shows mercy. The mercy of God will still work for us in this country I believe in that God, kaka ki omo olore ko jin si koto mono mono ma tan ina”
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