The Convener, We2gether Movement, Mr Ibrahim Abdulkarim, tells GODFREY GEORGE about the youth forum and how young people can take advantage of their population to forge a formidable future for the country
Please tell us about yourself, including your educational background and occupation?
My name is Ibrahim Hussain Abdulkarim. I am an ICT strategist and business development executive with practical expertise in the design and delivery of high-performance information and business processes improvement solutions to address complex business problems. I graduated with BSc in Geography from the Bayero University, Kano and I am the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of EasyGIS Limited. I am also the Convener of We2geda Movement.
What inspired We2gether and what philosophy underpins it?
The We2gether Movement is a first of its kind national movement which comprises professionals from all walks of life, business owners and youths across the country. The movement is timely in responding to the yearnings and aspirations of the Nigerian youths for an institutional organisation to give them a sense of political relevance and competence to seize power through the legitimate means of ballots.
As a coalition of youths who want to take the bull by the horns. How large is the membership base of We2gether?
Our membership is open to people to register and get a We2gether identity card. Once they have done that, we decide that we are going to use a formula which we call the ‘Nine by Five by Five Formula’ to start up an exclusive membership. We need people that would understand what we stand for. Following the formula, nine by five would give us 64. If we multiply it by another five, it would give us around 250 persons. A WhatsApp group accepts around that number, so we would use this formula to spread to different regions. We would get around 250 people at each ward. We have about 8,809 wards. If we do the calculation, we are going to have about 2.3 million people. So, the entire issue now is to see if professionals are going to be engaging at the ward levels, talking to themselves about the kind of Nigeria they want. We would have to bring out a manifesto on the kind of Nigeria we want. Then, we can raise the number based on the demand as the election approaches. To join the train, kindly visit the site at www.we2geda.ng
What are your exact intentions or aims; to run for political offices?
The We2geda movement is for us to redefine political space and create a space for young, energetic and competent Nigerians to be part of the political process. We think there has been a disconnect. The youths are 70 per cent of the population and we think that political awareness and readjustment can come to play. It is vital for us to tell young Nigerians the need for them to participate in politics. It cannot just be by contesting elections. We can be part of the process by engagements like crowdfunding and rooting for the kind of politician that we want to be in a particular office. When it is time to be selected, competence and knowledge of what one intends to achieve would not be compromised. That is the ideology that we want to put forward. That is the ideology of the founding fathers of this country. They agreed to keep Nigeria politically viable that it doesn’t just serve Nigeria but the whole of Africa. So, it is at this point that we decided to see how we can get competent people to represent us. These young Nigerians can make a difference in the elective positions they find themselves in. We would also encourage these Nigerians to take up political appointments so that there would be a transition process where we have a new breed of Nigerians that can take over from them (old politicians). I think because we are not participating, that is what makes the old men who are over 70 years old feel that they have to be around power for as long as they want to. But from what we have with this movement, all our aspirants will be prepared to lead this country.
I would like to mention that we are non-partisan. It is a multi-party movement but it is not attached to a single party. What we want to do is make it open so any competent Nigerian who wants to contest would come to get the ideology of our founding fathers who are supposed to take our country to a promising future and a path of consistent progress. We would be there to support them because we know politics is very expensive. So, we can come together, work together and make it a little bit cheaper for them. We would remove the issue of godfatherism and that of thuggery and other forces that inhibit young people to be part of the process. With crowdfunding and coming together, it is going to be cheap for anyone that really wants to aspire to be part of the leadership structure of the country. We really want to be part of the system for us to change the system. We2gether is a movement and other political parties are the vehicles to make it successful. So, we created a system to address all these. It is not about the big parties. We are going to have what we call a Charter of Demand for these young Nigerians based on the framework on how we are going to be elected and become a part of the system.
Many former activists and agitators for a better Nigeria have eventually used activism as a vehicle to join the political class and are now readily defending everything they used to agitate against because they are now part of government. Why should Nigerians believe that you are not on a similar mission?
I think that we are not going to ask anyone to believe us or not. When they see our activities and what we want to do, they would be convinced. We don’t have to advertise or beg anybody to key into the vision. We have seen in a lot of places people that come to use what they have to get what they want, but that is not what we are about. Go around the country and ask anyone you see if they are happy with the way things are. Do you see anyone that is pleased with the way things are going? Do you see anyone that has achieved all they set off to achieve? Nobody. Why would people who are not enjoying where they are because they rode on people to get to those places be an inspiration to us? Why would we take their path and also end up unhappy? Just take a look at all of such people, none of them is happy. This is because of the number of law enforcement agencies on their neck and the trouble they are having with the international community and the like. Do you see any of them that is happy? If you are a sensible person, you would ask yourself how our first generation selflessly did a lot of things for this country without expecting anything in return and today they are happy; their children are also happy. So, this is the kind of legacy that we want to leave behind. Having a legacy is more important than being in a government that does not have any direction or know what to do next or where next to go. Who wants to be in this kind of government where the same people have been in government since 1999? I think it is about mindset. We have to adjust that mindset and formulate a system that works for us before we can start talking about what kind of house we want to build and all that. Else, we would build that house and bandits would chase us out of the country and we wouldn’t be able to live in that house. It is possible to create a new Nigeria and this is what we are doing. We have to adjust the mindset of everybody to accept what we are going to do. We want to do what we can do so people would see and understand us and decide on their own to join us. One good thing about We2gether is that it is not a central leadership system. We take the power to the 8,809 ward leaders. Those are the leaders of We2gether and from them would the decisions of the movement be made. The leadership at the national level is just to give the platform to do what we have to do. It is a structure to make sure there is no central power the way we have seen it in the country.
One of the aims of We2gether is to unite Nigerian youths. How exactly do you want to do that in the face of deep inter-ethnic suspicions and pervading clouds of mistrust?
I think we would do that with mentoring and guidance. At We2gether, we have a mentoring programme where we would teach people to see life the way life needs to be seen. There is purpose and fulfillment in serving society and in giving your best in seeing how to build a better Nigeria for all. It is about the ideologies that we are going to practise so that in the next 10 years, it would be easier for anyone to give their daughter to you if you are a member of the We2gether Movement because the person knows that the person has inculcated the values of the founding fathers. We would teach coordination –How to coordinate oneself in public places and in private spaces. These practical activities would teach young Nigerians how to take responsibility. Nobody is going to come and change Nigeria for us; we have to do it ourselves. Let’s do it ourselves. We have to put our heads together to look for a way we can forge a better Nigeria rather than putting agents of disunity and mistrust among ourselves. Individual success is not success but collective success is more enjoyable.
With mounting inflation, skyrocketing prices of commodities, insecurity and the like, the majority of Nigerians believe things have worsened for them in the last seven years and they will probably choose differently if they could reverse the time. How positive are you that these experiences will shape the choices of the youth come 2023?
I am so sure that all of us are already tired of the directionlessness of this regime. All these negative trends that you have listed, everybody is aware of them but we have tied them to a lack of good leadership. We don’t have the proper leadership that we expect to have. So, my own way to see 2023 is that it is an open contest and if young Nigerians can come together, we can get a defence line to fight. We should start from the primaries and engage. We can go down to that level and work hard with mindset adjustment. We must begin to get our Permanent Voter Cards. The update on registration by INEC is really disheartening. We need to register so that we can participate in the coming elections. 2023 is a reality and we have eight months to campaign for anybody that we have to campaign for. The primaries are going to be over by June, and we would sit and do our permutation and see the next person who would look at the young Nigerians and accept our Charter of Demands and so we can work together.
It is believed that experience counts in politics, especially here in Nigeria. Do you have the necessary experience to navigate this political terrain?
Of course, we do. With the level of insecurity we have seen today, lack of electricity, ASUU strike, I don’t think that is what we would say would be our experience. What we can take as experience is that there are still good people in the system, amongst us, in our communities who are ready to serve but have not been given the necessary wherewithal. These people are the ones who can tell us how we can navigate these fields, looking at their antecedents or what they have done in the past and how we can use that to create an enjoyable future for ourselves. I, for one, have been in politics since 2003. That experience that I have mixed with the ones in technology, alongside those of the millions of young Nigerians who would sign up, then we have a truckload of experiences. I don’t think there is any experience that is going to be bigger than that. We are teachable. We have seen that the older generation who are over 70 are not teachable and they do not want to add value to what they already know. I think that anybody within our age bracket would understand what they have to do. If you go to a 70-year-old man, his cycle would be filled with young Nigerians trying to teach them how to navigate through the tough 21st century terrain and giving him the energy to make him work. I think the fact that the elites are up there and have refused to step down is what is making Nigeria difficult. If they can open up themselves to learn and be teachable, many of these problems we are having would have been solved by now.
The type of organisation behind the #EndSARS protest gave a clue into the ingenuity of Nigerian youths. How do you think the youth can translate that experience into political capital?
I think that what happened during the #EndSARS is a lack of leadership. This is what we are out to rewrite. You cannot call people out and tell them just to go out without leadership. Who would get the charter to demand from the government? With #EndSARS, we are tackling one problem. There are a lot of problems. If #EndSARS were successful, we would have to do #EndASUUStrike and #EndBlackut and all that. The major problem is not the #EndSARS; what it did was give us a clue on how to put ourselves together.
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