Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo (SAN) has urged youths to join politics to make a difference in the country.

The VP stated this on Wednesday in Abuja, at a virtual forum where he interacted with Nigerian Fellows of the Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders.

Osinbajo’s spokesman, Laolu Akande, disclosed this in a statement titled, ‘Osinbajo woos young Nigerians, ‘our best minds’: join politics to make the difference’.

His statement coincided with a day Nigerian youths took to the street in memorial of the #EndSARS protest last October.

The VP was quoted as saying youths “need to go the extra length if you are not already involved, get involved in politics—while a lot can be achieved in civil society, government still holds the ace in terms of capacity and resources to bring social goods to the largest numbers.

“Besides, being deciders instead of pressure group at the table in policy formulation are hugely different positions. The consummation of our great ideas to transform our societies ultimately will depend on ‘those politicians’ as we sometimes derisively describe them.”

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Continuing, the VP noted that “African nations and especially our country, cannot afford to have its best minds and most committed social activists remain only in the civil space. No, we simply can’t afford it, you have to get involved in politics. You have to be in the position to make the difference on the scale that is required.”

“Of course, there are many who will not be involved in politics but those that are inclined should, and there will be many challenges even in the winning or getting heard in politics. But I want to say to you that it should be an objective that you should set for yourselves, to get involved at whatever level of politics so that you can make the difference on the scale that is required,” Osinbajo added.

Recalling his days in civil society engagements and later in politics as Lagos State Attorney-General, the VP noted that “it took public office for me to be able to get the scale of change that is required to make a difference.

“Without public office I would have remained a pressure group activist, I would have done some nice things, but I wouldn’t have been able to make the changes that my country required.”