Elisha Abbo, the Adamawa North lawmaker who is the youngest Senator in the Nigerian Senate, said this when he received the ICON of Democracy Award which was presented to him by the Intercommunity Awareness for Change and Development Initiative in Abuja last week.
While receiving the award, Abbo said
“It is not just about being in power for the sake of being in power. There is so much responsibility on young leaders, on leaders all over the world.
I believe that young people all over the world will be learning from me that there is now a huge gap between wanting to be in power and being in power to deal with the challenges of politics and swimming in the murky waters of Nigerian politics. And I believe that young people will draw (sic) strength from me.”
“You are all aware of what happened a few weeks back where certain things happened and I have been in the public space. I was the number one trending topic on social media. I was number one trending on Twitter and the rest of it but that is leadership. That is politics for you. Don’t be surprised that what you did 10 years ago would come back to haunt you and that is why you must always remember that even though you are a young person now, you will contest elections tomorrow.
It is therefore important for you to conduct yourself in a way such that when you win elections tomorrow, somebody will not use what you did 10 years ago to use it to blackmail you or tarnish your hard-earned reputation and image tomorrow.”
