Winnie: So, what can you say is the level of youth participation in Anambra state?

Maureen: The youth participation in Anambra state is very low and been found to be very poor, they are only seen during the campaigns. There are three stages in politics;
 The Pre-Election stage,
 The Election an
 The Post-Election stage. They are actively available during the pre-election stage.

Winnie: What do you mean when you talk of pre-election stage?

Maureen: They pre-election stage is the stage whereby they prepare for the election, getting their PVCs ready to vote.

Winnie: What exactly can you say is the percentage of the youths during pre-election in the state?

Maureen: In Anambra State, you can score them 90%

Winnie: What is the number of young people that participated or contested for political positions?

Maureen: Here we have it poor.

Lyrics: Can you put it in percentage?
Maureen: 40%

Lyrics: A lot of people think, that my vote do not count. Why do we have that mentality?.
Maureen: The positions given to them, make them think that votes don’t count. Not allowing them be decision makers. It seems to them that they are working under people, they can’t go against their paymasters. So in that aspects, they seem that their vote doesn’t count. Some don’t give listening ear to what they are bringing to the table.
Winnie: Why do we have poor level of youth participation during election?

Maureen : I’ll highlight this in three points:
 Absence of creativity and innovation: These aspect has to do with the mindset of the youths. They don’t have a way of thinking to put something on the table. Not having that mindset of creation and innovation is one of the problems Anambra state youths is facing
 Poor succession plan: - If this didn’t work, what else are we going to pick up. Having a plan A and plan B.
 Violence: They are violent. They are usually hired for as political thugs during election.

Winnie: Do you think Anambra youths are not well educated on political participation to show interest?

Maureen: In Anambra State, most of the political youth leaders are not youths. They are from 40 above, but we know youths are from 18-29 or if we extend it to 35. They are not allowing them.

Winnie: In the area of poverty as highlighted by previous guest speaker, A lot of us believe that election process are very expensive. Do you agree with this.

Maureen: Yeah 100%, because Anambra state they mostly believe in give me cash and I vote for you. So, if you don’t have money there’s nothing for you, they already have this mindset that their votes doesn’t counts. They better collect the 2k or 3k they get to see. Our vote is our voice, it counts.

Winnie: The youths in Anambra, have they been able to hold the government accountable?

Maureen: They are not. The problem is who will stand up to talk, who will take it up.

Winnie: How do they hold them accountable?

Maureen: It’s the youths first, if we start taking a step, bring things to the table with the right people, then I think things will be okay.