Elections - Any room for youths to emerge as party flag-bearers?

IN May 2018, President Muhammadu Buhari signed the “Not Too Young To Run” bill into law which provided a legal framework for a wider spectrum of young Nigerian to run for political offices.

Great jubilation trailed that Executive action, because there had been a growing perception citizens at home and diaspora that the “old dogs” of Nigerian politics have nothing more to offer towards development of the masses.

According to some analysts, the much-awaited time for younger bloods and fresher hands to assume political leadership in 2019 to inject new ideas into the system had come.
Like wonders that last in the human mind only nine days, the euphoria quickly fizzled out. Three months down the line, the challenging reality of playing party politics in order to emerge as flagbearers in the 2019 general elections has dawned on many young aspirants.

With party primaries expected to commence in the week, many young aspirants are faced with the challenges of high cost of nomination forms, lack of political mentorship, non-inclusion in party hierarchies, lack of functional party websites for information flow among others barriers which make political watchers ask “ is there really room for youths to emerge as party flagbearers in 2019 general elections?”

It is against this background that Youngstars Development Initiative (YDI) with support from the Ford Foundation organised a one-day stakeholders’ forum in Abuja for political parties and about 159 youth aspirants from the North central geopolitical zone to discuss and proffer solution to those challenges with a view to increasing youth emergence in the 2019 general elections and beyond.

The Executive Director of YDI, Kingsley Bangwell, said the forum was a follow up to an online survey conducted by his organisation to ascertain what the key barriers to youth emergence as party flagbearers in 2019 elections were.
He revealed that a focused group discussion with over a 100 young aspirants in the northern parts of the country was also staged by YDI to get to the heart of these issues.

“So, we decided to bring the parties and aspirants together to discuss these issues and reach some sort of consensus on the way forward.
“In the course of our deliberations, we stressed the importance of youth political participation in Nigeria and reaffirmed our belief in inclusive governance.

“We underscored the strategic importance of enhancing and increasing the emergence of youth in 2019 general elections and look forward to the support of the entire country,” he said.

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