There is no doubt that the recent passage of the ‘Not too young to run Bill’ by the National Assembly in the on-going constitution amendment process is a welcome development given the belief that it will afford more young Nigerians the opportunity to stand for elections.
With the Bill’s passage, sections 65, 106, 131 and 177 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) have been altered to reduce the age of eligibility for elective offices across board.
This means that Nigerian youths can now contest for president at the age of 35 and governor or Senate at the age of 30. It is a change from the initial 40 and 35 years’ limit respectively, which was mandated by the constitution.
The bill also provides for persons at age 25 to contest for the House of Representatives and state House of Assembly. Prior to this time, the youngest age a person must attain to run for elective office in Nigeria was 30 years at the House of Representatives or House of Assembly.
While the Senate commended itself for having made history by opening the window for the younger generation to participate in governance with the bill’s passage, it will require the endorsement of 24 Houses of Assembly and presidential assent for the bill to become law.
Advocates of the rights of young people running for elected office had predicated their campaign for the bill sponsored by Senator Abdul-Aziz Nyako (Adamawa Central) on the belief that young people deserve the same rights to run for offices and that age discrimination is a hindrance to youths’ participation in the democratic process.
Inspired by the Nigerian example, the Office of the United Nations (UN) Secretary-General’s Envoy on Youth initiated a global campaign in partnership with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), Youth Initiative For Advocacy, Growth & Advancement (YIAGA) and the European Youth Forum in order to convene existing efforts into a global movement and provide young people with a central platform through which to advocate.
Today’s generation of young people is the largest the world has ever known. Half of the global population is under 30, and yet 73 per cent of countries restrict young people from running for office, even though they can vote.
The teeming population of young people, notwithstanding, they make up less than two per cent of the world’s members of parliament. About 30 per cent of the world’s lower houses of parliament have no MPs aged under 30, while over 80 per cent of the world’s upper houses of parliament have no MPs aged under 30.
It is against this backdrop that we commend the National Assembly for taking the bold step to address the perceived marginalisation of Nigerian youths in the electoral process. We believe that if the youth are old enough to vote, they should equally be old enough to run for offices of their choice.
It is also our conviction that young people deserve the same rights to run for office and that age should not be a hindrance to full participation in the democratic process.
But, beyond the euphoria over the passage of the bill, efforts should be made by the relevant stakeholders to address the challenges inherent in the development, which include finance for youths aspiring for political offices and the tendency for youths to be sponsored by political godfathers.
There is the need for youth empowerment through creation of jobs to enable them to be independent when seeking elective positions. It is also worthy to emphasise the fact that marginalisation of the youth will not end if creativity and innovation, which are critical elements in engendering economic growth and development, are not adequately encouraged among the young people.
In opening the political space for youths’ participation, the various political parties have a critical role to play if this is to be achieved. There should be a deliberate policy to grant waivers to young person’s aspiring to contest political offices.
A situation, where aspirants for offices like that of governorship are made to pay about N6 million for nomination and expression of interest forms would make a mockery of the bill, as not so many youths could afford to gamble with such huge amount for a party ticket they are not even sure of. The political parties should also encourage the youth through mentoring.
To the youth, we advise that they should not be carried away by the euphoria of the bill’s passage. Though the development seems to be in line with the trend across the world, which has seen the emergence of the likes of Emmanuel Macron and Justin Trudeau as French president and Canadian prime minister at ages 39 and 44 respectively, the critical issue in governance and leadership is not age, but performance.
Before now, some youths have been given the opportunity to lead in various capacities, but their respective reigns ended in fiasco. So, rather than placing much emphasis on lowering of age limits for elective positions, the focus should be the credibility of the electoral process.
