According to The Youth Initiative for Advocacy, Growth and Advancement (YIAGA) Africa and the Not Too Young To Run Movement a total of 1,515 young candidates will be vying for seats in the National Assembly (the senate and the House of Representatives) in the forthcoming Nigerian general elections holding February 16, 2019.
YIAGA Africa and the Not Too Young To Run Movement made this declaration on Wednesday 6th February at a media briefing in Abuja on the level of participation of young Nigerians in the forthcoming national assembly elections. The media briefing had in attendance Yemi Kale, who was represented by his technical adviser, Lola Talabi-Oni, the Statistician General of the National Bureau of Statistics of Nigeria (NBS), the United Kingdom Agency for International Development (UKAID), Seyi Tetteh and the representative of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Bea Reaud.
The YIAGA Africa and the Not Too Young To Run Movement report in addition to those contesting for seats national assembly also contains all young Nigerian candidates between the ages of 18 and 35 who are vying for different political offices in the Nigerian general elections.
According to The YIAGA Africa programme director, Cynthia Mbamalu, the report of the youth advocacy group was based on the list of candidates vying for various offices recently released by Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) ahead of the forthcoming general elections.
A detailed breakdown of The YIAGA Africa and the Not Too Young To Run Movement revealed that INEC’s data released ahead of the forthcoming general elections revealed that 51.11 per cent of the 84 million registered voters ahead of the forthcoming general are youths in the age bracket of 18-35 years.
The report also showed that the percentage of youths vying for the Senate increased from 10 per cent (in 2015) to 13.5 per cent (in 2019). While those vying for seats in the House of Representatives in increased from 18 per cent (in 2015) to 27.4 per cent (in 2019)
The YIAGA Africa programme director, Ms Mbamalu stated out of the 1,066 candidates presented by political parties for the governorship seats, 104 are youth candidates. 41.8 per cent of the youth vying for the governorship seat is between the ages of 18-35 years. The State House of Assembly seats recorded a total of 5,914 youth out of the 14,580 candidates for the State House of Assembly nationwide.
According to participation of youths in vying for the different offices in the different geo-political zones of Nigeria, the North-East top the list with a total percentage 33.7 per cent while the South-West recorded the lowest number of 5.8 per cent of youths vying for various political offices in the forthcoming general elections.
The percentage of youths vying for offices in the North-East stood at 12.5 per cent for State House of Assembly seats. This report showed a decline in youth candidates vying for the governorship seats by 9 per cent when compared with the 2015 elections which recorded 11 per cent.
Nationwide the YIAGA Africa report revealed the a youth candidates vying for the State House of Assembly increased from 25 per cent (in 2015) to 41.8 per cent (in 2019).
According to gender of young candidates, the report revealed that female young candidate running for governorship seats increased from 3 per cent (in 2015) to 11 per cent (in 2019). The State House of Assembly saw the increment of female young candidates from 6 per cent (in 2015) to 13.9 per cent (in 2019). The participation of female young candidates for the Senate declined from 17 per cent (in 2015) to 16 per cent (in 2019). The House of Representatives also saw a decline of young female candidates from 15 per cent (in 2015) to 13.4 per cent (in 2019).
YIAGA Africa programme director, Ms Mbamalu, attributed the increment in the number of young candidates vying for different political office to the passage of the Not Too Young To Run bill to law in 2018. She stated that the bill opened up the political space for increased youth to vie for seats in House of Representatives and Presidential elections as a result of the passage of the bill age of contestants for the President was reduced from 40 to 35 years while that of the House of Representatives was reduced from 30 to 25 years.
Ezenwa Nwagwu, a board member of YIAGA Africa hails youth participation in the electoral process and this will enable the youths to effectively enforce their civic rights as the Not-Too-Young-To-Run Bill served as a protection to their political aspirations in the constitution.
