The need for power shift to Nigerian youths
One of the issues that have recently dominated national discourse is the need for a generational power shift to youths in Nigeria come 2019 or beyond. Nigerian youths in the vanguard of this campaign believe they have been shortchanged and are demanding a generation shift on who governs Nigeria as political reparation for past youth […]
One of the issues that have recently dominated national discourse is the need for a generational power shift to youths in Nigeria come 2019 or beyond. Nigerian youths in the vanguard of this campaign believe they have been shortchanged and are demanding a generation shift on who governs Nigeria as political reparation for past youth marginalisation in political leadership.
The recent emergence of the young at heart to powers in several developed countries has bolstered this campaign. Prominent among are Emmanuel Macron elected France’s president in May 2017 at the age of 39, Kim Jong Un, the Supreme leader of North Korea who is 35 years old and Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who was 43 when sworn in three years ago.
The clamour of the youth is that if they are qualified to vote, they should be qualified to be voted for. Presently, only 18 years and above citizens are qualified to vote under the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria, but a voter has to attain 40 years to qualify to run for Presidency.
A bill to reduce the age barrier for elective offices by between 5 and 10 years has been passed by the National Assembly, and is awaiting President Muhamadu Buhari’s assent.
On the global scene, a #nottooyoungtorun campaign in several countries has received international attention and support from UNDP, United Nations Human Rights Commission and the Inter Parliamentary Union. Some of the interesting statistics is that whereas 51% of the world’s population is under 30, less than 2% parliamentarians globally is under 30. The #nottooyoungtorun is therefore a revolt against gerontocracy, government by elders and the old.
There is no doubt that youths deserve not only to have a say in the corridors of power, but also should be in the corridors of power where ‘who gets what’ is decided.
Youths are known to be more creative and innovative as human intelligence is at its peak. A school of thought believes the brain’s aging process starts from the 20’s. Unarguably, memory decreases with age.
Another argument of the #nottooyoungtorun campaign is that since politics is a game of numbers, the youths that constitute the larger percentage of the voting population, should not be denied access to elective offices through age restriction. Youths should not be treated as a mere launch pad to office, as their interests are better understood and served by elected leaders of their age group.
What inspired the age restriction on elective offices in the first instance? If 18 is generally regarded as the voting age, why can’t an 18-year-old contest for the highest office? The framers of the constitution could have been influenced by the fact that experience and wisdom count in governance and these comes with age. While adults are disadvantaged in innovativeness and creativity, they make up in experience and wisdom.
One vexed question that is often overlooked, but begs to be answered is who is a youth, and within which age bracket do youths fall? The Nigerian National Youth Policy (2009) defines a youth as between 18-35 years, the African Youth Charter classifies ‘youth” as “every person between the ages of 15 and 35 years”, while the United Nations is more conservative, defining a youth as persons between the ages of 15 and 24 years.
If we adopt the National Youth Policy of 18-35 years youth age bracket as the gold standard in defining youths, it will be obvious that several people that are parading themselves as youths are really simply adults. In Nigeria we have 40 or 45 years old leading youth organisations, and persons above 35 invoking the youth mantra to demand access to positions, power, privileges, and offices.
As we approach the 2019 general elections, if the consensus is that Nigeria deserves a youth president, let us have a youth in deed and in truth. Let the youths that are demanding a generational power shift get registered to vote and step forward to be forward to be voted into office. Elections are not won on social media but on the political turf.
Babatope Babalobi writes from Lagos.