Thinking Of Raising Election Spending’
“The youths are really ready for 2023 election, politics and leadership. We all witnessed the # ENDSARS protest in 2020. The postulation that young people are not ready for the rigours of elections and elective positions but are satisfied with the crumbs they get from the old politicians and being
‘ youth leaders’ and pawns of the old politicians is a fallacy.”
Bamidele said that the efforts put into the enactment of the Not Too Young To Run Act was worth it, noting that it had helped to accelerate the rate at which young people agitate for leadership positions in the country.
He identified lack of finance as the major impediment to young people getting into top elective offices.
“Across all parties, the youths have agitated and they are still advocating for lower spending limits, but most of their agitations are not made public due to party guidelines,” he said.
According to him, the possibility of young people uniting to fund themselves to be able to win elections should not be ruled out.
“Young people are now coming together but I don’t see it coming to reality by 2023. Tunde Eso, who is the originator of Youthocracy, which is defined as government of the people, by the youth and for the people in 2013, is one of the young Nigerians uniting the youth to enthrone a new ideology and ensure growth in our political system. He is one out of the few Nigerians trying to actualise the dream.”
The National President of National Association of Polytechnic Students ( NAPS), Comrade Olalere Benedict Adetunji, said the youths needed to take a proactive action before the next general election by sensitising themselves to obtain their voter’s card and get involved directly in the elections.
Adetunji said it was not enough for the youths to persistently criticise the government. “We must all learn how to get involved directly and not to continue staying at the back and blaming government. There is need to take a frontline position if we must change the present narrative.”
He said the youth could not rule out the elderly ones in the nation’s politics for now.
“What we need to do is to get involved by contesting for some lower elective positions that will bring us closer to grassroots people. The youth should also present someone among themselves to run as a vice president ahead of the 2027 elections. We also need to be united and stop floating new political parties. My admonition is that we should join either APC or PDP and stop wasting resources,” he said.
One of the youngest members of the Oyo State House of Assembly, Qozeem Olayanju, said the youth needed more orientation to participate in politics
“One of the setbacks for our youth is their lack of courage to take risk. It is also unfortunate that our younger ones in politics are not united. This is the right time to come out and team up, work together as youth. But while all the old politicians are working tirelessly and planning ahead if 2023, we, the youth, are on social media 24 hours. Social media can influence and mobilise but INEC will not count or bring ballot box and paper to the social media. It is sad that 65 per cent of activists on social media do not have voter’s card,” he lamented.
Olayanju also decried the cost of running for election in Nigeria, saying “it doesn’t give room for fair, equal and credible participation.”
“In 2019, the cost of nomination form and expression of interest for House Assembly was over a million. How many youths can afford that? How many young people can you mobilise to vote during election without necessarily giving them money. We must say no to buying and selling of votes,” he added.
‘ Raising Election Spending Amounts To Injustice, Disservice To Nigerians’
Cynthia Mbamalu is the co- founder and director of programmes for Youth Initiative for Advocacy, Growth and Advancement ( YIAGA) Africa, one of the youth groups that pushed for the signing of the Not Too Young To Run Bill in 2018. In this interview with TOBI AWODIPE, she talks about the readiness of youths to run for elections in 2023.
Many people believe that this is the time for the youths to start planning how to take over the reins of governance. Do you see them doing that yet?
THIS
is the right time for the youths to start strategising for the 2023 elections, as the political class has since started their own since 2019. It is important that young people, especially those who want to contest in 2023, become very active in their political parties and engage at that level as well as the constituency level. The people that are going to vote need to know who you are from now. I don’t think young people aren’t showing interest because last year’s # ENDSARS protests showed us how eager young people are to commence the voters’ registration process.
As at July 5, this year, of the 203, 497 Nigerians that had pre- registered for voter’s card on INEC’S site, 175, 849 were under 35 year. This shows that more young people are developing interest and should be encouraged to keep doing so to be able to vote younger people into power. There are also conversations happening on young people joining young parties but this isn’t sufficient. I want to see more young people take better strategic steps towards their 2023 candidacy. Do you think Nigerian youths are ready to give the older politicians a challenge?
I think our youths are ready; it is just a matter of approach and strategy. Our goal with the Not Too Young To Run Bill was to reduce the age limit, thereby opening up the space for young people to contest and compete in the elections and electoral process. The law was passed at the time we needed it the most and we saw the successes in 2019, as there was a record increase in youth candidacy. There were also some victories. Those were the first beneficiaries of the law.
Four youths under 35- years became speakers of their state assemblies in 2019 ( Oyo, Zamfara, Plateau and Kwara) while 101 under 35- years also won elections in 2019. What we need to do now is consolidate on those gains and do more work. It goes beyond showing interest because after party primaries, the number of youths contesting dropped drastically. This is because many party primaries are not credible and transparent. Also, PDP and APC did not field young candidates. When we ranked parties that fielded the most young candidates, the ADC was first, APC was 26th while the PDP was 24th. In all this, only one young person from the ADC won election and what this shows is that we need party primaries that are credible and willing to support young candidates, especially within the APC and PDP.