By Bashir Abdullahi,
The irony of Nigeria is that we don’t seem to make progress in the aspect of our national life that matter the most and can guarantee sustainable growth and development.
In the last couple of years, the youths seem to have taken their agitation for inclusiveness to a new level with the launch of #nottooyoungtorun campaign led by concerned Nigerian youths that is emerging as a national movement.
Their advocacy is a call to the Nigerian leadership to encourage youth participation in politics by lowering the age barriers for political aspirations and participation.
These young people sponsored a Not Too Young To Run Bill, which seeks the modification of Sections 65, 106, 131, 177 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended) to reduce the age qualification for the office of the president from 40 years to 30 years; Governor 35 to 30, Senate 35 to 30, House of Representatives 30 to 25 and State House of Assembly 30 to 25 respectively.
The Bill also seeks to bring to mainstream the independent candidate platform for electoral contest within the Nigerian electoral process. At a point it looked like the movement was well received by the politicians, some of them sounded regretful and promised to address the omission.
The youth that makes about 70 percent of our population, were largely left out of the process, excluding about 120 million Nigerians from the insights, creativity, resourcefulness, and competence of the youth. It was a major slap in the face of the #nottooyoungtorun campaign and millions of other youths who had supported and made sacrifices for the election of the current government; with the hope that it will be more supportive of their aspirations and agitations.
The opposite has turned out to be the case. Instead of bringing qualified young people on board, appointments were given to dead people, a major embarrassment to the nation. Sadly, while Nigeria is still groping in the dark, other nations have long seen the light and moved on. Nations across Europe, America, Asia and even the Arab world are widening the landscape to give their young people a chance to flourish. They are deliberately taking away the hurdles on young people’s paths to success and urging them on.
The results are unmistakably discernible as some youths are taking up major responsibility in government and even emerging as Heads of Government of their nations. I laughed myself to scorn when I read Atiku blame the military for truncating democracy and hence the environment for grooming successor generation.
That is begging the issue. The question should be, what have the politicians done to create the enabling environment for young people to aspire to the highest cadre of political leadership between 1999 and now? Almost 20 years on; what has the civilian leadership done to correct the errors of the military? Nigeria’s Transport Minister Rotimi Amaechi, also sounded very much like Atiku recently when he insinuated that Nigeria’s youths were not ready for leadership.
While I agree that young people have their own issues, I am confident we have a huge army of us that are capable of leadership when given the chance. What the political class has forgotten is that it wasn’t always like this. Nigeria’s pre-independence struggle was championed by young nationalists like Obafemi Awolowo (37), Akintola (36), Ahmadu Bello (36) Abubakar Tafawa Balewa (34) Okotie-Eboh (27), Enahoro (27), Nnamdi Azikiwe (40), etc.
All led the struggle for Nigeria’s independence in their youthful ages. President Muhammadu Buhari became Governor of the North-Eastern State at the age of 33. At the age of 34, he was made the Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources. In 1977, Buhari was 35 years old, when he was also appointed pioneer Chairman, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).
Buhari was just 41 years when he became Nigeria’s Head of State. It is not too late for the government to do a rethink on this issue. But what government must realize is that 2019 is not 1999. In 2019 just like 2015, we, the youth have Social Media, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube etc, all powerful tools that can influence votes. The level of political socialization and awareness is higher than ever. So clearly, we know where the power lies, and we will not hesitate to use it in our favor when the time comes. Bashir Abdullahi II is a builder, an entrepreneur, and a social critic.