The Contending Issues
In Nigeria, voting starts at the age of 18; however, the age of eligibility to run for elective office varies for President (40), Senate and Governor (30), and the Representative and State Assembly (25). Exclusion in elective positions also factors into the structural discomfiture in the economic system and is not entirely a constraint associated with the legal age criterion. The monetization of the electoral processes has exacerbated the crisis of youth exclusion, which favors older, wealthier people or people with political sponsors funding them. The role of godfather and moneybag as well as the absence of internal party democracy leave the control of political parties in the hands of older politicians at the expense of the youth. Sadly, the government does not provide a platform for integration of youths in elective offices.
While the 2010 Electoral Act of Nigeria, as amended in February 2022, drew a limit for campaign funds, it skipped limiting the excesses of political parties in the amounts they charged for nomination forms that shrink political space for youths. Since 2011, the cost of “Expression of Interest” and “Nomination Forms” of political parties, which is the pre-qualifying criterion for an electoral contest, has continued to rise beyond what many of the youths can afford. For the 2023 elections alone, the costs of the All Progressive Congress (APC) Nomination Forms and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Nomination Forms were so exorbitant that it eliminated the dream of the youth to run for offices even with the 50 percent discounts for young persons and women. Wealthy politicians are able to pay this money and transform the political space into a cash and carry enterprise. This activity results in a revolving door for corruption in political offices, with the push and pull on the part of some overambitious youth, to succumb to crime in order to become rich, join the league of moneybags and begin to assert influence and power in the political system.
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