CSO: Why young candidates do not win elections in Nigeria

Youngster Development Initiative, a non-governmental organisation, says the “gap in knowledge” and lack of capacity are the reasons why many young candidates do not win elections in the country.

Speaking at a meeting with youth leaders of the various political parties in Abuja on Thursday, Kingsley Bangwell, the initiative’s executive director, said young people who aspire to hold public office must be trained and made to understand how to reach the people and effect change in the society.

Bangwell said the country does not have a future if the leadership capacity of the youth is not built.

“Political parties are the only vehicle to run for elections in Nigeria. Our constitution does not allow anything other than that. We are reaching out to the youth wings to say ‘this is what we are doing’,” the director said.

“From our survey – the top issue why they fail (young aspirants/candidates) – most of them were knowledge gaps. Especially those who were able to raise the money to buy the forms.

“One of our friends bought the form, won the party primaries, but his party did not submit his name [to INEC] and he did not know until election day in Kaduna.”

The director said under the Young Aspirants Leadership Fellowship (YALF) they have been able to support 23 candidates who won state house of assembly seats in five state houses of assembly.

“The YALF programme is simple. Build the capacity of young people that want to run for office, provide them technical assistance, knowledge-based technical assistance,” he said.

“This year, we are running two levels. The first level will be focused on preparing young people for party primaries and then another level for those who passed party primaries.

“Then after the election, we will have a retreat to ask ‘what you intend to implement?'”

On his part, Sadiq Abubakar, youth leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the north-west, said the youths need to build a network across party lines.

“We need to start building a network across party lines,” Abubakar said.

“There is no time political parties do not involve youth and women in their activities. They do a lot of groundwork.”