PDP committee recommends waiving nomination fees for aspirants below 35 years

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) reconciliation committee has recommended the waiving of nomination fees for persons below the age of 35 seeking elective positions under the party’s platform.

The recommendation was disclosed by the party’s national reconciliation and strategy committee (NRSC), after a meeting with youth leaders across the country.

The committee, chaired by former Senate President Bukola Saraki, was set up to resolve disputes and reconcile aggrieved members in order to foster unity within the party.

The committee also recommended that the party’s constitution be amended to limit the position of youth leader at all levels to persons aged between 18 and 35 years.

“As part of our efforts to ensure further youth inclusion and participation in politics, last week, the PDP Reconciliation & Strategy Committee recommended that all young people below the age of 35 should be granted fee waivers on nomination forms,” Saraki said in a statement.

“Additionally, we have also recommended that the National Executive Council of PDP amends our party’s constitution to ensure that only young people between the ages of 18 and 35 can vie for the office of Youth Leader – at all levels.”

The measure is expected to ease the financial burden on aspirants and to encourage youth participation in politics.

In the buildup to the 2019 elections, the PDP had slashed its nomination form fee for house of representative aspirants from N2 million to N1 million to “enhance youth participation”.

At the time, prices for nomination forms for other categories were as follows: presidential: N12 million; governorship: N6 million; senate: N3.5 million; state house of assemblies: N600,000; national delegates: N20,000, and ad hoc delegates: N5,000.

Meanwhile, checks by TheCable showed that the federal government, in the revised national youth policy launched in 2019, specified 15 and 29 years as the lower and upper age limits for youths in the country.