MY OBJECTIVE THOUGHTS ON #30PercentOrNothing

“Thirty per cent or nothing” is the demand Nigerian youth are making ahead of the 2015 elections. As the majority of the population, young Nigerians want 30 percent of elected and appointed government positions to be reserved for youth representatives.

Seeing from the refusal of our Octogenarians to relinquish some space for the younger generation in the political sphere, it has become imperative to seek for ways of making them see reasons why the younger generation should be given the opportunity to govern.

To fully understand the demand for a 30% representation of youths in elective and appointive positions we must have a clear view of how our present elders emerged, Shehu Shagari became a federal legislator at 30 and a Minister at 35, M.T Mbu became a Minister at age 25, and high commissioner to the UK at age 26. Richard Akinjide was Education Minister at age 32, Maitama Sule was oil Minister at 29, Audu Ogbe was Minister at 35, and at 32 Yakubu Gowon became head of state and successfully led Nigeria through one of the most difficult times in her history and prevailed. continue here

However, since the advent of democracy in 1999 our Elders have consistently monopolized virtually all leadership positions, transforming young people into glorified thugs and tools for electioneering. This self serving policy and greed have combined to extricate intellectually sound young minds with great ideas from governance.

Over the years our Elders have insisted on the fact that we lacked the requisite experience to lead, but how do we secure the experience. When we are denied the opportunity to serve? They say we are leaders of tomorrow, while stubbornly refusing to allow tomorrow come.

Others say the youths of today will be an even greater disaster by looking at Nollywood and the successful artists. They sing about money, Ferraris, bugartis, women and pleasure etc. No sense of responsibility whatsoever. They say we need experienced adults with good public service track records.

But there are some advantages of the youths in power, Youths have often very receptive brain, so they can learn faster and better than others; they need less time to acquire knowledge. They can also work to develop and improve their brain. 

Mature people often want to have calm and organized life. They often have many stereotypes and they judge person by some predetermined rules. Young people are more often more tolerant to other nations and cultures.

The youth might not have the financial muscle to struggle for power with the elders on equal terms, but in the words of Lupita Nyong’o Our dreams are Valid!

In the recent past we have seen that the emergence of youth into politics has brought in a new spirit of enthusiasm and confidence among people. The skepticism that leaders are only born is no more valid these days. As we know that ‘leaders need not do different things, it would be sufficient if they can do things differently’.

Till now we have only seen that most of the young leaders have inherited politics. But then there is one thing in common in the young leaders today, they influence the youth of the country. Their personality influences people who often look up to them as role models.

Many youths say the time has come for the youth to step forward and take up the responsibility from the octogenarian politicians.

However, age is an essential determining factor to a youth. The United Nations for statistical consistency across regions defines, “Youth” as those persons between the ages of 15 and 24 years, without prejudice to other definitions by member states.  The African Youth charter defines “Youth” as every person between the ages of 15 and 35. The Big question now is “What is the age range the Nigerian Youths would give themselves?”

The government has said the youths are being given ample opportunity by the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to participate fully in the Nigerian politics. Section 65(1) (a) provides: “That a person shall be qualified for Elections to the senate if he attains the age of thirty-five years (35).”  Subsection (b) of the same section says: - “the minimum age to be a member of the House of Representatives is thirty years (30)”.

In the House of Assembly of a state, section 106 (b) states that: - “A person shall be qualified for elections as a member of a House of Assembly if he attained the age of thirty years (30).”

In the Executive arm of Government, section 177 of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended provides that: - “A person shall be qualified for election to the office of Governor of a state, if he attained the age of thirty-five years (35)”. It is only the office of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria that youths are denied the opportunity to contest Section 131(a) of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended stipulates forty years (40 years) of age before a person is qualified to contest as President of Nigeria. However youths are given the opportunity to participate in the election of President, if they attained the age of 18 years.

In all, my take as a Nigeria youth is that Young ones should be given a chance to work with the old politicians. This will give them a great opportunity to learn about politics inside out. 
A country cannot be great with only young people or only old human beings. A country has to have the old and the young working together forming policies to work towards its development.