Youths at disadvantage in Nigeria’s politics of deep pockets

Money politics remains a major impediment limiting youth participation in politics and governance, putting young people at a disadvantage. The challenge of the politics of deep pockets, identified along with other limiting factors constraining young people from running for public office in Nigeria, was part of the discourse during the 2024 edition of the Civic Fest Africa held in Lagos in commemoration of the nation’s 64th Independence Day.

Themed “Sustainable Citizenship,” Civic Fest Africa was conceived as a civic education tool to inspire civic consciousness among youths. It is an intersection of arts, civic engagement, and community development, curated by AdvoKC Foundation, using art as a means to empower citizens and advocate for active informed democracy. Issues that formed the thematic direction for the event included gender equality, politics, economic empowerment, among other topics.

“It is easier to bring people together to enjoy themselves while they are impacted with what they need to be active citizens,” Habib Sheidu, Co-founder/Project Director at AdvoKC said.

“Talking about youth involvement in governance, if we have to be honest with ourselves, we know we play a politics of the pocket. It is hard to have a young person, just building up life and career, participate in the type of politics in the country. For example, for a governorship ticket, if you don’t have about 5 billion naira, you cannot be a governor in Nigeria. That’s the truth today. So, how can a young person of, say, 35 in this economy get 5 billion? This means that if there is any young person in government, it is more likely there is someone pushing him, and it would be a politics of money. That’s the truth.”

Sheidu pointed out irregularities in the recently held elections in Edo State, noting they were marred by vote buying, also captured in post-election reports by election observation bodies such as YIAGA Africa and other reports by civil society.

He said if indeed it is a politics of deep pockets, as he stated, youth participation in politics would ironically depend on capitalism or godfatherism for handpicked support.

“Regardless, these problems are surmountable. We just need to reimagine. It’s not just about changing who is heading the country but where the country is headed. For us to have transformative leadership, we need to change the system. We cannot outsource development. We need to develop ourselves. This is about us coming together to understand our problem and be able to solve it. You need to understand the issues and power it from education. Education is where we have the missing link. We don’t need to be just educated but to have the right education to turn the economy around,” Sheidu told The Guardian.

It would be recalled that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu made an announcement on Tuesday during his 64th Independence Day Anniversary Broadcast on the need for a Youth Conference as a platform to address the diverse challenges facing Nigeria’s youth. The President promised that the conference would provoke meaningful dialogue, empower young people, and focus on key issues such as social justice, security, innovation, employment, and education.

Sheidu, in his reaction to the development, said he does not think Nigeria needs a youth confab. He explained that while the youth confab is ideal to probably find a way to reimagine what must be done, real change must be demanded, beginning with understanding the need to get elections right.

Renowned actor and singer, Segun Arinze, who headlined the event alongside Mr. Macaroni (who sent a video in apology for his absence), in agreement with the need for a confab, described the idea as a masterstroke. He said a lot of topics can be discussed in the confab, including governance, politics, health sector, the economy, harnessing youth talents, etc. But more importantly, it is a good step in shifting focus on the younger generation.

“What I see him doing is an academy of sorts, like in a football academy where you bring out talents and take them to the first team. I think that’s what he wants to do. I think it is time the youths take these important positions and not let themselves down. You can’t keep criticising without being involved. Be involved so that you’ll understand how it works. How old were they when they were running the government of those days? How old were Tafawa Balewa, Nnamdi Azikiwe, Ahmadu Bello? How old was the current president himself when he started?” Arinze stated.

Some youth-led organisations have made significant efforts to mitigate exclusion that undermines the quest for an inclusive electoral process. However, the monetized politics introduced and sustained by older politicians remain a disincentive for youth participation. A major feat achieved over the last few years concerning the endemic problem of youth exclusion in Nigeria was the signing of the Not Too Young To Run bill by President Muhammadu Buhari in May 2018.

The bill, which was championed by several youth groups and organisations, including Youth Initiative for Advocacy, Growth & Advancement (YIAGA), saw the reduction in the age for eligibility to seek and hold public office in Nigeria. With a new age limit of 35 years for a presidential candidate as opposed to 40 years, 30 years for state governorship aspirants and the Senate, and 30 to 25 years for contenders in the House of Representatives and State House of Assembly, it would appear that young people stand a better chance against the status quo.

Groundbreaking as the bill was, not much progress has been recorded so far in terms of actual representation. According to the World Values Survey (WVS), the world’s average youth (defined as between ages 18 and 29) participation in national elections is 47.7 per cent. Another UN global survey found that 76 per cent of respondents under 30 think politicians do not listen to young people.

These views become less surprising considering that while 50 per cent of people in the world are under 30 years of age, 69 per cent of countries place restrictions on young people’s ability to run for office, even when they are old enough to vote. A minuscule 2.6 percent of the world’s parliamentarians are under 30 years of age.

Anti-corruption activist and founder of the social accountability initiative FollowTheMoney and Chief Executive of Connected Development (CODE), Hamzat Lawal, in his interaction with The Guardian, said that although the NTYTR effort has allowed many young people to now be in State Assemblies, with quite a number of young people in the House of Representatives, progress is not as much as they would like to see. He noted that the sad part is that money politics played a part in the recorded progress.

“Yes, there is no independent candidacy because this was something we also advocated for. But the law did not only recognise that you must run on that platform, which is a political party. From the party level to the national and to the ballot, you have to spend a lot of money. This is one of the impediments now, limiting young people from running for public office. Imagine if a young person who wants to aspire to office after his or her NYSC cannot even afford expression of interest from a party nomination. Last year, it was 10 million naira. Now, I’m even hearing that those who want to run for councillors require 10 million to pick the form. That’s not to even talk about the primaries. When you emerge, there’s money you need to run your campaign. You have to do publicity and logistics and whatnot,” Hamzat said.

He said as much as the Not Too Young To Run or the age reduction law is exciting and allows for inclusion, the murky, dirty waters of politics have now put another layer of impediment, which is the money politics of the party system.

On average across Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries, according to a 2021 survey, only 37 per cent of people aged 18-29 said they trust the national government, compared to 41 per cent of those aged 30-49 and 46 per cent of those 50 and over. In one survey of 10,000 young people across the world, 83 per cent of respondents said that the government had failed to protect their future.

The lack of trust correlates with data showing low levels of youth political and public policy participation, especially in several elections in Nigeria where many people of voting age refuse to participate due to an expressed lack of trust in the system. Several elections have also recorded millions of uncollected or compromised voter cards. The undeniable developments illustrate an ongoing decoupling between what policymakers do and what young people are concerned about.

Poll results are especially important given that some of the world’s toughest challenges disproportionately affect youth, including unemployment, environmental degradation, violent conflict, and displacement, including for women, and worse still for women in politics. Nigeria has continued to record low representation of women in politics despite the fact that women constitute almost half of the country’s total population. In the country’s history of elected government officials, there has not been one female president, vice president, or state governor.

In a research conducted by Lagos-based Stand To End Rape (STER), between October 2021 and April 2022, about a fifth of respondents said they often have to trade sexual favours as active and indirect participants in the political space. A number of organisations like OSIWA, ElectHER, and others have made considerable efforts to help women get into politics through fundraising and supporting female candidates running for office by creating awareness and security.

The Agenda35 and ElectHER initiatives use documentaries to tell stories of political campaigns of women. Out of the 109 seats available in the Senate, three of those seats were occupied by women in 1999, four in 2003, eight in 2007, seven in 2011, 2015, and