Why Young Nigerians Must Participate In Politics
Nigeria is a young country in more ways than one. Over 60% of its population is under 25, making it one of the world's most youthful nations. Yet its politics remains stubbornly geriatric-dominated by men and women in their 60s, 70s, and 80s who have held power since before most young Nigerians were born. This disconnect between the demographic reality and the political landscape is not just unfair; it is existentially dangerous.
The decisions being made today about education, employment, climate resilience, digital infrastructure, and national security will shape the next fifty years. The people making those decisions will not live to see the consequences. Young Nigerians will. Politics i
s not optional for the youth; it is their inheritance being spent without their consent.The Myth of Political Neutrality
Many young Nigerians avoid politics, viewing it as dirty, corrupt, and hopeless. This is understandable but catastrophic. As the philosopher Pericles warned: "Just because you do not take an interest in politics doesn't mean politics won't take an interest in you."
Every policy, every budget, every regulation affects young lives directly:
- The ASUU strike that wastes four years of a student's life? Political decision.
- The unemployment rate of 33%? Political failure.
- The #EndSARS protestors killed in October 2020? Political violence.
- The Japa wave driving 30,000–40,000 professionals abroad annually? Political consequence.
There is no escape from politics. The only choice is whether to participate in shaping it or be shaped by it.
The "Japa" Paradox
The "Japa" phenomenon mass emigration of young, skilled Nigerians reveals a painful truth. Young people are voting with their feet, abandoning a country they believe cannot be fixed. But this flight, while individually rational, is collectively suicidal. The very doctors, engineers, teachers, and innovators needed to rebuild Nigeria are leaving because they have lost faith in the political process.
Yet emigration is not a solution for the majority. Most young Nigerians cannot obtain visas, afford flights, or secure foreign jobs. For them, the only viable path forward is to reclaim the political space at home. Not through violence or despair, but through organized, sustained participation.
Why Youth Participation Matters
1. Demographic Destiny
With 60% of the population under 25, young Nigerians are not a minority seeking representation. They are the majority being denied power. Politics in a democracy is fundamentally about numbers. If young people organized and voted as a bloc, no politician could ignore them. The failure of youth to translate demographic weight into political power is not oppression; it is self-inflicted disempowerment.
2. Policy Relevance
A 75-year-old politician who attended university in the 1970s cannot intuitively understand:
- Why gig economy workers need portable social security
- How blockchain can transform land registry
- Why climate adaptation must be built into infrastructure planning
- What "creator economy" means for employment policy
Young people bring lived experience of the modern world that no amount of advisory committees can substitute. Without youth in decision-making rooms, policies are designed for a Nigeria that no longer exists.
3. Breaking the Gerontocracy
Nigeria's political class is not just old; it is recycled. The same names; Buhari, Obasanjo, Tinubu, Atiku have dominated for decades. This is not because younger alternatives are unqualified; it is because the system is designed to exclude them through:
- Exorbitant nomination fees (₦100 million for presidential primaries)
- Patronage networks requiring decades of loyalty
- Cultural deference to age that treats youth as inherently unready
Participation is the only way to break this closed loop. Not just voting, but running for office, joining parties, contesting primaries, and demanding structural reforms.
4. Preventing Violence
History is clear: when young people are systematically excluded from political participation, they become fuel for instability. Boko Haram, Niger Delta militancy, and various separatist movements all draw recruits from frustrated, excluded youth who see violence as the only channel for expressing grievance.
Peaceful political participation is not just a right; it is a stability strategy. Every young person engaged in politics is one less likely to be recruited into conflict.
The Objections and Why They Fail
"Politics is too dirty"
Yes, Nigerian politics is corrupt. But corruption thrives precisely because decent people abstain. The clean hands that refuse to touch politics leave the field to the dirty hands that relish it. The solution is not withdrawal; it is flooding the system with enough integrity to change its composition.
"One person can't make a difference"
This is mathematically false. Nigeria's 2023 presidential election was decided by approximately 8 million votes in a country of 200 million. If just 10% of young people who currently abstain registered and voted, they would constitute the largest voting bloc in the nation's history. Individual apathy compounds into collective paralysis.
"The system is rigged"
Partially true. But systems are changed by those who engage with them, not by those who critique from the sidelines. The #EndSARS movement showed that organized youth can force national conversation. The next step is to convert protest energy into political machinery, parties, platforms, and policies.
"I need to make money first"
Understandable, but self-defeating. The economic environment that determines whether your business survives is shaped by politics. Tax policy, infrastructure, security, and currency stability are all political decisions. You cannot out-earn bad governance.
What Participation Actually Means
Participation is not just voting every four years. It is:
- Registering to vote and ensuring your peers do too
- Joining political parties and contesting for positions within them
- Running for local government; where the most impactful governance happens
- Engaging in civic education; teaching communities about budgets, rights, and accountability
- Supporting youth candidates with time, money, and networks
- Using digital platforms for political organizing and voter mobilization
- Demanding electoral reform, electronic voting, independent candidacy, reduced nomination fees.
The Hard Truth
Nigeria's old guard will not voluntarily hand over power. They will not reform the system that benefits them. They will not suddenly prioritize education, employment, or climate resilience because it is the right thing to do. Change will only come when young Nigerians seize it.
This is not romantic idealism. It is demographic arithmetic. The old cannot rule forever. The question is whether the transition happens through organized political participation or through chaos and collapse.
The Call
To the young Nigerian reading this: your country is broken, but it is not beyond repair. The same energy that drives Japa, that powers the tech startup ecosystem, that fuels creative industries and religious devotion, that energy must be directed into politics.
Not because politics is noble, but because it is unavoidable. Not because politicians are good, but because they are replaceable. Not because the system is fair, but because it is changeable.
The alternative is to spend the next fifty years as subjects in a country you were born to own. To watch your children inherit the same broken schools, the same failed infrastructure, the same recycled leaders. To become the old person complaining about "youth of today" while having done nothing to empower them.
Nigeria does not need young people to save it. It needs young people to claim it. The power is there, in the numbers, in the talent, in the energy. What is missing is the will to organize, the courage to run, and the discipline to stay.
The future belongs to those who show up. Show up.
Joseph E. Unekwu
Comments
Post a Comment