The Politics of Youth Representation in Nigeria’s Lower National Legislature

In this CDP seminar, Omomayowa Abati, Commonwealth Scholar in POLIS, will present his research paper: 'Is Lowering the Minimum Age of Candidacy Enough? The Politics of Youth Representation in Nigeria’s Lower National Legislature'. The abstract for the paper is below.

Abstract

Through series of advocacy campaigns by a coalition of youth-centric civil society organisations, the minimum ages of candidacy for elective positions in Nigeria were successfully reduced variedly from 40 and 30 to 35 and 25 for the Presidency, and the Federal House of Representative and State Houses of Assembly respectively. While the passage of the bill is a laudable attempt towards youth political inclusion in the country, it remains to be known if lowering candidacy ages will necessarily lead to improved youth parliamentary representation. In this regard, it is needful to take an historic gaze at the role played by young members of parliament in the current democratic dispensation; specifically examining the descriptive and substantive representation of young MPs since 1999. Examining historical descriptive representational pattern helps to ascertain the extent to which the parliament has mirrored not just the demographic characteristics but also the opinions of the people, experiences, and interests. Similarly, examining historical substantive representational patterns reviews the extent to which the parliament has acted on the behalf of, in the interest of, and as agents of, or as substitute of the represented. Using this historical lens, I subjects the new minimum candidacy rule to analytic review; avowing that, at best, the new rules are permissive but not prescriptive; while they pave way for youths to come forward as political aspirants, failure to require parties to nominate more youths as political candidates leaves little to be desired for improved youth parliamentary representation.