The leadership of the Not Too Young to Run movement, in conjunction with the United Kingdom Department for International Development (UKAID), announced yesterday that they will be hosting a conference for youth candidates running for public office in the 2019 elections, to take place on December 10-12, 2018.
The group said this during a press conference which took place in Abuja on Wednesday.
The conference, themed ‘The Convergence: Power, Capacity, Politics’ will host about 400 youth candidates from 91 political parties.
A member of the Not Too Young to Run movement, Yetunde Bakare, explained that the conference is designed to ‘equip youth candidates with necessary tools for running effective political campaigns, as well as to build their competence, network, and share experiences and advocate for greater representation and credible 2019 elections.’
“The Convergence will have 12 Talk Sessions and 6 master classes,” she spoke. “The conference will have 30 speakers which includes young lawmakers from various African countries.
“As part of the group’s efforts to facilitate the implementation of the right to political participation, the movement worked tirelessly to ensure the age reduction constitutional amendment and also actively engaged and advocated for youth representation within political parties,” she spoke.
“This became the inspiration for the new wave of youth political participation with more young people aspiring for elective office and currently under 30 year olds emerging as party candidates to contest in the 2019 elections.”
According to the another member of the group, Dr. Ernest Ereke, the conference will address certain obstacles that the young candidates may face, including campaign funding, and attaining credible election processes.
“Master classes will be held to teach these youth candidates who are technically new to the electoral process various ways to source funds, including crowdfunding,” he said.
“We will also expose them to the legal frameworks that govern Nigerian elections, to know where and where not to accept these funds from.”
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