Director General of the National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies (NILDS) and former Minister for National Planning, Prof. Abubakar Suleiman has said that less than 1 percent of Nigerian youths are currently holding elective positions in the 36 states of the Federation, the FCT and the National Assembly.
Speaking at a one-day policy discourse on youth inclusion in governance with the theme: ‘Inclusive democracy: navigating the digital frontier for youth inclusion in governance,’ Suleiman said despite that comparative advantage, the figure of youth representation in Nigeria is not encouraging and remained very low when compared to the global average.
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According to the United Nations Development Programme and the Inter-parliamentary Union, he said, about 1.65% of parliamentarians around the world are in their 20s and 11.87% are in their 30s, stressing that the political process has become the exclusive preserve of the older generations, while the youths are mostly hired to manipulate and sometimes instigate violence during elections.
The former Minister emphasized that despite the potentials of the nation’s youthful population, they face socio-economic and political challenges, adding that data from the National Bureau of Statistics, states that youth unemployment has increased.