There are 120,000 polling units in Nigeria with close to 10,000 wards. For a youth to contest the presidency of Nigeria, he or she needs at least one party agent in each of the 120,000 polling units. Don’t forget that the polling units also comprise several voting points since the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) allows only 500 voters per voting point. It thus means that one party agent won’t be enough to police the votes in the entire polling units and the voting points. Remember also that where there are no party agents, the votes remain at the mercy of those on ground. By simple arithmetic, a party agent will collect at least N5, 000 on the Election Day. It means that on Election Day alone, the candidate would cough out at least N1 billion.
But before deploying the party agents, whose job is to ensure that the votes count and are counted, they have to be trained. The candidate and his party must invest in consultants who will train the agents and other election hands. So, to partake in the Nigerian presidential election, a candidate must raise billions of Naira. There cannot be any serious presidential challenge without a candidate erecting bill boards across the country. There must be adverts in the newspapers and online, there must be televised rallies at least in the six geopolitical zones, and then the candidate would recruit foots soldiers, canvassers and all.
On the financial side of the contest, there is no tea party here. Which of the youthful candidates can raise at least N10 billion for the purpose of election contest?
Apart from the politics of money, the youth also faces herculean task in dislodging rooted party chieftains who are regarded as vote baskets. Only recently, an official of the electoral commission confirmed that some political forces approached the commission and asked it to discard the Permanent Voters Card (PVCs). The official said that the argument of the politicians is that the creation of the PVC was denying them “election season money” which they make through contracts on voters cards and through patronage of politicians who believe in their vote baskets.
According to the official, the politicians called vote baskets have specialized in harnessing votes through voter registration and warehousing of voters cards. They equally warehouse some polling units hitherto located in hidden places such as shrines and private homes. The vote baskets are the real powerbrokers in the polity, they are the vote banks the politicians refer to as godfathers. How many of them are known to the internet-age youth whose mainstay is the social media stuff?
But the older generation is also not making things easy for the youth. The gestation period of an average youth is already climbing beyond 35. Most of the youths now graduate from school at late 20s, thanks to the combined handiwork of the government and lecturers who engineer prolonged strikes that have become commonplace. Out of school, the jobs have dried up. The 30 year olds are reduced to picking the crumbs of the society and are unable to think beyond themselves at that age. If a man is unable to fend for himself and settle down to life, how does he start thinking of mounting electoral challenge? That is the burden the youth are saddled with. And that could just reduce the Not too young to run bill to paper weight for years to come.
But thanks to the spirit of activism which is getting hold of some of our youths. The proponents of the Not Too Young to run bill, who mounted campaigns saw the rays of hope in the law and pursued that lead.
Let me tell such youth that notwithstanding the heaps of challenge out there, the electoral hill can still be climbed with tact and strategy.
First, the youth need to emphasise education among their peers. Political education is key. Many of them are unaware of the history of 1993 election. Even as President Muhammadu Buhari last week announced the highest honour in the land for the late Chief MKO Abiola, many of today’s youth were asking who was that? A man who fails to learn from history of his fathers is certainly heading for doom. Perhaps, some of the ruinous elders had envisaged a long slavery session for the youth and then banned the study of history.
But the youth of today are lucky. The internet has simplified the availability of information. They can just google it!
After acquiring formal education, then political education, the focus to change the society from the rickety stuff government after the other is bequeathing to us should then seize their attention.
If it is difficult to break into the camp of the old, established political godfathers, where vote baskets are kings, the youth can organise and register their own parties where things can be done differently. They can input the Western political culture where candidates do not need to warehouse billions of cash before seeking elective offices. Luckily, online fund raising avenues are already emerging here and the youth can take advantage, raise funds for political and social causes and then challenge the existing order.
With God and with commitment, they can do it.
and then