Every election cycle in Nigeria, something familiar happens: young people fill the streets, share campaign content online, mobilise their communities and turn out to vote in large numbers. But then the results come in, and the faces in positions of power look the same as before. Nigeria’s political leadership has remained the preserve of older elites for decades, and the country’s vast youth population, despite being the backbone of every campaign season, continues to hold almost no power. This is not a crisis of interest; Nigerian youth are politically conscious, vocal and organised. It is a crisis of access. The issue is no longer whether Nigerian youth are interested in politics, but whether Nigeria’s political system gives them a fair chance to participate meaningfully.
Nigeria’s political leadership has remained the preserve of older elites for decades, and the country’s vast youth population, despite being the backbone of every campaign season, continues to hold almost no power.
Young people between the ages of 18 and 35 make up a significant share of Nigeria’s registered voters, yet few occupy elected offices or leadership positions in major political parties. Many are politically active and campaign, organise through digital spaces, mobilise voters or protest. But growing frustration with vote-buying, political violence and elite control of party structures has deepened distrust in a democratic process that takes their votes yet rarely delivers representation.
Since the return to civilian rule in 1999, Nigeria’s political system has been dominated by politicians who remain influential for decades. The average age of ministers in federal cabinets is close to 50, reinforcing the perception that political leadership is reserved for older generations. Between 1999 and 2016, not a single minister of youth affairs was a young person.
Since then, there have been a few notable shifts. President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s 2023 cabinet, for example, included Ayodele Olawande, born in 1989, as the minister of state for youth development. But such appointments remain confined to youth-facing portfolios. Young Nigerians are still largely absent from the ministries of finance, justice, foreign affairs and the presidency, where power is actually exercised. Globally, only 10% of parliamentarians are under the age of 35, and African legislatures frequently lag behind even this inadequate benchmark.
This gap between population and representation is not just symbolic. When young people are excluded from governance, policies fail to address the issues that directly affect them, such as unemployment, education, migration and digital rights. The consequence is a growing disillusionment that makes youth apathy a rational response to an irrational system, rather than a failure of civic spirit.
When young people are excluded from governance, policies fail to address the issues that directly affect them, such as unemployment, education, migration and digital rights.
One of the most significant attempts to address this imbalance has been the Not Too Young To Run (NTYTR) movement. Conceived in May 2016 by YIAGA Africa, a civil society organisation focused on democratic governance, the campaign quickly grew into an alliance of over 100 youth and civil society groups pushing for a constitutional amendment to reduce age restrictions for elective office. At the time, presidential and gubernatorial candidates had to be at least 40 years old, while candidates for the House of Representatives had to be at least 30. Activists argued that these restrictions contradicted the principle of democratic participation, particularly given that the constitution recognises democratic maturity at 18, the voting age. After two years of sustained advocacy, on 31 May 2018, then president Muhammadu Buhari signed the bill into law.
The new legislation reduced the presidential age requirement to 35 and lowered the minimum age for the House of Representatives and state assemblies to 25. A year later, youth candidacy in the 2019 general elections rose to 34.2%, up from 21% in 2015, with 22 newly elected members of the House of Representatives directly benefiting from the act.
This reform has had both symbolic and legislative impacts. More young people contested elections than in any previous cycle, and the campaign demonstrated that organised youth advocacy can force policy change. But this legal change alone did not remove the deeper barriers keeping young Nigerians out of politics.
The biggest obstacle facing young political aspirants in Nigeria is funding. Running for office is extraordinarily expensive. During the 2023 elections, the All Progressives Congress (APC), one of the two major political parties in the country, fixed its presidential nomination form at ₦100 million (approximately $241 000), more than double what it cost in 2018. YIAGA Africa described this move as a ‘huge disservice’ to young people, women and persons with disabilities who want to run for office. Even local campaigns require substantial funding for mobilisation, media visibility and party activities. As a result, many young Nigerians simply cannot afford to run for election, regardless of their qualifications or public support.
Behind the financial barrier sits an even more entrenched one: ‘godfatherism’. Nigeria’s political parties are largely controlled by powerful financiers who decide who gets access to the ballot. Aspirants depend on political sponsors to secure nominations or gain visibility, which weakens internal party democracy and makes it almost impossible for independent young candidates to emerge. At the same time, various political actors use unemployed youth during elections as campaign agents, political thugs or ballot manipulators, while excluding them from leadership positions.
Electoral violence and political intimidation further discourage young people from engaging. In many communities, elections are associated with harassment and clashes between rival political groups. For young Nigerians already facing economic hardships, political participation can become both financially and physically risky, pushing many toward disengagement rather than deeper involvement.
Young Nigerians are not apathetic. They are exhausted by a system that extracts their votes while limiting their access to power. The NTYTR movement proved that legal reform is achievable when young people organise collectively and sustain pressure on political leaders. The next step must go further. If Nigeria wants a more representative democracy, it must lower the financial and structural barriers that prevent young people from contesting elections.
Young Nigerians are not apathetic. They are exhausted by a system that extracts their votes while limiting their access to power.
Empowering Africa’s youth to participate in politics is more than a democratic imperative – it is a prerequisite for sustainable governance across the continent. Lasting democratic change requires that young people not only organise outside government structures but also gain influence within them.
Recommendations
- Introduce statutory caps on nomination fees so that access to the ballot is not restricted to the wealthy.
- Build within political parties, not just around them. Establish and fund formal youth wings and use existing structures (like the APC and PDP youth platforms) as real pipelines into candidacy, not just as sources of campaign labour.
- Build durable civic monitoring institutions, modelled on YIAGA Africa, that track campaign promises, monitor legislative performance and hold officeholders accountable between election cycles, rather than mobilising only in response to a crisis.
