by Saatah Nubari

I’m of the view that trusting an 18 year old with something as important as deciding who is fit to occupy a political office says a lot.

The arguments on the role of youths in the politics and policies of governance world over has been an interesting one; it has most times been appropriately stated, save for Nigeria—here, it has been wittingly understated by the lawmakers themselves, legally, in tandem with the 1999 Constitution (Amended or Un-amended).

Defining the term ‘Youth’ has been a byzantine one for reasons best known to its definers. Three definitions will be used here; the definition by the United Nations, that of the African Youth Charter and that of the Nigerian National Youth Policy. The United Nations for ‘statistical consistency across regions’ defines the term ‘Youth’ as those between the ages of 15 and 24 years; the African Youth Charter of 2006 defines it as ‘every person between the ages of 15 and 35 years’, while the Nigerian National Youth Policy defines it as ‘comprising all young persons between the ages of 18 and 35 years who are citizens of the Federal Republic of Nigeria’.