After what was a very long wait, President Muhammadu Buhari has finally sent his list of ministerial nominees to the National Assembly and all but nine out of 36 have been confirmed.
The list which is a smorgasbord of politicians and technocrats, known names and new faces, the usual suspects and surprise inclusions – has been received with mixed reactions, with some applauding it and others calling it uninspiring.
But one thing both the critics and fans of the list definitely agree on is the glaring absence of young people on the list, with the only one person below the age of 50 there (Kemi Adeosun, the nominee from Ogun State is 48) and the average of the nominees being 55.
In a country where 63% of the population is under 35 years, such an omission does not bode well for youth inclusion in governance.
This non-inclusion has dashed a lot of expectations of young Nigerians who expected that there will be young people visible in the Buhari administration, especially as ministers. This expectation was against the backdrop of how young people mobilized massively for President Buhari as a candidate, a lot voluntarily contributing their zeal, intellect and technological flair to churn out the votes for him.
Also, the involvement of StateCraft, which together with this newspaper is part of the RED Media Group which is founded and managed by two partners who are younger than 30, raised those hopes even higher.
Even compared against his predecessors, the Buhari administration has been the poorest in terms of youth inclusion: former President Goodluck Jonathan had 38-year old Nurudeen Mohammed as his Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, and young presidential aides such as Jude Imagwe, his Senior Special Assistant on Youth and Student Affairs and Josephine Washima, his Senior Special Assistant on Job Creation; former President Olusegun Obasanjo had Dr. Aliyu Idi Hong who at 35 was appointed a minister.
So far, there has been no reason given for this glaring non-inclusion of anyone from almost two-thirds of the population of the country – it cannot be said that there are no competent people under the age of 35 (which is the upper age limit for youth according to the National Youth Policy) or even 45.
But what this surely does is that it sends the wrong signals and could dampen the enthusiasm of a section of the population that has been politically energized even long before the election when bulk of important appointments are held by older people, almost making our democracy look like a gerontocracy.
Not only that, it is morally wrong to have the people who will live with the impacts of government decisions for a very long time, whether good or bad, locked out of the decision-making process.
It is important for the Buhari administration to take youth inclusion in governance very serious not just by appointments, but also by including on their legislative agenda the reduction of age limits to qualify to contest elective positions – currently, only one office, which is that of councilors, is available to persons under the age of 30.
His predecessor had publicly supported the abolishment of age limits for elective offices in Nigeria; it will be great for President Buhari to toe the same line and support it with action.
Also, the President needs to implore his political party, the All Progressives’ Congress (APC) to waive fees of declaration of intent and forms to contest offices. These fees are exorbitant and are a stumbling block to young people who without huge backing will not be able to contest.
It is interesting to note that the increase in young legislators in the National Assembly has been made possible because the major political parties selected their candidates through primaries rather than the previous route of imposition. If this trend is sustained together with the waiving of fees for young aspirants, more young people will participate in governance.
Lastly, the President’s legislative agenda and that of his party should include amending the constitution to allow for independent candidacy, so those that are not able to run on a party’s platform or do not find any party that fits their ideologies will be able to run as independents.
This is important because many young people do not see any difference between political parties in Nigeria other than the personalities who make them up. As such, they are not motivated to join a party simply as a route to office rather than viewing it as a platform that represents the ideas they believe in.
The ball is now in the court of President Buhari and the APC – we hope that they take actions to remedy this glaring non-inclusion of young people in this administration by appointing as many competent young people into the remaining vacant offices, such as Special Advisers and Senior Special Assistants, and move to increase their participation in governance.
