Nigeria’s Presidential Election Hinges On Young People’s Votes

Almost 40 percentage of registered voters in Nigeria are below the age of 35. If they end up for Saturday’s presidential election, they may perhaps decide the final result.

Millions of younger Nigerians seek change as President Muhammadu Buhari steps down after serving the 2 phrases allowed by the structure.

Young folks are coming of age in a nation rife with insecurity, financial instability and excessive unemployment.

Over 42 percentage of kids of working age are unemployed, in response to Nigeria’s National Bureau of Statistics.

“There are so many graduates, and less and less opportunity to work. We study to learn, but we do not count on our diplomas to get a job,” Rahila Mallo, a medical pupil on the University of Jos, within the centre of the nation, told RFI.

Students signify 27 percentage of registered voters, and in the event that they end up, they’d have a major influence on the end result.

Mallo is planning to vote for the Labour Party candidate Peter Obi, who represents the first ever credible challenge to the nation’s two foremost events.

The 61 12 months outdated is hoping to attract in younger those who find themselves disillusioned by the 2 foremost events. Bola Tinubu, 70, is the ruling All Progressives Congress celebration’s candidate, whilst the foremost opposition Peoples Democratic Party candidate is 76-year-old Atiku Abubakar.

Both are perceived as being corrupt, nevertheless they’ve on no account been convicted of any fees and equally deny any wrongdoing.

Youth mobilisation

Obi has drawn assist from college students, as effectively as younger professionals who’ve a newfound perception that their voice issues, after youth-led protests broke out in late 2020 for the primary time since Nigeria returned to democracy in 1999.

Protesters demonstrating peacefully towards police brutality and demanding more suitable governance had been violently repressed.

“We really pray for a better leader. Someone who is responsible, and aware of our problems,” math pupil Nawas Adam Abubakar informed RFI. He says he’ll vote, nevertheless he’s preserving his preference a secret.

While Obi is main in some polls, Tinubu and Abubakar have entry to extra assets, and so they manipulate governors and different leaders who maintain appreciable sway of their constituencies.

Some concern voting for a third-party candidate would break up the vote.

And non secular and ethnic concerns additionally come into play. Voters within the majority-Muslim north, which historically has the best turnout, could be reluctant to vote for Obi, a Christian from the south.

(with newswires, reporting from Jos by Amélie Tulet)