A coalition of youth organisations across the country under the auspices of the ‘Not Too Young to Run Movement’ (NTYTRM), has threatened to boycott the 2019 General Elections, saying the recent primaries conducted by political parties were shams.
The co-conveners including the Program Manager, Youth Initiative for Advocacy, Growth and Advancement (YIAGA-Africa), Cynthia Mbamalu, the Chief Executive of Connected Development (CODE), Mr. Hamzat Lawal, Ibrahim Farouk and Mrs Yetunde Bakare, told newsmen on Monday in Abuja that the primaries were dogged with irregularities, including high cost of nominations, imposition, manipulations, exclusion and unjust screening out of aspirants among others.
They said these have threatened the expected gains of the participation of the youth in the 2019 elections and that they, having the overwhelming majority of registered voters, may boycott the elections to rob it of its legitimacy.
“#NotTooYoungToRun working with the ‘Ready To Run’ young aspirants are disappointment by the high cost of nominations fees imposed by most of the parties with the All Progressive Congress (APC) and the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) taking the lead, with the most exorbitant fees required from aspirants, for their nomination to contest the primary election.
“This remains worrisome as the supposed party in government and the major opposition party regardless of the advocacy and engagement by the movement for the parties to promote youth candidacy, closed their political space by imposing fees that invariably excluded young people and women,” Mbamalu said.
Hamza on his part said: “The decision by some party leaders to impose candidates on the party, exclude other aspirants from contesting or substituting candidates who successfully won the primary election is beyond undemocratic but a grave injustice to electorates whose choice for leaders will be limited to individuals who fraudulently emerge as the party candidates.
“Reports from the young aspirants indicate that a young aspirant in APC in Bauchi State, after winning majority of votes during the primaries, was substituted with another aspirant who had a lesser share of the votes cast.”
He also condemned the exclusion of young women and young men as orchestrated by the parties by refusing young aspirants party nomination and omission of names of aspirants after due purchase of nomination forms.
They therefore, among others, demanded that the political party appeal structures should ensure that the grievances of young aspirants during the primaries are, as a matter of urgency, heard and addressed immediately to ensure justice.
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