The Senator representing Oyo North in the upper chamber of the National Assembly, Senator Abdulfatai Buhari has urged youths in the country to take advantage of the passage of the ‘Not Too Young To Run Bill and the Independent Candidate Bill’ to run for elective positions in the country.
Buhari who stated this while delivering a lecture titled: ‘The Not Too Young To Rule Movement: Issues, Challenges And Prospects In View’, at the 57th Independence anniversary program organised by the Federation of Oyo State Students Union (FOSSU) at the Polytechnic Ibadan, urged the youths to take advantage of the passage of the two bills.
“The new age qualification for running of offices as passed by the National Assembly are 35 years for President, 30 years for Governor and Senate, 25 years for House of Representatives and State House of Assembly. The passage of Not too young to run bill and the Independent candidate bill has clearly paved way for a new Nigeria where younger people can run for elective positions and participate actively in decision making and nation building.”
He added: “Let me use this medium to congratulate the Nigeria youths, National Assembly and the entire nation for this great opportunity and achievement. No doubt the role of the youths on the national development of any country cannot be over emphasised. As the youths are important segment of the nation and are the bedrock of development of any country. A society that prepares its youths for the sake of the future aspiration will not only secure her future developments but will prepare her next set of leaders with the challenges of national unity and development.”
According to him, youths occupy a prominent place in any society, saying that apart from being the owners and the leaders of today, they outnumber the middle- aged and the aged. According to the CIA world fact book (2017) the present population of Nigeria stands at over 186 million with age structure 0 – 14 years: 42.79%, 15 – 24 years: 19.48%, 25 – 54 years: 30.65%, 55 – 64 years 3.96% and 65 years & above: 3.12%.
“Therefore, the youths must be ready to take advantage of this numerical strength and move to the fore front of governance in the country.”
Speaking further on the bill, Buhari gave the examples of some young individuals who have held and are still holding elective positions in some countries of the world.
“The emergence of Vanessa D’Ambrosio (29 years) in San Marino, Kim Jong –un (32 years) in North Korea, Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani (35 years) in Qatar, Charles Michel (38 years) in Belgium, Emmanuel Macron (39 years) in France and Justin Trudeu 42 years in Canada to mention few marks the gradual revolution of the younger generation of the leaders around the globe in the last couple of years. Even United States of America gave Barrack Obama a chance at the age of 47 years.”
He added: “However, this movement is not new rather getting prominence in recent time as there had been younger leaders across the universe in the past. JF Kennedy was 35 years when he became American president, Theodore D. Roosevelt was also young when he assumed office in 1901 at the age of 42, Benazir Bhutto was 35 years when she became the 11th prime minister of Pakistan and Muammar Ghadafi rose to the power in Libya at age 27 years. Even in Nigeria immediately after independence the foremost nationalist leaders and our fathers Awolowo, Akintola, Azikwe, Sarduna, Balewa were all in the age bracket 33 – 40 years. Richard Akinjide 32 years, MaitamaSule 29 years, M.T. Mbu 30 years were also Federal Ministers and Shehu Shagari was a Federal Legislator at age of 30 years.”