By Paul Williams
Young people between the ages of 16 and 25 make up 85% of voters in Nigeria. Yet, this sizeable demographic has been “systematically” excluded from governance and decision-making in the country.
This exclusion, according to civil society actors, is the bane of development in Nigeria, naturally leading to social discomforts such as the Japa syndrome, youth-related vices and socio-political disconnect of future generations from governance and development.
Conscious of this negative scenario, and desirous of a better future for the country and its youths, non-governmental organisation, We the People, launched a project, tagged ‘#IncludeNaija.’
Co-funded by the European Union and Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung (RLS), #IncludeNaija seeks to move Nigerian youths towards effective participation in governance and political activities, which are precursor to it.
This is particularly necessary as Nigeria moves steadily towards the 2027 general elections.
According to We the People, the project expects to get youths to ‘Participate, Demand and Act.’ ‘Participate’ in governance, ‘Demand’ to participate, and ‘Act’ to secure their participation in the governance and political institutions.
As part of efforts at implementing the project, We The People, on Tuesday September 16, 2025 organized a workshop, ‘Community Youth Engagement on Governance and Human Rights,’ to engage youths from 20 communities in four local government areas of Rivers State on issues of governance, politics and the “sad and systematic exclusion of those considered too young to run for office.”
Ken Henshaw, Executive Director of We The People, in his lecture on ‘The Challenges of Youth Participation and Human Rights in Nigeria,’ said the project aims to build resilience among youths on the need for them to actively participate in Nigerias electoral space, especially during the 2027 general elections, and to hold Democratic institutions accountable.
Our idea in this project is to ensure that young people realize the power they have. They often forget they have the power in numbers, the power in their strength, their resilience, their ability.
“#IncludeNaija aims at building or reminding them of that power and giving them the skills it takes to act based on that power. As we go into 2027, we are telling the youths, participate, demand, act, you will demand inclusion, he said.
Henshaw said that participants were drawn from over 20 different communities cutting across four different local government areas, including Ogbo/Akpor, PHALGA, Okrika, amongst others.
It is an advocacy program that aims at doing two things. Number one, ensuring that young people can fully participate in a meaningful way in the politics of their country and their states.
“The idea is to engage young people and make them active in terms of contesting election, in terms of voting, in terms of even holding their political leaders accountable. The second thing this project aims to do is to ensure that the rights of young people are protected at all times.
This project aims to also give young people the skills and the tools to hold law enforcement officers especially police accountable and to protect the democratic rights of human beings.
“The idea is that young people can no longer be stigmatized because they have a tattoo or they have a laptop or they look handsome or they keep a dreadlock. Those are no crimes. Having a mobile phone worth a million naira is not a crime, but right now in Nigeria it is a crime. It’s this reason that the police can arrest and detain you because you are rich, you have branded a fraudster immediately.
While we understand that there are young people who are fraudsters, that does not mean that every young person is a fraudster and that also does not mean that you can go up about arresting, detaining and intimidating people without recourse to due process of the law.
“That’s what this project aims to do, bringing these communities together because we understand that these young people are the primary targets and they lack capacity to advocate for themselves, Henshaw said.
He regretted that the two major political parties in Nigeria, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and the All Progressives Congress, APC, have not encouraged youth participation in elections because of exorbitant prices of nomination forms.
2027 is by the corner. While young people in this country have the highest number of votes they are never represented in politics. Look at Nigeria there’s no young person currently in a position of leadership as it relates the 36 state governors but youths were 37 million voters in the last elections.
How can you take up the nomination forms for various political offices in the country up to 100 million. How long will it take for a 26, 27, or 30 year old person to muster that amount of money and be able to risk it to contest an election.
“So we are simply saying that the cost of nomination from the political parties currently, the major political party, I speak about the APC the PDP are not in tandem with the policy of engaging and promoting youth participation. It’s difficult for a young man or a young woman without the background, the financial family background or who has not participated in theft or fraud to buy those nomination forms.
So essentially those forms are a barriers to the participation of young people and it limits the capacity of young people to participate and so if a party wants to lay close to being youth friendly the first step is to ensure that the cost of nomination from are reduced in such a way that incentivizes young people.
The criteria cannot just be, can you afford nomination form. There should be other criteria; have you held governance position in any other place, how did you perform in that government. Aptitude test that aim at testing your knowledge and your integrity.
You have politicians who are scoring F9 in WAEC who cannot prove their educational qualification in election, but you have young people who have got multiple degrees and have shown resilience and ability in different regards not able to even contest the selection and we are saying that any society or political party that does that, it’s a misnomer, he said.
Earlier, John Atsu, a rights activist, informed that the #IncludeNaija Project is a three-year civil society initiative in Nigeria, co-funded by the European Union and Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung (RLS), that focuses on addressing issues such as systemic exclusion of youth in governance, environmental justice for communities affected by resource extraction, and accountability for state and corporate abuses, through workshops, conferences, and advocacy efforts in Nigeria.
Alexander Barisua, a young lawyer from Tai in Ogoni, said “In the course of the training, I have personally come to speed with how the youth needs to be involved in governance in policy making and also how that certain human right infringement has affected the youth and how that cooperation mobilization research will also help the youth to be emancipated from the level of intimidation and the human rights abuse against the youth.
“So, if we collaborate as youth for electoral purposes, for human rights purposes, and then we are able to also press forward on the electoral commissions on the need to give room for youth participation in politics, and also to reduce the cost of nomination forms in the political parties. And if this happens, then we are hopeful that the involvement of the youth in governance, in policymaking would be actualized, and the youth becoming the leaders of tomorrow will be achievable.
Elenya Henry, a young person from ONELGA in Rivers State, said one of the issues that “I picked interest in was participation in elections. During the 2023 election in Nigeria, youths participated. They voted and then people took over their mandates. They voted and saw their votes being counted, but later a different result was declared. At that point, what can be done, that was the vital question I raised, what can be done to make sure you secure a vote? Because if everyone comes out and vote, will their votes count,” he asked.
Henry lamented that youths are excluded from decision-making positions in governance, adding that “Even recently, like the (local council) election they held in Rivers State. Youths are being appointed, but not in the mainstream. They are seen as servants and Pas (Personal Assistants) instead of those that will hold the mainstream positions.”
Other papers presented were ‘Our Rights to Participate: Expression, Assembly, Opinion, Vote and Freedom from Abuse,’ by Grace Appolos, and ‘From Theory to Practice: Practical Examples and Models of Youth Human Rights Engagement,’ by Enefaa Georgewill.
