Today’s generation of young people is the largest the world has ever known as more than half of the global population is under 30. But, the teeming population of young people, notwithstanding, they make up less than two per cent of the world’s members of parliament (MPs). Available statistics shows that about 30 per cent of the world’s lower houses of parliament have no MPs under 30, while more than 80 per cent of upper houses have no MPs under 30.
The story is the same with those in the executive arm of government as about 73 per cent of countries restrict young people from running for office even though they can vote. It was against this backdrop that the Nigerian National Assembly recently took the bold step to address the perceived marginalisation of the country’s youths in the electoral process with the passage of the Not too young to run Bill in the Constitution amendment process.
With the bill’s passage, sections 65, 106, 131 and 177 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) were altered to reduce the age of eligibility for elective offices across the board. This means that Nigerian youths can now contest for president at the age of 35 and governor or Senate at the age of 30.
This is a change from the 40 and 35 years limit, respectively, which was mandated by the constitution. The bill also provides for persons at 25-years to contest for the House of Representative and states Assembly.
Prior to this time, the youngest age a person needs to run for elective office in Nigeria is 30 years at the House of Representatives or the state House Assembly level. Advocates of the rights of young people running for elected office had predicated their campaign that young people deserve the same right to run for offices and that age discrimination is a hindrance to youths’ participation in the democratic process.
While both chambers of the National Assembly – Senate and House of Representatives – have been commended for making history by opening the window for the younger generation to participate in governance and contribute to nation building with the bill’s passage in line with the trend across the world, which has seen the emergence of the likes of Emmanuel Macron and Justin Trudeau as French president and Canadian prime minister at ages 39 and 44, respectively, most analysts insist that the critical issue in governance and leadership is not age, but performance as some youths have been given the opportunity to lead in various capacities before now, but their respective reigns ended in fiasco.
A new chapter opened in Kogi State on January 27, 2016 when Alhaji Yahaya Bello, a minority from the Ebira clan of Kogi Central Senatorial District was inaugurated as the fourth elected governor of the state.
Then 40, Bello assumed power after the All Progressives Congress (APC) defeated the then ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), which had been in power in the Confluence State since 2003, in the November 21, 2015 election. Popularly called Fair Plus, the accountant turned politician made history as the first governor from the minority ethnic groups in the state to occupy the historical Lugard House as the Igala people of Kogi East Senatorial Zone have had enough of power, having ruled the state since it was created in 1991.
Bello’s emergence as governor would not have been possible if not for the demise of his party’s candidate in the poll – Prince Abubakar Audu. The former two-time governor of the state (1992 to 1993 and 1999 to 2003) was coasting to victory when he passed on. The unfortunate incident almost triggered a constitutional crisis as the 1999 Constitution (as amended) did not envisage such situation.
The impasse over the incident was however resolved, when the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) directed APC to nominate another candidate as Audu’s substitution for the December 5, 2016 supplementary poll in the 91 polling units, where elections were cancelled.
The electoral body had declared the election inconclusive midway during collation and announcement of results, following the cancellation of results in the affected polling units due to incidences of violence, ballot boxes snatching, over voting, among others. Audu was at the time leading his closest rival, Wada, by 41, 000 votes, whereas the total number of registered voters in the 91 polling units was 49,953, a figure, the commission explained was higher than the margin between the top contenders.
The window to substitute Audu, rather than serve as a relief to the APC, sparked off crisis in the party as the late candidate’s running mate, Hon. James Faleke, wrote to INEC that he should be declared winner on the ground that the supplementary poll was needless as the number of eligible voters in the affected areas stood at 25, 000 and so will not make any impact in the overall result.
The PDP, on its part, urged the electoral body to declare its candidate – Governor Wada, winner of the election as the votes garnered by Audu were not transferable. INEC, however, insisted on going ahead with the supplementary poll and the APC was left with no other option than to nominate the first runner up in its governorship primaries, Bello, as Audu’s substitution. As expected, Bello was declared winner of the poll after the supplementary election.
His party, APC, garnered 6,885 votes to bring its total votes to 247,752, having polled 240,857 in the November 21 election. The PDP candidate (Wada) scored 5,363 to take his total votes to 204,877. He had earlier garnered 199, 514 votes. The youthful Bello had reacted to his emergence thus: “By the grace of God, I would have no reason not to perform excellently
After four years, Kogi State will never be the same again. Expectations are high, and we know there are challenges out there, but we are going to move in aggressively to ensure we do well.”
Among the strategies he rolled out then was reorganisation of the state civil service to make it more efficient and productive. He also promised to immediately ensure massive industrialization in the state to create employment for Kogites and to harness the mineral potentials across the state to significantly improve the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the state and its economy.
But, almost two years down the line, Bello’s lofty dream of taking Kogi to the next level has remained a mirage and most indigenes of state, who have suffered impact of poor governance for long, are the worst hit. From one crisis to another, the state has become a study in leadership failure.
Assembly crisis
The catalogue of crisis in Kogi started barely a month after Bello’s administration was inaugurated, when five out of the 20 members of the Kogi State House of Assembly impeached the then speaker, Hon. Jimoh Momoh- Lawal. Following the impeachment, crisis erupted in the House thereby compelling Hon. Sunday Steve Karimi to sponsor a motion on the floor of the House of Representatives on February 23, 2016.
The motion was unanimously adopted with a 10-man committee headed by deputy chief whip, Hon. Pally Iriase to investigate the matter. The committee subsequently visited Lokoja, the Kogi State capital on February 25, where it met with the governor, members of the state Assembly and heads of the relevant security agencies in the state.
After meeting with the stakeholders, the committee found out that House of Assembly has not been able to perform its legislative functions since the suspension of plenary on February 15, 2016 as none of the factions has held any meeting in the hallowed chambers of the State House of Assembly.
It also found out that there was an understanding to change the leadership of the Assembly in order to comply with Section 14 (3) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) to avoid lopsidedness in the distribution of power between the major tribes in the state since Bello and Lawal are coincidentally from the same local government area.
While the governor maintained then that he had no hand in the Assembly crisis as he never tried to influence the decision of the House given that he was new in office and does not have any prior relationship with the legislators other than to work for the good of the entire state in line with his oath of office, Jimoh-Lawal’s group accused him of a subtle plot to install his choice candidate, Hon. Umar Imam as speaker.
The suspicion was later confirmed, when Imam emerged as speaker of the Assembly on July 26, 2016 following Jimoh-Lawal’s resignation. Many had thought that crisis would be over given that the governor had his way, but that was not to be as Imam equally bowed out like his predecessor on August 3, 2017 after another round of crisis. In his stead, Mathew Kolawole, the member representing Kaba/Bunu state constituency was elected as speaker. Thugs had before the change of baton invaded the Assembly, beating up members and others in sight as well as disrupting proceedings.
Supremacy battle with Melaye
Besides the state Assembly crisis, Bello is also locked up in a supremacy battle with the lawmaker representing Kogi West senatorial district in the National Assembly, Senator Dino Melaye. Interestingly, both men were allies before they suddenly fell apart.
Melaye had stood behind Bello from the period of the supplementary election that brought him to power to his inauguration. But trouble started when the senator, alongside some stakeholders in Kogi State APC gathered in Abuja to pass a vote of no confidence on Bello on his administration’s one year anniversay. Expectedly, the governor fired back and accused the lawmaker of hurling unbridled attacks at him. He also accused Melaye of waging a “selfish and egocentric” war.
