The other day, President Muhammadu Buhari signed to law what is now referred to as the “Not-too-young-to-run Act”. The new law amends the Nigerian constitution by reducing the age qualifications for certain elective offices created by the constitution.
Given that when the discussions on the then proposed law were ongoing, many people did not give it enough attention, a few commentaries after the signing into law call for response. Some of those commentators have even dismissed the new law as unnecessary, useless, and deceitful and the victory associated with it as pyrrhic.
In fact, someone even dismissed it as “arrant nonsense” because the new law does not set an age ceiling to stop oldies from contesting. Seriously? So, all our efforts in the last few years to reduce the age qualification and allow more young people to contest are being reduced to this? What is even more shocking is that some of these negative commentaries are coming from young people within the age bracket being favoured with the new law.
Of course, there is resistance or contempt coming from some older people who make it look like allowing younger people necessarily translates to excluding or denying them of continued relevance. What has merely happened is the expansion of the field to allow many more potential candidates and elected public officials.
I have been wondering if there is anywhere in the world where there is a ceiling age not to contest election. If people think old age is a problem, they could make it a campaign issue, but without turning it to an issue of discrimination, segregation or even hatred. This is better than asking people to be disqualified on the basis of age. The moment we start focusing so much on age or age ceiling, we would soon open a new opportunity to dissipate energy on what that age should be. If we open the debate, many would be shocked at the variety of opinions and few would recognise individual peculiarities.
What this new law has done is to widen the field and give the electorate more choices. Young people should be realistic though. Aspirants for elective positions should not expect to win simply because they are young (or old). The law, after all is called “Not-too-young-to-run”. It is not called “Not-too-young-to-win”.
To be able to win election, there are many other factors, besides age, that would come to play. In our society, these, unfortunately, include some pedestrian and primitive factors such as the aspirant being able to appeal to the sentiments of the electorate. Some will vote for candidates because they are popular or share money, whether well-earned or stolen, or that the candidates relate with them, including identifying with their everyday issues. There are aspirants who gain a lot of electoral mileage when they attend funerals and other social events at home or that they are always on radio or television speaking big grammar or that they went to the same school with those who support them or simply because of their faith etc. At those times, age may not really matter.
What we need, in addition to the piecemeal offerings of progressive legislation like this, is the reorientation of citizens’ mindset to bring in more value to the electoral process. Citizens need to regard their choices of who leads them as sacred, to be given to the best possible person wholesomely assessed, rather than decided whimsically on the basis of sentiments or provision of immediate and short term gratifications.
Obo Effanga, Abuja
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