Former Kaduna State Senator Shehu Sani has taken a swipe at Nigerian youth, accusing them of squandering the opportunity provided by the “Not Too Young to Run” Act and financially backing the very generation of older politicians he says has failed them.
Speaking ahead of the forthcoming general elections, Sani noted that despite the landmark legislation passed in 2018, which reduced the age requirements for elective offices, most individuals purchasing nomination forms across both the ruling and opposition parties remain conspicuously older.
“The opportunity provided by the ‘Not Too Young to Run Act’ is still not fully utilised by the youth,” Sani said. “Most of the people picking up forms for the coming elections in both the ruling and opposition parties are NOT young people.”
The former lawmaker, representing Kaduna Central in the 8th Senate, posed a series of pointed questions to young Nigerians, challenging them to explain their continued political passivity.
“Why are the young people running away from taking up the challenge to take over power? Why are they still lining up comfortably behind the generation of elders that ‘failed them’?” he queried. “Why are they leaving the stage for the ‘old school’ and the children of the elites?”
Sani specifically called out the disconnect between youths’ online activism and their real-world political engagement, urging them to convert digital energy into electoral power.
“Why can’t you transform your social media energy to political energy?” he asked.
In his most striking criticism, Sani highlighted a paradox of financial solidarity—or the lack thereof—among young Nigerians. He noted that youths readily contribute money to purchase nomination forms for older, established politicians but rarely pool resources to support their own peers.
“Why are the youth not contributing money to buy forms for their fellow youths but prefer to buy it for members of the generation that failed them?” he said.
Sani concluded with a stark warning about agency and the cost of inaction.
“The future belongs to those who take up the challenge to win or to lose, and not those who are afraid of being winners or losers.”
The “Not Too Young to Run” Act, signed into law in 2018, lowered the age limit for presidential candidates from 40 to 35, governor from 35 to 30, Senate from 35 to 30, House of Representatives from 30 to 25, and state assemblies from 30 to 25. Despite its passage, youth representation in elective positions has seen only marginal improvement, a trend Sani’s intervention seeks to reverse.
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