The 2015 Presidential Elections and the Role of Nigerian Youth -Akin Rotimi

The elections have come and gone. Heroes and villains alike have emerged as we move on as a country along the path of healing and reconciliation after a most divisive election that stretched the nation at the seams. The documentation of the history of the elections would however be incomplete without the accounts of the role of Nigeria’s youth.

To start with, young Nigerians below the age of 35 make up about 70 percent of the population. Nigeria’s unemployment rate is spiralling upwards, growing at 16% per year. The youth of the nation are the most impacted, with a youth unemployment rate over 50%. We are the demographic group that most bears the brunt of the effects of bad governance and failed campaign promises. It is therefore understandable that the youth in their numbers energized the campaigns of the two leading parties in the elections, the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).