According to the report, which the group certified accurate as of October 5, 2022, youth candidacy for the coking elections stood at 28.6 percent, as against 2019’s 34 percent, representing a 6 percent decline since the last election year.
A further breakdown showed, that youth candidacy for House of Representatives plunged from 27.4 percent in 2019 to 21.6 percent in 2023. Similarly, the State House of Assembly also dropped from 41.8 percent in 2019 to 35.6 percent in 2023.
The report also showed that 42.3 percent of the youth candidates, were beneficiaries of the Not Too Young To Run Act, with 4,398 of the total number of candidates being youths, and 1,899 of these figures being between the ages of 25 and 30 years.
By total number of youth candidates vying for positions, the African Democratic Congress had the highest number of youth representation, with a total of 643 candidates, New Nigeria Peoples Party, 3rd, with 390 candidates, the Labour Party came 5th with a total of 293 candidates, the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party came 13th with 131 candidates, the ruling All Progressives Congress came 15th with 96 candidates and the African Action Congress 17th with 77 candidates.
The report also showed that female candidates represented only 11% of the total number of youth candidates, while persons with disabilities only had a 0.2% representation.
The group recommended that parties provide technical, financial and logistics support to young male and female candidates during the campaigns, while also urging the general public to support youth candidates by making financial donations to candidates with competence, character and capacity.
