The Not Too Young To Run movement has reaffirmed its commitment to the promotion of political inclusion of youth, women and People With Disabilities (PWDs).
According to the movement, it will make for transformative politics and purposeful leadership, and at the same time reflecting on the movement’s successes and future prospects going into the next phase of Nigeria’s political dispensation.
The Convener of the movement, Samson Itodo, in a press statement issued in Abuja assured the group will build a grassroots movement of 5 million young women, men and PWDs committed to promoting political inclusion, democratic rights, transformative politics and purposeful leadership.
While maintaining its non-partisan identity as a social movement committed to political inclusion and transformative politics and leadership, he said the movement will remains driven by its core values of Solidarity, Patriotism, Inclusion, Responsible leadership, Integrity and Trust (SPIRIT).
This, according to the movement, would enable expansion to build international solidarity on political inclusion and transformative leadership across 25 African countries by 2023.
“Having successfully reduced the age of running for the Presidency, the House of Representatives and State Houses of Assembly from 40 to 35 years and from 35 to 25 years respectively, the leadership of the movement has vowed to mitigate any hindrance to increase youth representation in elective offices.
“Rising from a three-day retreat in Lagos, the movement, which is arguably the most successful citizens-led movement in Nigeria, revealed that it aims to increase the number of young women, men, and PWDs with competence, character and capacity in elective office to 30% in 2023.
“To this end, the movement will be establishing Not Too Young To Run hubs across Nigeria. In 2020, the movement will create 100 hubs across the country. State Coordinators will be assigned new responsibilities in furtherance of this goal,” Itodo said.
Reflecting on the success of the movement, Itodo said the group has built power from within, which the government couldn’t ignore.
He further said the historic assent to the age reduction bill not only disrupted the political space but has renewed hope and mobilized the positive energy of young people. The movement, according to him, has birthed other movements because the team demonstrated how effective organization can be in achieving good results.
Also speaking during the retreat, another strategy team member Cynthia Mbamalu, stated that despite the assent to the age reduction bill, there is still much work to be done to influence policy decision in National and state assemblies.
She said the movement also hosted Babcock University and Bayero University Kano alumni Jumoke Pinheiro and Bashir Rabiu who both presented their academic research focusing on Youth participation , social media and policy making using the Not Too Young to Run as a case.
In a related development , the Not Too Young To Run (NTYTR) Movement held its leadership and strategy retreat on December 12 – 14, 2019.
The retreat was designed to reflect on the Movement’s organizing model and to design scenarios for the 2023 Nigerian elections. Some of the resolutions from the retreat include but are not limited to the following: