Youngster Development Initiative, a Civil Society organisation, has said the “gap in knowledge” and lack of capacity are the reasons why many young candidates do not win elections in Nigeria.

Speaking at a meeting with youth leaders of the various political parties in Abuja on Thursday, the initiative’s executive director, Kingsley Bangwell, said young Nigerians who aspire to hold public office must be trained and made to understand how to reach the people and effect change in the society.

Bangwell said: “Political parties are the only vehicle to run for elections in Nigeria. Our constitution does not allow anything other than that. We are reaching out to the youth wings to say ‘this is what we are doing’,”

“From our survey – the top issue why they fail (young aspirants/candidates) – most of them were knowledge gaps. Especially those who were able to raise the money to buy the forms.

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“One of our friends bought the form, won the party primaries, but his party did not submit his name [to INEC] and he did not know until election day in Kaduna.”

He disclosed that under the Young Aspirants Leadership Fellowship (YALF) they have been able to support 23 candidates who won state house of assembly seats in five state houses of assembly.

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The Director said: “The YALF programme is simple. Build the capacity of young people that want to run for office, provide them technical assistance, knowledge-based technical assistance,”

“This year, we are running two levels. The first level will be focused on preparing young people for party primaries and then another level for those who passed party primaries.

“Then after the election, we will have a retreat to ask ‘what you intend to implement?’”