The need for the passage of the “Too Old to Run” bill

The eleventh hour of May, 2018, was pegged by the passage of the “not too young to run” bill by our president as his democracy day present for us youths, or his way of appealing to the then furious god of “lazy Nigeria youths”, youths makeup half, if not more of, the country’s population and with the election just few months away then, it was imperative he gets us on his side to triumph. But this bill was a flatter to deceive bill because two years after it was passed it has not bore and may never bear its intended fruits, if the “Too Old to Run” bill is not passed alongside. The passed bill was purported to give youths the chance to run for posts and ultimately rule in the country, I think the reverse of the passed bill is the way to achieve such, which is the “Too Old to Run” bill, this bill attacks the original problem which is taking our country from grasp of grandpas and grannies who are supposed to be retired.

Nigeria’s ship has been captained by fifteen rulers since independence with Obasanjo and Buhari taking the baton twice, four of which came after 1999 (democracy era), among the four Goodluck Jonathan was the only one younger than age of 54 when he took power; Obasanjo (62), Yar’ Adua (56) and Buhari (72) averaging 60 years when the floor age was 40 years, in comparison to the military era where the individual most likely to be the president on the average is a 48 years old northerner who has had a military training, Abdulsalam Abubakar was the only president in the military era that was older than the age of 53 when he took power, Gowon (31) being the youngest to harness control over Nigeria in 1966.

With regards to gubernatorial elections, the stat of 2017 showed that 10 of our governors are above the age of 60, just 5 of them were 50 and below, with Nigeria not having a governor younger than the age of 40 years and the average of Nigerian governors being 55.7 years which is 20.7 years above the floor age, which was 35 years, with Governor Ajimobi and Governor Yahaya Bello being the oldest and youngest respectively. The statistics of the senate in 2015 showed that 24 out of the 109 senators were of the 40-50 age bracket, 60 of them were of the 50-60 age bracket, 23 of them were of the 60-70 age bracket and just 2 are above the age of 70 years, with Senator Dino Melaye and Mustapha Sani being the youngest (40) and senator Lafiagi being the oldest then (74), by 2019 the youngest person in the senate was Senator Bankole (37) and he is the youngest senator in Nigeria history then.

Now the new floor age of these positions says that a 30 years old Nigerian can now become a President, a Senator/Governor and a 25 years old can be a member of the two Houses, this does not bring any change to the fact that the Elder Statesmen and not the youths are still bound to rule because the difference between these two eras (Military and Democracy) is that after the start of democracy era you need money, influence and social status to rule unlike in the military era where majorly ranks are salient in attaining power, majority of the factors and resources needed to rule does not reside with the youths but the Elder Statesmen, making it hard for the youths to compete even with the passage of the “Not Too To Young” bill.

It was hard to take in that the same president, who signed the “Not Too Young to Run” bill at the age of 76 did run for the next elections which means that he will be 80/81 years when he finishes this second tenure. Unless the “Too Old to Run” bill, which will limit the ceiling age to say 60 years, is passed the passage of the “Not Too Young to Run” bill will just be a sugar coated candle given to a kid to stop him/her from crying and nothing more, reducing the ceiling age to run increases the chance of the youths to compete and ultimately rule.