A non-governmental organisation, Yiaga Africa, has unveiled the “Not Too Young to Run (NTYTR)” hub in Ignatius Ajuru University of Education (IAUE) in Rivers State.

The group, through the Citizens Deliver Project, supported by the Open Society Foundation (OSF), is establishing NTYTR hubs at tertiary institutions to actively engage youth in the electoral and governance processes, preventing civic and political disengagement.

These hubs according to the group will work to maintain the enthusiasm of young people for electoral participation in the post-election period.

Speaking with journalists at the unveiling of the hub in IAUE, yesterday, Senior Programme Officer, Anthonia Onda, said Yiaga Africa has already successfully launched NTYTR hubs in Benue and Jigawa states as part of the initiative.

Onda explained the NTYTR hubs will focus on hosting local activities that promote democratic rights, political inclusion, leadership, and transformative politics.

She said: “This establishment of Not Too Young to Run in Ignatius Ajuru University is part of Yiaga Africa initiative to have young people at the tertiary institution come together to carry out activities that promote political participation and promote human rights and citizens engagement across the country”.

The senior programme officer noted the “establishment is supported by the Open Society Foundation and we are establishing this across different schools in Nigeria. Though each geopolitical zone will have at least one hub established in tertiary institutions”.

She said after the sensitisation, “the students will meet, come up with activities that will promote political participation in the school and community around. It will be supported by Yiaga Africa and Open Society foundation.

It is happening that a lot of people have no trust in the governance process, and for us the only way to have people understand the governance processes and participate and also build trust in the political processes, is to have them participate at different levels.

“As for us in Yiaga Africa, we consider young people as critical stakeholders to political participation in the country and that is why we are coming to establish Not Too Young to Run in the university”, Onda added.

One of the resource persons at the event, Olaniyan Sanusi, said he taught the students on the background of the Not Too Young to Run movement and how the movement was able to amend the Nigerian Constitution and reduce the age eligibility for young people to contest for a political position.

“I also spoke on the idea driving it, what is expected of the hub and how we expect them to carry out political activities around campus so that they can start to talk to young people about political leadership, about transformative politics and democratic right”.

He explained that, “Transformative politics is to move away from the kind of politics that is currently being practiced and move to politics that reflects the will of the people, that cares about development of the society over personal interest in Nigeria”.

Speaking with media, George Joshua, a 200-level political science student, said “The programme has imparted leadership qualities and I know that we the youths are important in the political system; we are to be part of the political system despite all odds”.

He said that Yiaga Africa has exposed him to the need to support the youths in politics, saying that “we youths have a space in political space at large”.