APC Pegs Age of Youth, Women Leaders At 35

Laleye Dipo in Minna

The All Progressives Congress (APC) has fixed the age limit for its youth and women leaders at 35 years.

The decision was the outcome of a recent youth summit held recently in Abuja.

Niger State Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, who until recently was in the Ministry of Youth and Sports Development, Mr. Emmanuel Umar, disclosed this in Minna at the weekend while speaking at ‘a Youth Awareness and Sensitisation Programme’ organised for students of the Federal University of Technology, Minna, by YIAGA Africa.

Umar said: “In fact we met with critical stakeholders and agreed that henceforth, anyone that will occupy the position of a youth leader at any level must fall within the age bracket of 18 and 35 years.

“We are going beyond that, as we are also talking about the women leader.”

He added that the party was also going beyond the policy by ensuring that a most of the political appointees appointed by any APC governor are youths.

Umar said the policy was already being implemented by the party in Niger State, which is why he, as a commissioner, relinquished his position as the youth leader of the APC in the North Central geo-political zone.

The commissioner explained that during the last local government congress of the party in the state, ‘a very young girl’ emerged the women leader in one of the local government areas of the state.

“Our intention is to get the youths involved in all aspects of the party as well as encourage them to vie for elective positions,” Umar declared.

The commissioner said the party would continue to train and retrain the youths to enable them take over the leadership of the state and country in the foreseeable future, but “they must be prepared to go through proper mentoring in the act of governance.”

On his own, YIAGA Africa Programmes Officer, Efema Ozuga, said the sensitisation programme is being carried out in all the geo-political zones of the country ahead of the 2023 general election targeting the youths, especially those in tertiary institutions.

Ozuga pleaded with the youths to take active part in all the electoral programmes lined up by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for the 2023 elections, warning that their non-participation could result in the wrong people getting to power.