Youth Political Participation and Party Politics during the 2023 General Elections in Nigeria

Abstract

The waning of young participation in politics has made the involvement of Nigerian youth in politics a contentious issue since the country's return to democracy on May 29, 1999. Therefore, this study seeks to investigate the level of youth participation at the party level during 2023 general elections in Nigeria. This study used secondary data such as textbooks, Journal articles and online sources while content analysis was used to analyse the data collected. Moreover, this study is situated within the “Sleeping Dog Theory”. The study argues that the African Democratic Congress (ADC) recorded the highest number of youth participation at the party level during the 2023 general elections. Other parties in order of increased youth participation include Action Democratic Party, New Nigeria's People Party (NNPP), Socialist Democratic Party (SDP), Action Alliance (AA) and Labour Party among others. However, Labour Party occupied sixth position, Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) thirteen positions while the All Progressive Congress (APC) fifteen positions. This shows that the three dominant Political parties during the 2023 general elections namely Labour Party, Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) and All Progressive Congress (APC) were not among the leading political parties that encouraged youth participation at the party level during the 2023 general elections. On the whole, this study recommends among other things that Interparty Advisory Council (IPAC) which is the umbrella body for Political parties in Nigeria should work closely with the various political party leadership on ways to increase youth participation at the party level like the reduction of the party nomination/interest form.

Received: 10 October 2023 / Accepted: 28 December 2023 / Published: 5 January 2024