President Goodluck Jonathan says he is looking forward to working with Nigerian youths to address the age limit contained in the constitution that is hindering youths from occupying some political offices, emphasising that Nigerian youths have the votes required to change the country for the better.
The President made the remark at an International Summit organised by the Nigerian Young Professionals Forum in Abuja on Saturday.
President Jonathan said he was in support of sending a bill to the National Assembly to amend clauses in the 1999 Constitution that discriminate against young people in the area of age limit for political offices.
“There is no reason why a 35 years old Nigerian cannot become the President of this country,” he said, citing a former Nigerian head of State, Yakubu
Gowon, who ruled Nigeria at the age of 32.
Change The Nigerian Story
The hall was filled to capacity, as Young Nigerians were joined by President Goodluck Jonathan and some of his ministers at the summit which focused on fostering national integration and purposeful leadership.
President Jonathan stressed that his administration believed in the “capacity of young people to change the Nigerian story”.
The Coordinating Minister of the Economy and the Minister of Finance, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, also encouraged young Nigerians to look at politics as “a means of forging a new way for the society”.
“You must look at politics beyond the individual, beyond a group and politics for the nation. We are more hopeful that as we look at our young people we will look beyond what is now being called stomach infrastructure,” she said.
The Special Adviser to the President on Youths, Jude Imagwe, said it was time for young people to take a stand in governance.
“Young Nigerians must rise up to the call. Nobody can build Nigeria for us more than the younger generation. The younger generation must stand aright. This is the time that we are being called upon to define where we stand,” he said.
It’s a position the chairman of the forum, Moses Siasia, agrees with, as he encouraged young Nigerians to challenge their representatives at the National Assembly level so that they would come up with a law that would eliminate age barriers into political offices .
As part of the agreements at the end of the summit, the forum recommends the restructuring of the Nigerian educational system and other initiatives to encourage young Nigerians and help them excel.