Young Nigerians have signed up in record numbers to vote for the first time in next year’s general election, but the candidates they face are elderly, unappealing and out of touch with the country’s increasingly youthful population, say campaigners and new voters.
Johnbosco Egbuka is already disillusioned about his homeland, despite being only 22. “I am at a place where I have removed my hands from whatever concerns Nigeria,” he says.
Like millions of other youth grappling with Nigeria’s many problems, including an economic downturn, insecurity, rising unemployment and continued school closures, Egbuka at first felt that the general election, scheduled for February 2023, would not change anything. But in May, thanks to massive campaigning by youth leaders, he registered to vote.
