Youths, Democratic Participation and the Nigerian Electoral Process in 2023: Prospects and Challenges

Political participation remains one of the significant features of democracy, and youth participation in democracy in increasingly experienced all over the world. This expected in Nigeria as the 2023 general elections draws closer. This has informed this paper with the objective to appraise youths, democratic participation and the Nigerian electoral process. The aim of the paper is to consider the prospects of youth participation in 2023 in relation to their antecedents to political participation through Nigeria’s democratic history; as well as the challenges faced by the youths and generally Nigeria’s democratic process as will be tested in 2023. Secondary data was used to get insight into the current situation of youth activities and their drive towards improved political participation in electoral process. The selection of literatures was carefully done by accessing university data bases, academic peer review journals sites and other articles. The literatures chosen were those whose objectives were coherent with the interest of the current paper; particularly those that effectively discussed youths’ participation in the democratic and electoral processes. The findings of the paper as derived from literatures reviewed indicated that Nigerian youths have been active participants in the political process of the country from independence till date, and even through different forms of government (Military and Civilian). There are pointers to the prospect of a possible good outing for youths in 2023 going by series of activities leading to increasing consciousness of the youths and driving them to become active participants. From the Not too young to Run campaign, to the EndSARS protest and the youth concerts encouraging youth registration for PVCs are a pointer that the youths might now be ready to take advantage of the numerical strength in deciding the outcome of the elections in 2023. However, the paper also discovered that challenges such as poverty, godfatherism, age limitations etc. have been the impediments to youth participation in electoral process in Nigeria. The paper recommended that empowerment programmes directed at the youths, access to education; employment opportunities and sensitizations on religious tolerance amongst the youths should be developed so as to help the youths sustain the current momentum towards the 2023 general elections.