Lessons Uganda can pick from Nigerian elections
This week, incumbent Muhammadu Buhari was declared winner of the presidential elections in Nigeria with 56 per cent of the vote. President Buhari got 15.2 million votes compared to his main challenger Atiku Abubakar’s 11.3 million votes. The election turnout was low at just 35.6 per cent, compared with 44 per cent in the 2015 presidential election.
According to Nigerian’s Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the 2019 voter turnout was the lowest in the country’s history.
Nigerian voters seem to have lost confidence in president Buhari’s ability to resolve the country’s pressing challenges even before he starts his second term in office.
Although some political analysts attribute the low voter turnout to Buhari’s raising unpopularity, there were also accusations of his poor health, rampant corruption, Boko Haram terrorists and persecution of political opponents.
For most Nigerians, a simpler explanation seems to be the high unemployment rates.
The youth seem to have been disillusioned in a country where nearly a quarter of the workforce is unemployed. The voters under 35 years of age made up 51 per cent of the 84 million registered to cast the ballot.
According to INEC, “based on age distribution, young people between the ages of 18 and 35 years constitute the highest number of registered voters with 51.11 per cent, which is 42.9 million voters of our 84 million registered voters. Also, 26.57 per cent of the registered voters are students.”
In 2017, a study carried out among the youth predicted a possible low voter turnout.
The Unesco youth civic engagement initiative study titled “Role of Youth-led Organisations in Peaceful Elections and Political Participation of Young People” faulted politicians for failing to engage the youth, a group that may have easily given any candidate victory.
During Uganda’s 2011 presidential campaigns, the ruling NRM party worked out an effective way to engage the youth and win over their trust and confidence through different job creation promises.
Unfortunately, almost 10 years later and the “Peace, Unity and
Transformation for Prosperity” promised by the 2010 NRM manifesto, which many had hoped would ensure all Ugandans are gainfully employed, seems to have failed as youth unemployment has not declined.
In the NRM 10-action point plan aimed at helping the youth, government recognised the importance of training and business skills provision. But close to 10 years later the creation of five regional skills development centres has not been actualised.
According to the commissioner for youth in the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development, Mr Mondo Kyateka, “attempts had been made to work towards realising the promise, but that the process broke down because the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development never made the funds available.”
In 2016, according to Uganda Bureau of Statistics (Ubos), majority of Ugandans under 25 years of age were unemployed. The NRM government could work on reducing high youth unemployment to bolster the voter turnout in 2021.
Ms Victoria Nyeko is a media commentator.
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Twitter:@VictoriaNyeko
