Not Too Young To Lead.

One of the most important and contemporary legislations initiated by the current Nigerian National Assembly is the "Not too young to run" bill which essentially seeks to reduce the age qualification for elective offices in Nigeria and consequently give young persons a greater opportunity to seek elective positions.
The bill is quite commendable and in tune with the realities, expectations and yearnings of the time.
Clearly, this bill seeks to amend the following sections of the extant 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria:
Section 131(b) which provides that the anyone who wishes to be President of Nigeria should be at least 40 years old.
Section 177(b) which stipulates 35 years as the age that qualifies one to contest for the position of Governor.
Section 65(1)(a)  which has 30 years as the age limit that anyone who wishes to be a member of the National Assembly must reach.
Section 166(b) which also has 30 years as the qualifying age for anyone who wishes to be a member of the House of Assembly of a State.
What the Not too young to run bill proposes is that Nigerian youths can contest for President at the age of 35 and Governor at the age of 30.
The bill also stipulates that 25-year-old people, can now legislate in the National and State Assemblies across the country.
As I pointed earlier, the bill is commendable especially because it accommodates more young persons who are interested in seeking elective positions.
Because it seeks to amend existing provisions of the constitution, it must cross the barrier placed for constitutional amendments and alterations by Section 9(2) of the 1999 Constitution which basically provides that the bill must be passed by at least two-thirds of all the Houses of Assembly in Nigeria and subsequently, the assent of the President.
Now, I don't expect any of these to be problematic. Barring any last minute hitches, the bill will become a part of Nigerian law and that is by all means, very laudable.
Now that this bill when it eventually becomes a law will give young persons a greater opportunity to contest for political offices, my interest is in the preparedness of young people to lead.
By young persons, I am very much included in that all important age group that should be excited about the prospects that this bill presents.
However, I'm rather worried: I'm worried that as a generation, we are more interested in running for office without actually preparing to lead.
While I support that young people should be allowed to run for office, I feel that being allowed to run is not enough.
What Nigeria needs is for young persons to be able to lead.
It's easy to give us a platform and an opportunity to run for office but what we need above all is the ability to lead when the mantle eventually falls upon us.
And unfortunately, we cannot agitate for "Not too young to win an election".
Like former President, Olusegun Obasanjo said a few weeks back, no old politician is going to die for young people to take over power.
What we need to do in our zeal and quest to not just take our own bite of the National Cake but to create the Nigeria of our dreams is to prepare and equip ourselves for leadership.
As young people, we are tired of corruption, tribalism, nepotism and all the problems that the old and expiring and expired politicians and "leaders" have brought upon our country.
In our disgust for these vices, we must show that we are willing to depart from them.
We must use whatever shot we get at leadership to show that we are indeed ready to change things for the better.
We cannot allow the mess in the Students Union Governments of various Nigerian Universities to define who we are and what we want for our Country.
We must not allow the charade called the National Association of Nigerian Students, NANS to define us.
We must not allow the negative precedents set by relatively young persons who have occupied political offices to define us.
The most that the Government can do for us as young persons in our quest to reduce the age limit for elective positions will be to enshrine the provisions of the Not too young to run bill in the constitution.
However, being qualified to contest elections is not all that we need: indeed, it's not really something that we need now.
What we need is to prepare and equip ourselves for the demands of leadership: there has to be a difference between us and the generation of leaders that we constantly deride for the incompetence that they have become irretrievably drawn to.
While we want power, we must also have an idea of what to do with the power when we get it: we cannot allow the scums and the bums that pervade our generation and give us a bad name to be anywhere near the corridor of power.
The only way we can show that we are not too young to lead is to adequately prepare to lead when we eventually get the opportunity to.
So, while we will get "Not too young to run", we must show that we are "not too young to lead" as that will be the ultimate victory of the young people of Nigeria.