The urban dictionary defines the word “porteaux porteaux” as a Nigerian slang for mashy, muddy ground. An Anglocised form of poto poto, it could also be defined as stagnant water in shallow gutters, more likely to be seen in slum dwellings.
In slum dwellings, porteaux porteaux is usually a collection of liquid waste from toilets, kitchens and all other liquid material. In such places, open defecation, especially by children, in porteaux porteaux is not unusual. The smell from porteaux porteaux is putrid and the colour dark greenish or black.
Imagine then that you are a dancer who has been practicing for about four years, preparatory to representing your community in regional and national dance contests and you have designed the dress to use for the occasion, washed and ironed it. Then one day, just before the preliminaries begin, someone decides to throw this beautifully designed dress reserved for the special occasion in the porteaux porteaux, leaving you little or no time to put yourself together and be a part of the process.
This is exactly what the All Progressives Congress (APC) led government did to Nigerian youth and the “Not too young to run” law.
In 2018, when President Muhammadu Buhari signed the “Not too young to run” bill into law, it was received with joy and many thought that the bill would be a turning point in the country’s politics and would pave the way for the participation of more young people in the election process.
The signing of the bill was the culmination of efforts by a coalition of over 40 youth-led groups.
At a ceremony to sign the bill, President Buhari had admonished youth representatives to wait till after the 2019 general election to contest for office of president and other offices.
One of the most significant things in the bill was the reduction in the age of running for political office. The bill reduced the age for running for president from 40 to 30, governor from 35 to 30, Senate from 35 to 30, House of Representatives from 30 to 25 and State House of Assembly from 30 to 25.
As has become typical of it, the signing of the bill became one of the things APC bandied as it’s achievements in President Buhari’s first term.
It would seem, however, that the APC after winning the 2019 election has since dumped the “Not too young to run” law in the “porteaux porteaux, making it difficult for young people to be a part of the electoral process by contesting elective positions.
For starters, the obnoxious and vexatious fees the APC fixed for it’s expression of interest and nomination forms for the 2023 general elections have made it above the reach of many young people.
The party, in a move that left not a few people flummoxed, fixed N100 million as fees for presidential nomination and expression of interest forms, N50 million for governorship, N20 million and N10 million for Senate and House of Representatives as well as N2 million for state House of Assembly.
While the exorbitant cost of the forms, which price has continued to increase since 2014, in the build up to the 2015 general election may have placed it high and above the reach of young persons, the same cannot be said of the elite and older politicians who have been falling over themselves in a bid to get the presidential nomination, for instance.
Tens of people, among them a serving vice president, serving and former governors, serving and former ministers and clerics, among others, have already acquired the presidential nomination forms, in a manner that smacks of a joke.
Looking at some of those who have picked the form, or whose ‘friends and associates’ have picked the forms for, you’d see that they do not take the office of the President of Nigeria seriously. Otherwise, how can you explain that people who are fantastic at failure and have lost even the smallest constituency elections are now aspiring for the highest office in the land? What confidence! Again, what is the source of the money they are lavishing in this bizarre bazaar of presidential form purchase? Can the anti-graft agencies wade in and find out for us? Could it also be true, word on the street that APC governors and ministers who are paying for the form are only donating money to the party but using forms purchase as a decoy, to enrich the party for the prosecution of the 2023 general elections? I digress but these are some of the things to ponder.
The cost of the forms and I dare say, the costly nature of elections in the country, have eroded whatever gains we may have made with the “Not too young to run” law.
How many young people who make legitimate income can truly afford to lavish such money on nomination forms even if they had the money?
Former Senate President, Ken Nnamani, put it succinctly when he said, after acquiring his forms for presidential contest that the cost of forms need to be rethought, to engender inclusivity, especially of women, young people and salary earners.
The defence that the high fees fixed will separate the men from the boys, by ensuring only serious aspirants pick the form does not hold water because seriousness in electoral contest is not determined by the depth of aspirants pockets but by what they have to offer if elected. It would however seem that the case is different in Nigeria where only the rich have a chance to contest and are, therefore, the serious ones. And if it is about seriousness, there are people who have bought the form who have no business aspiring to any office at all, having performed abysmally in smaller tasks. What business does a state governor who cannot boast of even poorly executed projects in his state, for instance, have with a contest that has been packaged as one for serious-minded people?
Even if not deliberately, the government through some of it’s actions, blocked blocked legitimate channels of earnings for some youth. Who knows, some of the youth whose earnings the government stopped when it banned Twitter and Cryptocurrency, may have been nursing political ambitions but cannot afford to even pick the forms now.
A recent report, ‘Africa’s Urbanisation Dynamics 2022: The Economic Power of Africa’s Cities,’ published under the responsibility of the Secretary-General of the Organisation for Economic Co operation and Development and the Secretary-General of the United Nations, with support from the African Development Bank, revealed that Nigeria’s fintech sector and the millions of young people who rely on it for legitimate business were greatly impacted, following the ban on cryptocurrency and Twitter, thereby crippling foreign direct investment (FDI) in the sector.
The restrictions on cryptocurrency transactions and the outright ban of Twitter in Nigeria, the report pointed out, not only crippled foreign direct investment in the fin tech industry, but also negatively impacted millions of young Nigerians who earn a living from the sector.
“Many have found a way, however, to lawfully bypass these restrictions and continue business, effectively denying Nigeria the taxes and transaction fees that would otherwise come into the system,” the report noted.
It is now left for the youth to bring themselves out of the porteaux porteaux and wash off the dirt by joining other political parties where they can be a part of the process, without at least forking out a fortune on forms purchase alone, and give life to their aspirations.
