2027: Plateau youth group unveils charter of demands for governorship candidates

A youth group in Plateau State on Tuesday unveiled a charter of demands urging governorship candidates to prioritise job creation, security reforms and inclusive governance, with proposals to monitor their performance if elected.

The charter, developed by the Plateau State Youth Council (PYC) with technical support from the Youth Initiative Against Violence and Human Rights Abuse (YIAVHA), is based on a survey of 782 young people across the state’s 17 local government areas.

Titled “Plateau Youth Charter of Demands for Peace and Inclusive Governance,” the document outlines proposals on employment, peacebuilding, electoral participation and inclusion.

It seeks to ensure that young people’s priorities feature in candidates’ policy agendas and that commitments made during campaigns can be assessed after the election.

At a validation meeting held at the Youth Centre in Jos, the PYC chairman, Pannan Dafar, said politicians often relied on young people’s energy and ingenuity to win elections but failed to include them in governance after assuming office.

He said the charter was designed to give young people a common platform for engaging political aspirants and ensuring that their concerns informed government policies and programmes.

According to Mr Dafar, the document was developed through surveys, town hall meetings and community-level consultations, including efforts to reach young people without smartphones.

It also incorporates the perspectives of young women and persons with disabilities.

He said the council planned to organise town hall meetings with governorship aspirants after the charter had been validated by relevant stakeholders.

Unemployment tops the concerns

Unemployment emerged as the leading concern among respondents, with 57.7 per cent identifying it as a major challenge.

Farmer-herder conflict followed at 49 per cent, while drug and substance abuse was cited by 47.3 per cent.

The charter also reported that more than 55 per cent of respondents were either unemployed or engaged in precarious self-employment.

Respondents identified insecurity, limited access to capital, inadequate government support, and patronage in recruitment as major barriers to economic opportunities.

They urged the state government to expand employment opportunities, provide low-interest loans and seed grants for small businesses, modernise agriculture and agro-processing, and establish technology hubs and vocational centres to develop digital and technical skills.

The document also recommends targeted economic support for marginalised groups, including young women and persons with disabilities.

It calls for accessible public buildings, transport and information, alongside skills-development programmes and stronger protection against gender-based violence and sexual harassment.

Youths seek security reforms

The charter identifies unemployment, farmer-herder violence, drug abuse, intercommunal conflict and religious tensions as major threats to peace and security in Plateau State.

It reported that 68.7 per cent of respondents supported a shift from exclusively centralised security financing towards grassroots mechanisms.

The youths called for greater investment in community-led security structures, dedicated budgetary allocations for youth-led peacebuilding and early-warning systems, and formal youth representation in security committees at community, local government and state levels.

The document also proposes a task force on substance abuse that would combine rehabilitation, civic education and law enforcement.

The recommendations seek to give young people a more active role in identifying security threats, preventing violence and supporting peacebuilding efforts in their communities.

68% dissatisfied with youth participation in governance

The survey found that 68.2 per cent of respondents considered the existing level of youth participation in governance unsatisfactory, while 31.8 per cent rated it as good or very good.

Respondents said young people often lacked access to decision-makers and were excluded from policy formulation, employment planning and local government decision-making.

They called for guaranteed youth representation in the development of youth programmes, security policies, employment initiatives and other decisions affecting their communities.

Nan’akyen Yarima, a participant at the meeting, criticised what she described as a pattern in which politicians mobilised young people during elections but abandoned their interests after securing office.

She said young Nigerians remained inadequately represented in governance despite constituting a significant proportion of the country’s population.

“This government is not youth friendly, is not youth inclusive,” she said, describing the charter as an opportunity to ensure that young people participated in shaping policies affecting their future.

The document also identifies political violence, vote-buying, elite manipulation, economic vulnerability and ethnic or religious mobilisation as threats to peaceful electoral participation.

It calls for sanctions against electoral violence, hate speech and misinformation, as well as reductions in nomination fees and other barriers that discourage young people from contesting elections.

SPRING team leader backs initiative

Okoha Ukiwo, team leader of the Strengthening Peace and Resilience in Nigeria (SPRING) programme, described the charter as an important instrument for ensuring that young people’s interests were considered in political and governance decisions.

He said the initiative would enable young people to communicate their priorities to political aspirants and assess candidates based on their responses.

“Unless you make your position known, your position will not be known, and your interests will not be taken into consideration in politics and in governance,” Mr Ukiwo said.

He commended the PYC for using research to identify young people’s concerns and translate them into demands for political leaders.

Mr Ukiwo said the initiative reflected practices in established democracies, where citizens organise around policy priorities and use them to assess candidates before voting.

He expressed hope that the approach would influence voting decisions in Plateau and encourage similar initiatives among young people across Nigeria.

Charter proposes monitoring mechanism

Jacob Pwakim, executive director of YIAVHA, said the charter would provide measurable indicators for assessing the commitments of political candidates and parties.

He said youth organisations had often mobilised supporters during elections without establishing a framework for evaluating what politicians subsequently delivered.

“This time around, the Plateau Youth Council have developed a document that will shape conversations for now and for the future,” Mr Pwakim said.

He added that the charter would allow young people to assess politicians against the commitments they made before the elections.

“Once you’ve made the commitment and you win the elections, we’ll come and assess you and your political party by these key performance indicators that we’ve set out in this,” he said.

Mr Pwakim said YIAVHA supported the initiative under its Building Bridges for Peace project, funded through SPRING with support from the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.

To ensure that the demands are not abandoned after the elections, the charter proposes a multi-sectoral implementation committee comprising government ministries, departments and agencies, civil society organisations, youth groups, peacebuilding structures, organisations of persons with disabilities, faith-based networks and development partners.

The proposed committee would monitor compliance with commitments made by elected officials throughout the 2027–2031 administration.

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Other recommendations include statutory youth representation on state boards and planning committees; an independent Plateau Youth Advisory Council reporting to the governor; biannual government-youth dialogues; and platforms for civic feedback.

The charter also calls for young people’s participation in budget consultations to ensure that public spending reflects their priorities.

These mechanisms remain proposals in the charter and would require action by the relevant authorities and stakeholders to become operational.

PYC plans national expansion

The PYC said it intended to take the initiative to the National Youth Council of Nigeria to encourage the development of a similar framework reflecting the needs of young people nationwide.

Mr Dafar also expressed concern about the condition of the state Youth Centre and other youth facilities, describing their state as evidence of what he considered years of inadequate attention to youth development infrastructure.

He said the council would pursue engagement with governorship aspirants to secure commitments on the charter ahead of the 2027 election.

The initiative seeks to move youth advocacy beyond election campaigns by establishing a sustained mechanism through which young people can influence policies, monitor elected officials and demand accountability.