Ndume urges youths to take advantage of ‘Not too Young to Run Act’
June 1, 2018
Former Senate Leader Ali Ndume, has urged Nigerian youths to take full advantage of the “Not too Young to Run Act’’ to strengthen democracy in the country.
Ndume gave the advice in Abuja on Friday, while addressing State House Correspondents.
According to him, the Act is an achievement for the young population as it has leveled the limit for contesting various offices in the country.
“The age reduction or age adjustment or age requirement for contest into various offices.
“I want to congratulate the Nigerian Youth because I am one of the advocates of the Not too Young to Run Bill and you have seen the support that we gave it at the National Assembly level.
“Just as nobody is too old to run we feel that nobody should be too young to run either.
“I think this is a very commendable thing that the President did.
“Now the door is open to everybody to have the opportunity to contest; I think this is another very good positive development in the maturity of democracy in the country.
“I want to congratulate the Nigerian youth and I want them to take advantage of that to give in the best and try their best to see that we have an improved democracy with more youths that will be vibrant in the system.’’
The Senator also noted that the National Assembly had not performed up to expectation in the present dispensation.
He said that the thing that the country got wrong ab initio was that the three arms of government was viewed as independent rather than being viewed as inter-dependent.
According to him, the developed democracy that Nigeria copied from, the U.S., the Vice President is the Senate President.
“There is supposed to be synergy, support and cooperation within the three arms of government.
“And to be honest that has not been the case in the past three years; it has been very bumpy and it was unnecessary.
“But now at the tail end of it I think that everybody has realized that it was not supposed to be as that is not what Nigerians are expecting and people are looking inwards to making adjustments.
“But the eight National Assembly has not been smooth and has not been working closely with the executive,’’ he added.
Ndume said he would not blame the executive entirely for the frosty relationship because “it takes two to tango.
“If somebody is wrong you don’t go the wrong way because you will not get it right by that.’’
The former Senate Leader stated that the assessment was his personal view noting that since the ruling party had the majority in the National Assembly the relationship ought to be smoother that it had been.
