Abstract
As the Nigerian population continues to increase, so does the number of youth. The population of youth (18-35 years) in Nigeria is 52.2 million (i.e. about 28% of total population) and more than the entire population of Ghana, London and Benin Republic put together. In spite of the prospects that this number holds, young people in Nigeria are largely marginalized from governance, leaving them helpless to counter their continued exclusion. This is evidenced by the lower percentage of youth that hold political and leadership positions in the country. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between youth political participation, good governance, and social inclusion in Nigeria. Using a quantitative approach, 1,208 youth aged 18-35, selected from Nairaland, participated in the study. Data gathered was analyzed with Spearman Correlation Coefficient and the result indicates that there is significant positive relationship between youth political participation and good governance in Nigeria (r s, (1206) = .615, p < .001) and that there is significant positive association between youth political participation and social inclusion in Nigeria (r s, (1206) = .875, p < .001). It was recommended that the government should create Leadership and Democratic Institutes [LDI] across the states of the Federation and establish an Online Leadership Orientation Agency [OLOA] to utilize various social networking sites to provide free leadership courses, webinars, and orientation on the art of governance and the promotion of social inclusion among youth.
Highlights
The world today has the largest number of young people in history, with half of the world population under the age of 30
Thence, the aim of this study is to examine youth political participation and good governance in Nigeria and youth political participation and social inclusion in Nigeria
The study found out that youth political participation has a positive correlation with good governance and social inclusion in Nigeria
Summary
The world today has the largest number of young people in history, with half of the world population under the age of 30. It is interesting to note that 90 percent of these young people, running into billions, are in the developing world. This underscores the significance of engaging youth for personal and societal development in response to global pressing challenges (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), 2013)). As the Nigerian population continues to increase, so does the number of youth continue to grow in what has been described as the ‘youth bulge’. It behooves any government to take advantage of the teeming population of youth to create a demographic dividend (a declining dependency ratio), and harness such a dividend for increased productivity and a burgeoning labour force. The population of youth (18-35 years) in Nigeria is 52.2 million (i.e. circa 28% of total population) with 52.8:48.2 female to male ratio (National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), 2018)
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