As part of its continuous effort to increase youth inclusion in politics, Yiaga Africa is partnering with the Nigerian Bar Association and Young Lawyers Forum to provide pro bono legal service to young men, women and Persons With Disabilities (PWDs) contesting as candidates in the 2023 elections.
This was made known during an election law clinic organized by Yiaga Africa for young lawyers who are interested in specializing in Election Law to deepen the understanding of women and youth candidates on the new electoral legal framework and provide legal advisory services and support to youth and women candidates.
Speaking during the law Clinic hosted in Sokoto and Lagos State, Director of Programs, Yiaga Africa Cynthia Mbamalu said, the role of lawyers is becoming crucial in the electoral process as Nigeria’s electoral jurisprudence continue to evolve especially with the passage of the Electoral Act in 2022.
She said, the Election Law Clinic is driven by a specially designed module informed by both the challenges identified by young men and women who contested in previous elections and the trends in election litigation since the passage of the Electoral Act 2022.
According to her “with every new legal framework, it also opens up a conversation of the theories around implementation because as there are now more issues to be contested and more issues to be tested”.
She Said, while there has been successful advocacy for inclusion of young people in Nigeria’s political process, there are questions about the capacity of young people to afford legal advisory and representation.
“In engaging young people in the process, a lot of what we saw as a major challenge was that a lot of them did not even understand the basic laws guiding the elections and how to challenge an injustice perpetrated to them in the process”, she said.
“If you are campaigning but you don’t know the rules of the game, you’re already losing because you need to know the rules of the game to understand how to contest and how to win your election”, she said. This according to her may be as easy as having legal advice rather than even going to court”.
Speaking on behalf of the President of the Young Lawyers Forum in Sokoto state, Umar Ali, the former President of forum welcomed the initiative saying its indeed timely, coming close to the 2023 elections.
He said the law clinic is also an opportunity for young lawyers to demonstrate their capacity in contributing to credible elections in Nigeria.
“What the forum has been looking for always is a platform like the law clinic to have an avenue to enhance our capacity and exposure to be able to deliver”, he said.
