APC Records Influx of Young Nigerians Into Party — Yilwatda

The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has said it is recording a higher influx of young Nigerians into the party compared to older members.

The National Chairman of the party, Prof. Nentawe Yilwatda, made the disclosure on Tuesday while speaking on Channels Television’s Politics Today.

According to Yilwatda, findings from the party’s ongoing electronic membership registration exercise showed a growing interest among young people in the APC.

“We discovered that we have more young people coming to APC than the elderly,” he said.

He explained that discussions about people joining the APC are no longer focused on political office holders, but on ordinary Nigerians who are registering daily.

“When we discuss people coming back to the APC, we don’t discuss the governors. We are rather discussing ordinary Nigerians who move to the APC every day,” he added.

Yilwatda said data from opinion polls and sampling of the party’s membership revealed that young people now make up nearly half of those interested in the APC platform.

“They form about 49 percent of people who are interested in the APC platform, roughly about 50 percent, which means about half of our members are between the ages of 18 and 35 years,” he stated.

He noted that this marks a significant shift from previous data, which showed that youths accounted for only about 21 to 23 percent of the party’s membership.

“This means we have a youthful political party. But before now, we didn’t have a youthful political party,” Yilwatda said, adding that the trend raises questions about what is attracting more young Nigerians to the APC.