We regret to announce the demise of one of our founders, a Member of the Board of Trustees and Pillar of our great Party,

Francis Toluleke Akinlotan (Umar Sokoto), who passed away Friday 8th April 2022, at 40 years old. He was born on 2nd April, 1982, in Sokoto State. He was survived by aged parents,  wife and two children.

Francis was selfless, committed, loyal, and an integral member of the leadership of our Party. He traveled the length and breadth of Nigeria in the course of propagating the ideology of our great Party: recruiting members, conducting inductions, organizing screenings, primary elections, and many others. He was a detribalized Nigerian: an exemplary symbol of One Nigeria.

Mr. Francis Akinlotan attended Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife, where he obtained LLB. Law (Second Class Upper Division) between 2001 and 2007. He proceeded to Nigeria Law School, Kano Campus, where he also graduated with Second Class Upper Division in the year 2008. He is also a Graduate, Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators, UK and a Member of Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria.

He was an activist student as he served in different capacity ranging from Public Relations Officer, Nigeria Federation of Catholic Students, Nigerian Law School (2007 – 2008), Speaker, Law Students Representative, Council, Faculty of Law, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife (2006 – 2007) and Public Relations Officer, Association of Campus Journalists, Obafemi Awolowo University (2005 – 2007).

He started his career as an intern at the Ministry of Justice, Lagos (March 2007 – May 2007), then worked as an intern as part of the requirement for Law School attachment at W.K. Shittu & Co. Lagos. He was an associate and NYSC member at Shina Agbesusi & Co. (Legal Practitioners) between October 2008 and July 2009. Also an associate at Jite Olatunbode & Co. (Legal Practitioners), between October 2009 and December 2009 and Nextzon Businesss Services Limited (February 2010 to August 2010). At New Resource Perfekta Group he was a Legal Adviser and Business Development  Officer(September 2010 till date). He started as an Associate at Probitas Partner in 2010 and rose to the position of a Partner.

Francis’ selfless nature made him offer pro bono legal services to indigent and seemingly  innocent inmates, whose circumstances have kept them in jail. Through this he was able to successfully ensure the acquittal of an inmate standing murder trial who had been held for over seven (7) years but had never been charged to Court.

At Youth Party, he combined his excellent research and analytical skills to lead conversations that advocate policies that support growth and development in the country. He engaged in uncountable trips across the Country for the Party, regular Courts appearance, visits to INEC office pre-registration and post-registration, late night meetings and financial contributions all for the success of the Party. He was an energetic grassroots mobilizer and political orator and campaigner per excellence. 

Francis will be sorely missed by our Party and Nigeria. May his patriotic and selfless soul Rest in Perfect Peace. The condolence registers are  available at our HQ in Abuja and our Lagos office. He will be buried in Lagos on Wednesday, 20th April, 2022

He is survived by aged parents, wife, children, siblings, and numerous associates across Nigeria

Funeral Arrangements

Youth Party Tributes

Sunday, 17th April,2022

Time: 4pm

Location: Lagos Office and Virtual (https://bit.ly/YouthPartyforFrancis )

Service of Songs

St Anthony Catholic Church

AIT Road, Alagbado, Lagos

Monday, 18th April,2 022

Time:7pm

Funeral Mass

Tuesday, 19th April,2022

Church of Assumption

Falomo, Ikoyi, Lagos.

Time: 10am

Interment follows immediately at

Ikoyi Cemetery

You can leave your tribute at https://francisakinlotan.muchloved.com/

We regret to announce the demise of one of our founders, a Member of the Board of Trustees and Pillar of our great Party, Francis Toluleke Akinlotan, passed away yesterday, Friday 8th April 2022, at 40 years old.

Francis was selfless, committed, loyal, and an integral member of the leadership of our Party. He traveled the length and breadth of Nigeria in the course of propagating the ideology of our great Party: recruiting members, conducting inductions, organizing screenings, primary elections, and many others. He was a detribalized Nigerian: an exemplary symbol of One Nigeria.

Francis will be sorely missed by our Party and Nigeria. May his patriotic and selfless soul Rest in Perfect Peace. The condolence register will be available at our HQ in Abuja and our Lagos office on Wednesday 13th April 2022.

The Youth Party, a political party registered by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), is set to conduct its Primary Elections in preparation for the 2023 general elections.

The Party’s National Organising Secretary, Mr. Segun Adeniyi, announced that in conformity with the INEC Guidelines on the conduct of party primaries, the Youth Party’s National Executive Committee (NEC) has issued guidelines for the conduct of the Party’s primaries.

Read More about the Youth Party 2023 Election Primaries here https://bit.ly/3DlU78z

See our Guidelines for Primaries here https://bit.ly/3EJrAKQ

On the 14 February 2022, the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) embarked on a one-month nationwide warning strike and yesterday, 13 March 2022, the Union resolved to roll-over the strike for another eight (8) weeks which will once again see teaching and learning halted in all public universities in the country due to the failure of the government to fulfill its undertakings and implement the Memorandum of Action (MOA) it signed with the Union in December 2020 amongst other things.

Since this government has been in power, students have lost years of academic learning. You recall that in 2020, students in federal tertiary institutions in Nigeria lost over eight (8) months of academic learning due to ASUU’s strike action and the pandemic — as schools were shut down and the government failed to provide the right infrastructure for technology enabled remote learning.

The actions and inactions of this government have consistently shown that education is not a priority.

Read more about our position paper on Fixing Teritary Institution here https://bit.ly/3JiaxRu

The Youth Party has resolved to initiate contempt proceedings against the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Mr. Mahmood Yakubu, “for refusing to obey a Court of Appeal judgment”.

The Party made this known yesterday after an emergency meeting of its Board of Trustees and the National Executive Committee, NEC.

In a statement by the National Publicity Secretary of the party, Mr. Ayodele Adio, the party described the actions of Mr. Yakubu as unbecoming, regrettable, undemocratic, and unacceptable of a supposed electoral umpire.

He said: “Despite a Court of Appeal judgment in our favour, INEC has gone ahead to exclude us from the electoral process by denying the party access to the voter’s register. Additionally, the Commission has refused to receive or acknowledged any of our letters.”

The party also stated that should INEC continue its unconstitutional exclusionary policy against the party, there is every chance that the general election will be deemed null and void for failure to allow a registered party to participate in the election.

“To avoid a constitutional quagmire, we are urging INEC to do the responsible and democratic thing by respecting the Court of Appeal’s judgment to include us in all election processes leading up to 2023,” Mr. Adio said.

He further expressed grave concern for the fragility of Nigeria’s democracy, noting that the first sign of the failure of a democracy is the abuse of judicial decisions.

He added that “We must never tolerate a situation where public officers can flagrantly disregard judicial decisions or judgments from the court.

“It doesn’t matter if the person is the Chairman of INEC or the clerk in ministry. Nothing threatens democracies more than the destruction and humiliation of its judicial institutions.”

 The party finally noted that it would be releasing the guidelines for the 2023 elections, having received recommendations from the committee setup to review and advise its NEC.

On Friday, 25 February 2022 President Muhammadu Buhari after much delay over
the years signed the reworked Electoral Amendment bill into law. The Bill has the
potential to significantly strengthen the legal framework governing our electoral
system and set the pace for a better and more credible elections in 2023.

The Youth Party welcomes the new Electoral Act 2022 and is pleased to have
contributed significantly to the final outcome of the Act through numerous policy
advocacy interventions. The Youth Party was one of the few parties that responded
to the invitation by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in a letter
dated 18th June, 2019 to submit recommendations1 for reform of the electoral
process after the last general elections. The Party also submitted an extensive
memorandum to the National Assembly Joint Committee on INEC and Electoral
Matters which was also presented at the public hearing of the Bill by our Financial
Secretary, Mr. Ifeanyi Nwoye even though we were given a very short notice.

Read more about the Electoral Act 2022 position paper here https://bit.ly/3KzT33u

The Youth Party has expressed great dismay that the Federal Government has not held any official to account for the sheer incompetence of importing 3 million liters of substandard petrol.

The party, through its spokesperson Lawal Ayo, noted that the negligence of duty has cost the country billions of Naira when resources are scarce. Even worse is that several car and generator owners have suffered huge damages from the substandard petrol that knocked down their engines.

Lawal said: “sadly, the government has shown no remorse for its incompetence that has cost many Nigerians their cars and generators. Neither has it demonstrated the will to punish the agency’s leadership responsible for such a catastrophic error. For us, this is unacceptable. If an agency is charged with the responsibility for quality control in the importation of petrol, it should be held to account when it fails to deliver on its mandate”.

“On the one hand, we cannot claim that the country has no money to fund education and hence the insistent strike action from ASUU, and then fail to come down hard on officials who have cost the government billions of Naira from their negligence. Furthermore, we call for more transparency and accountability from the NNPC and every other agency operating or regulating the oil sector.

“Well-meaning Nigerians will no longer tolerate the opaqueness and impunity that has characterized that sector. Nigerians have a right to know how their resources are managed and how their wealth is distributed (or spent)”.

The Government through the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed earlier announced that the government would stop subsidy payments on petroleum products in June. Unfortunately, the government reneged on its initial position in a meeting reportedly convened by Ahmad Lawan, President of the Senate with Zainab Ahmed, Timipre Sylva, Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Mele Kyari, Group Managing Director, NNPC Limited in attendance. 

The statement that the President is unaware of the commitment to remove subsidy is misleading. The real issue is not whether the President is aware of its removal or not because the President presented the 2022 budget, and signed the Appropriation Bill into law which signaled the removal of subsidy in June as only N443 billion was appropriated for subsidy payment from January to June 2022. 

Read more about the Fuel Subsidy position paper here https://bit.ly/3g2ezRd

Given Nigeria’s current fiscal state, the Federal Government must speedily adopt and implement the Bold Revenue Plan in order not to avoid debt and economic crisis, the Youth Party has said. Reacting to the passing of the 2022 budget, the party, in a statement signed by the National Publicity Secretary, Mr. Ayodele Adio, noted that “our current revenue realities cannot move the country forward. If we continue to borrow and do nothing about growing our revenue base as other countries are doing, a severe debt crisis awaits us.”

The party also criticized the Federal Government for having no clear strategy on revenue generation, relying mainly on borrowing such that the country spends 98% of its revenue on debt servicing. “There is no evidence of a coherent strategy by the Federal Government to improve our revenue substantially and to manage our debts. Even the Director-General of the Debt Management Office has warned that unless the country’s revenue profile is raised significantly, the country will face debt sustainability challenges.”

Expressing their disappointment with the government’s funding priorities, the Youth Party sounded an alarm that “shockingly, we are currently borrowing to fund a high recurrent expenditure, petrol and electricity subsidy, an expensive National Assembly, over-bloated civil service and the largess of politicians. Meanwhile, the government plans to spend only 5% of the budget on health and 7.9% on education, both of which are less than UNESCO’s recommendation of 15% for developing countries.”

After its criticism of the government’s handling of the economy, the party urged the Federal Government to adopt its Bold Revenue Plan to rescue the economy. Noting some of the recommendations in the plan, the party’s Publicity Secretary expressed confidence that the country will increase its revenue to GDP ratio from 8% to 14% within three years of implementing the Bold Revenue Plan.

Some of the recommendations in the plan include: the immediate implementation of the Petroleum Industry Act, implementation of the Stephen Oronsanye report to reduce the cost of governance, phased removal of petrol and electricity subsidy, and strict adherence to the Fiscal Responsibility Act, which states that budget deficits must not exceed 3%.

A few weeks ago, the President Muhammadu Buhari refused to assent to the 2021 Electoral  Bill, which was passed by both chambers of the National Assembly on November 18, listing  the inclusion of the compulsory direct primaries for political parties as his major concern.  

President Buhari argued that the compulsory mode for selection of candidates is subject to  manipulation and will lead to high costs of conducting primaries, violate citizens’ rights, lead  to litigation and cause security challenges.  

Read our Position Paper on the President’s rejection of the Bill https://bit.ly/3I1EMLI