Young candidates running in the upcoming elections will receive “pro bono” services from Yiaga Africa and the Nigerian Bar Association Young Lawyers Forum (NBA-YLF).
The Latin term “pro bono” refers to professional work done willingly and without reward.
At the election legal clinic for 30 young attorneys on Tuesday in Lagos, Mr. Samson Itodo, the executive director of Yiaga Africa, announced the information.
The United Kingdom Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office provides funding for the Election Law Clinic, which is a component of the non-governmental organizations “Turn Up Democracy” project (FCDO).
Itodo noted that other young candidates with impairments who requested the free legal service would also be eligible for the programme.
According to the representative, the goal of the NBA-YLF relationship with Yiaga Africa is to offer young candidates who cannot afford attorneys to handle their election petitions free legal services.
According to him, the NGO found that many young people who aspired to run for office had very little access to legal assistance to defend and further their political ambitions.
“We discovered a lot of them do not have the financial capabilities to secure legal services and we also saw cases where young candidates were substituted by their parties, because they couldn’t defend their rights.
“This is because securing electoral justice was quite challenging so we thought that as part of our efforts to increase young candidacy and to increase political inclusion.
“It was necessary to mobilise young lawyers who can support candidates with pro bono legal services, providing them guidance on provisions of the electoral legal framework in this case.
“The constitution and the Electoral Act, can help them defend their mandate because of the nature of our electoral process.
Itodo claimed that the goal of the exercise was to increase youth involvement by mobilising them to support the young candidates running in the upcoming election as well as strengthening their knowledge of the Electoral Act.
Mr. Nurudeen Yusuf, the Immediate Past Chairman of the Young Attorneys Forum, Ikeja Branch, observed that 30 new and young lawyers were receiving training on election disputes and laws relevant to the new Electoral Act simultaneously in Lagos and Sokoto State.
Yusuf claimed that the election litigation was expensive and that youthful candidates lacked the resources to hire attorneys.
According to him, “the essence of the clinic is to see how we can change the face of democracy and elections in Nigeria.
He said: “What Yiaga Africa and the Young Lawyers Forum are trying to do here is to see how we can forego our professional fees for some stipend, which we won’t be rewarding to.
“Practically I have example of aspirants who contested but were cheated during the primary elections but didn’t have the money to go to court and I have handled a number of cases on their behalf.
“So if Yiaga Africa is coming with this incentive, they are not just coming in with asking the young lawyers to render free service alone but they want to give them the prerequisite knowledge.
“Besides, you may even have access to candidate who may want to pay you the legal fees but you don’t have the knowledge of what you want to do.
“So I think it is a welcome development because when you say young lawyers, we are part of the youthful population of the country and we understand the plight of the young people.”
The clinic was held as a result of the Not Too Young to Run Act, which lowered the age for some elective posts, according to a facilitator, Dr. Sam Oguche, the Coordinator, Yiaga Africa Centre for Legislative Engagement (CLE).
Oguche claimed that because of the statute, the country now had youthful candidates, some of whom would be respondents in various election lawsuits as they entered the race.
Ms. Chioma Esuabom, one of the participants, stated that the lesson learned from this exercise was to prepare them to take part as one of the primary stakeholders in society with regard to election law practises.
