Assessment of Barriers to Youth Participation in Politics and its Implications for Democratic Governance in Niger State, Nigeria

This study assessed the barriers to youth participation in politics and its implication for democratic governance in Niger State, Nigeria. This study adopted a descriptive survey research design. The target population of the study was youth aged 18–35 years in three zones in Niger State. The participants also include political party officials, civil society representatives, and youth leaders. Krejcie and Morgan table was used to determine the sample size of the study which was 384. Simple random sampling was used to select one local government in each zones namely: Bida, Suleja and Kontagora to participate in the study. Stratified random sampling techniques was also used to ensure representation across gender, education level, and locality. The instrument used in data collection was a structured questionnaire. The instrument was validated by experts and pilot tested among 50 youth in Bosso Local Government Area of Niger State. Cronbach alpha was used to determine the internal consistency of the instrument, and an index of 0.89 was obtained. Mean and standard deviation was used to analyze data and t-test was used in testing the null hypotheses at 0.05. Based on the findings, the study concludes that youth participation in politics in Niger State is significantly constrained by a combination of economic, structural, and socio-cultural factors. The study also concludes that these barriers have profound negative effects on democratic governance. Low youth participation reduces political accountability, weakens representation, and contributes to policy inefficiency and elite domination. The study recommends that Government and political parties should implement initiatives that reduce the financial burden on young political aspirants.