The Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC) has condemned the “marginalization” of youths and women ahead of the 2023 elections.

Auwal Rafsanjani, Executive Director of the group who spoke at a town hall meeting on Strengthening Accountability Among Civil Society (SANCUS) project in Keffi, Nasarawa State, called for more youth and women involvement in the democratic process.

Rafsanjani noted that with youths and women underrepresented in politics, an expensive political process “is a double jeopardy”.

According to him,the political landscape has been hijacked by politicians “who are focused on money”.He also lamented the high cost of expression and interest form for both the All Progressive Congress,APC and the Peoples Democratic Party,PDP.

The Transition Monitoring Group (TMG) chief said money politics is at the heart of the general crisis of democracy and governance in Nigeria, thereby making a mockery of the efforts of stakeholders and citizens that campaigned vigorously to secure the signing of the “Not Too Young to Run bill”.

Rafsanjani said that the time to move away from politics of money and materialism to politics of ideas, issues and development is now.