"My vote, my way to reduce inequalities" "My vote, my way to reduce inequalities: young people get involved".
Niger is a French-speaking West African country with an estimated population of 24,206,644 in 2020. This population is very young with an average age of 15 years, according to Worldometer/UN data. This situation, which should be a force to boost development, is in fact "a time bomb". Indeed, the needs of this youth are immense, no credible alternative is in sight and the unemployment rate is exploding. The political climate has been plagued by mistrust since the disputed 2016 elections and the suspicions of large-scale corruption denounced in the latter have widened the gap. On the other hand, young people in general are marginalized in both appointed and elected positions. This is clearly evident in Tondikandia City Council. Indeed, out of twenty-one (21) current municipal councillors, none is under 40 years of age. Young people do not seem to have any say in the municipal decision-making body. Worse their concerns are always relegated to the Greek calendars by those whocome to business. This can be explained by the saying "what is done for me without is against me". Although they have a local structure "the communal youth council", the young people have not been able to conceive a common roadmap for which they will be able to combine their efforts. Forgotten during the mandates, they are nevertheless the electoral cattle at a lower cost for the different parties in the commune of Tondikandia. However, the general elections of 2020-2021 represent an opportunity for change for young people. They must be accompanied in order to make these general elections an opportunity to break with the past: "Voting is power".Our idea is to accompany young people (men and women) to put their own concerns above political parties in the framework of the general elections 2020-2021 at the level of the rural commune of Tondikandia.    To achieve this, we will accompany the Communal Youth Councilof Tondikandia (CCJ/T) by organizing a forum that will bring together young people from different backgrounds and social conditionsof the commune. This forum will help design a youth manifesto on inequality. This manifesto will be presented to the different political parties in the commune so that they will commit themselves to it once they are settled in the affairs of the commune. Moreover, who can better provide a satisfactory answer to the problems of the young people better than the young people themselves: "what does for me without me is against me". To give full meaning to this maxim, we intend to offer young candidates (men and women) opportune spaces to influence the young electorate in a dynamic "youth for youth" campaign during the votes of 2020-2021.To offer campaign spaces to young candidates, we will energize our theater troupe in Damana. It will be the working caterpillar of our "youth for youth" campaign. Our strategy is to organize gatherings of young people through the establishment of the forum theater. The inequalitiessuffered by young people will be staged by actors. The objective is to encourage them to commit themselves by their vote to bring young candidates to the decision-making body that is the city council. In this way, young people who become councillors will participate effectively in the resolution of youth concerns. Once the rally has reached its climax, the troop makes way for the youth candidate from the area. He will take the floor for his campaign with the theme of reducing the inequalities suffered by young people through youth representation on the municipal council. The format is a double innovation, on the one hand it pushes the political parties to make a formal commitment to tackle the inequalities listed in the youth manifesto. The parties are thus linked and young peoplewill be able to question them about their commitment when the time comes.  On the other hand, it offers young people (who in the past were amorphous behind the party barons) the opportunity to learn the art of rhetoric and to hatch unsuspected talents and even tobe elected.