What does it take to become the next president of Nigeria? Thirty-five-year-old Chike Ukaegbu wants to find out.
Ukaegbu—who made history as Nigeria’s youngest presidential candidate when he announced his candidacy in June—grew up in the West African Nation. In fact, Muhammadu Buhari, the current president of Nigeria, took over as a military dictator the year Ukaegbu was born.
The presidential hopeful later spent over a decade in the United States pursuing his studies and is now a technology-focused entrepreneur. Thanks to the Not Too Young to Run bill, which was signed earlier this year, Ukaegbu and other qualifying Nigerians who are 35 and older can run for president, too.
But why should the Nigerian presidential election matter to Americans? Ukaegbu believes that as the largest black nation in the world, Nigeria has a duty to call out injustices on an international platform.
“There is no reason why young black men are being slaughtered in the streets here in America, and nobody is talking about that globally,” said Ukaegbu. “It’s important that when there are global injustices against people of African descent that you have that world power that can speak up against that or that people have the option to pick up and head back home.”
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