Exploration of political participation as concept and in context is commonplace in political science, political sociology, and other interstitial disciplines, but its exact role and conceptual importance is debated. This study clarifies how political engagement is understood and the activities that constitute it or are included. The paper further explains political participation, first by presenting an outline of how previous literature have interpreted and adjusted the concept. A brief analysis of the core debate on the activities that ought to be recognised as political engagement has also been examined. It zeros in with the analysis of reasons youths engage and some fail to participate in politics in Nigeria.