Bilkisu Adejoh
As the 2023 General election is fast approaching, and the last few months have been critical for voter registration, education, and mobilization. Campaigns and grassroots organizers are revamping their outreach strategies to make the most of this final stretch, and it’s also an important time for Civil Society Organisations to acknowledge and embrace their role in preparing young people for electoral participation.
It is in this light that A Non Governmental Organization (NGO), Decency Pan Africa Empowerment Initiative organized youth voters education conference with the theme: the role of youth in fair, credible and non-violent election in Africa on the 17th of January,2023 in Abuja.
History makes clear that people when they have the ability to organize, speak up, and engage,have the potential to hold their leaders and institutions accountable, pushing them to fulfill their promise to serve the common good.
We believe that meaningful civic engagement is an antidote to inequality, with rich potential to empower underrepresented and marginalized groups that have too often been excluded.
Speaking to journalists in Abuja, the convener, Stella Njideke,stated that the conference aims to foster a sense of trust in the electoral process and to create a vibrant civil society that engages in democracy development.
It also aims at creating awareness and motivating the masses to participate in the electoral process, she added
Speaking earlier,the chairman of the occasion,Hon. Micah Jibah (FCT House of Representative) commends Global PAN Africa for such timely conference.
He implored stakeholders to brainstorm and come out useful and necessary information that the youthful electorates requires.
He urged Nigerian Youth to seize this opportunity to grab the electoral knowledge and use it to vote credible leaders
“Know that critical development cannot succeed without a legitimately and democratically elected government that is responsible and accountable for it’s people. Use your PVC wisely to determine who becomes the next credible leaders”
Also speaking an INEC official Mrs Magdalene Aku stated the needs for voters education adding that the focus is often on how to vote rather than who to vote for.
An appropriate voter education would provide citizens with knowledge regarding: how to register to vote,how to complete ballot papers, the electoral system etc, Aku said
On the part of her commission’s readiness to ensure free,fair and credible election, such disclosed that the commission has come up with Hi-Tech innovations including INEC Elections Results Viewing Portal (IReV), the INEC Voter Enrollment Device (IVED) and the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS). Guaranteeing electronic transmission of results and the aforementioned processes will definitely assist INEC to make transparency the fulcrum of future elections here in Nigeria.
Delivering his goodwill message,the Namibia Ambassador to Nigeria, Amb Humphrey Desmond Geiseb applauded the organizers and INEC.
Geiseb disclosed that Namibia has recorded several non-violent elections and they have been able to achieve that because the citizens has seen Namibia as the only country they have and they jealously guide it to make it better by electing credible leaders.
He added that Namibia has always seen Nigeria as her elder sister as she supported the independence struggle of Namibians.
He encourage Nigeria to come up with credible election for other African countries to continue to emulate as Nigeria is seen as the face of African countries
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