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• We’ve done quite a lot to mobilise voters for
By Julianah Taiwo-Obalonye and Ada Nnamani
Leaders of civil society organisations (CSOs) in the country are urging Nigerians to go out today and exercise their franchise.
In this piece, some of the CSO leaders told Saturday Sun things they have done to promote voter education. They also explain what the electorate should do to make their votes count.
Austin Aigbe, Elections Analyst, Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD).
On voter education, a number of ads are running on the traditional and new media aimed to enlighten voters on the electoral process. These are in addition to media appearances to educate citizens.
The question is, have we educated voters on their conduct on election day? Yes. We have told the voters that they are the king, just like in marketing, the customer is the king. As the king, they have the power to determine the course of direction for the country. Above all, their roles in the process have been highlighted.
On what we have done to guide voters on election day, we have tried to break down the Electoral Act 2022, for voters to understand and protect their mandate. We have demonstrated the act of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) and the INEC Results Viewing Platform (IReV), which are innovations to strengthen the electoral process. We have informed voters to turn-out, vote peacefully, stay behind at the polling station, until votes are counted, take record of the results announced and later go online to register an account on the IReV, from where they can view their polling units results.
And where there are differences between the result recorded at the polling units and the one on IReV, they should flash it publicly.
Auwal Ibrahim Musa Rafsanjani – Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC)
Ahead of the 2023 general elections it is important that civil society organisations play their part in order to ensure free, fair, credible, transparent, peaceful and violent free elections.
To this end, the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC) and the Transition Monitoring Group (TMG) have been engaging with various groups and stakeholders for sensitisation, awareness creation and trainings and advocacy engagements so that stakeholders and voters are effectively sensitised so that the 2023 elections are conducted credibility.
The importance of voter education cannot be over emphasised. CISLAC and TMG have sensitised in terms of how, where and when to vote. This has been the efforts that we have been putting ahead of the 2023 elections.
On voter education, CISLAC and TMG have educated voters and other relevant stakeholders during various engagements, sensitization workshops and seminars across the 774 Local governments of the Federation. CISLAC and TMG have also trained observers across the 774 local governments of Nigeria who will observe the 2023 elections.
Part of the efforts that CISLAC and TMG made and are still making to guide voters on election day are th following;
CISLAC and TMG are conducting a national rally in order sensitise voters on how to vote on election, how to protect themselves and their votes so their votes count.
Mrs Faith Nwadishi – Executive Director, Centre for Transparency Advocacy (CTA)
We have embarked on voter education across the six geopolitical zones. We held stakeholders meetings in the South-South in Benin City, South-East in Enugu, North-West in Kano, North-East in Gombe, South-West in Ibadan and that of the North-Central we had here in Abuja. We have also engaged 2,000 observers that we have trained. Not only have we trained them on what is expected of them as observers, we have also trained them on the new Electoral Act of 2022 and the new INEC guidelines of the elections. We have also used social media to educate people, call their attention to what they have to do on Election Day. We also had a sensitisation meeting for persons living with disabilities in Karishi community in Abuja, which we had on Wednesday. Across the value chain of the elections, we have had different voter education sessions. We collaborated with the National Orientation Agency (NOA) in Edo State to produce a jingle on the election. And our voter education did not just start with the election, it started right from the continuous voter registration. So from the whole hug, advocating for electoral reforms to now educating people on the new guidelines, educating people on the electoral act, we have been on top of it to ensure citizens have the rightful and fact full information concerning the elections.
Mr Waheed Lawal – Coordinator, Future Leaders Global Initiative
We always educate the people on the need to always come out and vote, to be peaceful and to be orderly so that we will have a free and fair election. We always educate the market women, the artisans and the youth on reasons why they should come out and choose whomever they want to rule them because the power belongs to the people. Gone are the days when the military were ruling us. Now we elect our leaders every four years. So it is our duty to now encourage our people to come out and cast their votes for the candidates of their choice, free of rancour. So we want a free and fair process. We also had a workshop for the youth and women on the need for them to partake in the electoral processes. It you are not there you can’t complain that what they are doing is wrong. So we had a one day workshop with them recently and also we went to the market to educate the market women and men on the reasons they should be part of the process.
Dr Sam Amadi – Director, Abuja School of Social and Political Thoughts (ASSPT)
Some of our members have organised voter education. First during the time of registration, our members organised outreaches to mobilise Nigerians to register to vote. We also undertook advocacy for collection of voter cards. Now we are engaged in mobilising voters to come out and vote. We are organising voter education through outreach and radio jingles.
During our current outreach some of our members are engaged in voter education with regards to how to vote. We have shown some of them how to vote.
Dr. Okogwu Chike – Centre for Ability, Rehabilitation and Empowerment in Nigeria (CARENigeria)
We have been sensitising People With Disability (PWDs) on how their conduct should be on election day and what INEC too will do for them on the election day.
“We have told the people that INEC has ratified priority voting for People With Disability (PWD) and also provided magnifying glasses for those with albinism, ramps for wheelchair users, and Braille ballot for the visually-impaired. PWD election day adhoc staff have also been trained.
Aside other sensitisation measures we took, we also held radio and TV programmes, and also organized town hall meetings and one-on-one visitations to various disabilities clusters, and also used various social media platforms to disseminate information.
On guide to voters on election day, we produced pamphlets and fliers containing relevant messages with pictures and distributed them to voters with focus on PWDs. With the support of Action Aid, PLAC and the EUDSN, we have set up the disabilities situation room ahead of the election.
Kenneth Eze – Founder of the Speak Out Africa Initiative
We have engaged in campaign exercise in several areas, notably, PVC collection campaign, market voter drive, campus voter drive, motor park voter sensitization, vote-buying disruptor, election violence incidence tracking, and polling units transfer sensitization.
The electorate have been properly guided and provided with proper education on what to do on the election day, particularly how to vote to avoid unnecessary errors that could result in void votes.
We also educated them on how to view election results from INEC results portal, how to thumbprint correctly and not to invalidate your ballot paper/vote cast.
Dr. Udy Okon – Executive Director, Youth Alive Foundation:
The 2023 general election is crucial to Nigerians, hence the intensified mobilization and sensitisation of Nigerians on what to do and how to approach the process.
Among other things we did, we produced some short video skits for social media usage encouraging people on why this voting process is different from the regular. We also did radio drama to educate the public, in addition to infographic billboard designs to educate electorates.
We also organized several phone-in programmes on radio so that callers could call-in and ask questions so we can guide them through. We are glad with success achieved regarding sensitization.
We also organised a mock election to guide voters on the election and what they are expected to do on election day.
