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From Ighomuaye Lucky, Benin
A group, Whillz Trust Foundation in collaboration with the National Democratic Institute (NDI), yesterday, admonished youths in Edo State to tow the path of peace before, during and after the governorship election in the state in order to drive development.
The Lead Member of Whillz Trust Foundation, Mr. Aaron Anyanwu, gave the admonition during the South-South Youths Electoral Reforms Forum held in Benin.
He said statistics has shown that those usually used by the politicians to perpetrate violence are the youths and that the forum is tired of hearing such a report, and that something needs to be urgently done to correct it.
“Now, coming to the Edo election, I know it will be happening in September. What we are doing now, is that, the electorate and those to be voted for should be guided.
“We are tired of seeing violence during elections, we are trying to get them understand that, it is better to do things with an understanding of how things work.
“The whole essence of this forum is to get youths to begin to think differently from how they had thought in the past so that we can reduce violence to the greatest minimum, so we don’t get persons who will go to vote and will not come back alive”, Anyanwu said.
Speaking further on the event, he said though the 2023 presidential election has come and gone, the forum decided to come together to share their experiences and plan ahead of the future elections in the country.
“What we are holding is called the South-South Youths Regional Reform. This forum gives opportunity for young people to voice their experiences in the past election, the 2023 election, the expectations , experiences they had and the impact of the election.
“This project gives the youths the opportunity to share their experiences and prefer solutions. We look at the challenges in the past election and how it could be better and be able to build confidence in the system”, Anyanwu said.
Also speaking, one of the facilitators of the event, Aberechukwu Odunze, listed the factors that shaped the 2023 general election in the country, as insecurity, tribal ethnic bias, naira redesign, vote buying, voter apathy and misinformation.
One of the participants, Mr. Robert Derrick while expressing satisfaction over the outcome of the event, called on the Nigerian youths to embrace peace and shun any forms of electoral violence before, during and after any elections.
