• Friday, March 29, 2024
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BusinessDay

Low voter education may mar 2023 election despite 95m registered voters

Whillztrust Foundation worries over vote-buying, others

A study has revealed that minorities may still elect the next government in 2023 and that voter ignorance or low voter education in the face of seeming voter awareness may mar the much-hyped 2023 election.

Whilltrust Foundation, a non-governmental organisation (NGO) with headquarters in Port Harcourt, South-South, said its studies showed that much voter education is still highly needed, especially in rural areas.

The group is to boost voter education through a three- day voter conference coming up in Port Harcourt in the first week of December 2022.

Unveiling the findings, the Executive Director, Aaron Anyanwu said most rural people hardly knew the value of their permanent voters card (PVCs). “They only hold tight to it as identity cards or to show government people that they have it,” Anyanwu said.

He warned that if massive voter education is not carried out, apathy may still mar the elections, and that result would still be same.

He explained that voter education was about showing the people the need to vote and how to vote.

“Until the awareness is translated into voting awareness, the exercise is still nothing. They must know how to vote and vote right. The mentoring is continuous,” he said.

He feared that minority of the 210 million Nigerians may still be the ones to elect the next government in 2023 despite the almost 95 million registered voters.

He gave example of Anambra State where 2.5m voters registered but only 250,000 or 10 percent voted. He said Chukwuma Soludo won with a mere 112,000 votes in a state with 2.5 million voters.

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The solution, he said, is to carry out massive voter education and keep helping the rural voters to participate in registering, in collecting permanent voter cards (PVCs), and in going out to vote.

“If you stop, the work done will be wasted. The masses must understand why they voted,” he said.

On vote buying, he said their target is now on vote sellers. “If they understand the value of the votes, they will not be in a hurry to sell,” he said.

He also said security agencies are part of their education programme because they too need education to know why their duties are sacred.

Earlier, one of the officials, a professor, Bene Abbey, urged the media to rescue the society and lead the way back to sanity.

Harping on education, the professor said other nationals have achieved such high levels of awareness and education that they react viciously to abnormalities in their polity.

She said: “Education is the key. Our people must rise above ethnicity and religion backed by self- interest. The press is expected to lead the charge for change and lead Nigerians out of the woods.”

She admitted that even educated persons in Nigeria refuse to live by the tenets and rather exploit the ignorance of the uneducated masses. “Instead, they foist religion and ethnicity on the masses. Gatekeepers must be well educated so they can ask the right questions.”

Whillztrust Foundation is indicated as a Nigerian-based nonprofit, non partisan, and a public interest organisation said to be borne out of the need to entrench civil and democratic values in Nigeria by increasing the participation of her citizens in electoral processes.

“Our mission is to develop sustainable initiatives that will equip the Nigerian voter and improve voter population growth across regions through advocacy, public sensitisation and enlightenment programmes.

“At Whillztrust Foundation, we have dedicated team members who are working hard enough to generate ideas that when implemented will add value and build citizen’s confidence in our electoral processes, better understanding of powers embedded in our voting decisions during elections.

“We are making progress in our commitment especially in Voter Education, Sensitisation and Mobilisation, Capacity Building, Voters Conferences, Media Advocacy and Election Observation exercises.”

Anyanwu said: “Since 2019, they had worked in South-South and South-East regions of Nigeria considering their strength and scope of operations which we hope will increase in the future.”

He said the group moved over 20,000 persons to go register to get PVCs and that they would still have to move them to go pick the cards and to vote right.

He also spoke about a voter conference that would be held in Port Harcourt from December first and third 2022.