While Nigerians seem to mouth the issue of vote-buying, a non-governmental organisation (NGO) working in the South-South and South-East on mass participation in the electoral process has said that rural dwellers must be involved through voter education to get things right.
The group also warned that while we fight vote-buying, efforts must be made to help rural voters get to their voting units and back without political parties getting involved to avoid compromise.
These were the conflicting scenarios the Whillztrust Foundation south to explain and resolve at a press briefing in Port Harcourt in the week where it said that it is holding a three-day conference for south-south voters to fight what it found out during a survey.
The Executive Director, Aaron Anyanwu, said vote-buying and poor voter education may mar the 2023 elections, saying his organization has found out why most persons sell votes.
Blaming lack of education and poor voter education, the NGO said all efforts must be focused on voter education to curb vote-buying, saying the only way out is to curb the appetite of voters to sell than the urge of politicians to buy.
Anyanwu disclosed that the situation is so critical that Whillztrust Foundation had to support over 20,000 rural persons to go register for their permanent voters cards (PVCs).
He thus feared that as revealed by a study, that a minority 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 elections.
The NGO with South-South headquarters in Port Harcourt said its studies showed that much voter education is still highly needed especially in the rural areas, thus the plan to mount the three-day voter conference in Port Harcourt in the first week of December 2022.
Unveiling the findings, the Executive Director said most rural people hardly knew the value of their PVCs. “They only hold tight to it as identity cards or to show government people that they have it.”
He warned that if massive voter education is not carried out, apathy may still mar the elections, and that result would still be same.
Saying there is huge difference between voter awareness and voter education, he explained that voter education is 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 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 per cent voted. He said Charles Soludo won with a mere 112,000 votes in a state with 2.5 million voters.
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 also said security agencies are part of their education programme because they too need education to know why their duties are sacred.
Read also: Low voter education may mar 2023 election despite 95m registered voters
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 born 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.
Flanked by other members of the Foundation including Modestus Igbosofulu (PhD), member of the board; Precious Prayer, lawyer and in-house attorney as well as Rivers State Coordinator; Benjamin Asiegbu, the Volunteer Representative; Chukwu Benjamin Chima, the lead ambassador; and Kenechi Emilia Oga, the Programmes Manager, the Executive Director said Whillztrust Foundation has dedicated team members who are working hard enough to generate ideas that when implemented will add value and build citizen’s confidence in Nigeria’s electoral processes and better understanding of powers embedded in their 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.
“We have since 2019, worked in South-South and South East regions of Nigeria considering our strength and scope of operations which we hope will increase in the future.
“Since commencement, Whillztrust foundation has, independently and through strategic partnership with Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) initiated programmes that promote voter education and provide critical voter information to local communities in our bid to encourage citizens participation at all levels.”
He said Whillztrust members have been formally trained by United Nations Development Programme UNDP in conjunction with INEC. “A critical look at Nigeria will show indicators that all is not well at the moment. Unfortunately we are compounded by continued decadence, corruption and lack of transparency in government and public sectors. At every election cycle in-coming government will make promises to rectify the difficulties we face as a nation, however, they have always failed.”
He said this experience has created huge vacuum of hopelessness and loss of confidence in business of government and governance.
“Our experience in the field as voter education providers shows that greater percentage of Nigerians are hardly interested in voting and Election.
“How can we hold our government accountable for promises they made on their campaign if we do not participate in elections. Participation in election is the constitutional right and civic responsibility of every Nigerian provided you have met the electoral requirements.
It was because of these challenges that the existence of Whillztrust foundation became a necessity to help redefine advocacy in social sector and encourage public interest.
We focus on grassroots to reach the hard to reach in society.’
“In line with our aims and objectives, Whillztrust Foundation wishes to hold the 1st edition of our South-South Voters Conference in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, from 1st to 3rd December 2022 to improve voter population growth, to provide voter information and education that equip the Nigerian voter to the extent that they are able to make informed decisions and quality choices of who their preferred party and candidates are.”
He said it is also to advocate for good voting practices during elections, like non-violence, avoiding vote-buying and selling and to also avoid aiding and abetting election crimes among others.”
Conclusion
If voters understand that the power of the PVC is not to get buyer but to decide the future of one’s children and to hold leaders accountable, they would no longer sell their votes. There is however need to support rural voters to move to voting units and back probably by non-partisan actors.
