Youth Leaders of different youth groups in the state say unless there is an effective system of punishing electoral offenders, efforts to demilitarize elections, and conscious efforts to address rising poverty and unemployment in the country, ending vote buying and voter apathy may not be feasible in the upcoming general elections.
These were some of the views expressed at the Voter Pre-election Dialogue organized by a collaboration of the National Orientation Agency, NOA, the South Saharan Social Development Organization, the UK Department for International Development, the Open Society Initiative of West Africa, and the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.
Time check shows it is barely seventy four days to the February sixteen presidential and National Assembly elections and eighty nine days to the March two guber and State Assembly elections and as such major stakeholders in the polity are making efforts to ensure a free, fair, violence free and credible elections.
Youth leaders from different communities of the State, Civil society and nongovernmental organizations, students and other youth groups where therefore gathered in the dialogue to proffer solutions to the Challenges facing elections.
At the dialogue session, some of the youth leaders decried the role of officers of different security agencies and adhoc staff of INEC during elections which according to them has made it difficult to curb vote buying at the polling booths and called for decentralized voter education at the communities and markets to achieve a better result.
Earlier in a lecture, the State Director of National Orientation Agency, Barrister Charles Nwoji underscored that if the youths are harnessed to bring positive change in the electoral process, issues of vote buying and voter apathy which have become recurrent in the South East and void votes will become things of the past.
The Executive Director, South Saharan Social Development Organization, Mrs. Nkechi Igwe represented by the Programme Officer of the organization, Onyeka Akunna said the purpose of the pre-election dialogue is to sensitize the masses to make informed choices during elections especially ensuring they become active participants in the electoral process.
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