By Tony Ezimakor, Abuja
Ahead of the 2027 general elections and remaining off cycle gubernatorial election in Osun State, Chairman of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Joash Amupitan has expressed grave concerns about the worsening voter apathy which he blamed on trust deficit between Nigerians and entire electoral process.
Prof Amupitan spoke when he received the Director-General (DG) of!National Orientation Agency (NOA), Mallam Lanre Issa-Onilu, who was on a courtesy visit at the INEC headquarters in Abuja, the nation’s capital.
The INEC boss observed that the trust
deficit among voting public has taken a huge toll on general turnout during elections, noting that the energy seen in national discourse does not in any way match the turnout during elections, citing the just concluded off cycle gubernatorial election in Ekiti State and Area Council poll in Federal Capital Territory (FCT) as examples.
He suggested that far more needs to be done in the area of voter education and called for greater collaboration between the commission and NOA as time ticks to the 2027 general elections.
According to the INEC Chairman,the constitutional role of NOA perfectly aligns with the mandate of the commission in the area of mobilization and education of the electorates in the exercise of their civic responsibilities, hence the need for greater synergy between the two institutions.
He said: “The NOA is, without a doubt, Nigeria’s premier organization for civic orientation. While INEC is the umpire that sets up the field and manages the game, the NOA is the custodian of the values that make the players and the spectators respect the rules.
“You speak the languages of our people, you understand their local fears, and you know how to navigate the cultural nuances that shape public opinion.
“This is consistent with your duties and powers under Section 3 of the National Orientation Agency Act of 1993. The relevant portions are Sections 3(d), 3(e), (i) & (k) are-
(d) establish social institutions and framework for deliberate exposure of Nigerians to democratic norms and values for virtue, peaceful, united, progressive and disciplined society;
(e) energise the conscience of all categories of Nigerians to their rights and privileges, responsibilities and obligations as citizens of Nigeria
(i) propagate the need to eschew all vices in public life, including corruption, dishonesty, electoral and census malpractice, ethnic, parochial and religious bigotry;
(k) mobilise Nigerians for positive patriotic participation in and identification with national affairs and issues.
“We are battling a silent, dangerous enemy in our electoral ecosystem: voter apathy and deep-seated cynicism. We see it in the off-cycle polls where turnout does not match the energy of our national conversations.
“We also see a sophisticated, orchestrated wave of fake news and disinformation designed to make the ordinary Nigerian believe their vote will not count. Together, INEC and the NOA must rewrite this narrative. We need to co-create a decentralized, grassroots voter education campaign that goes beyond simply telling people when to vote.
“We need to teach them why their vote matters and how our new legal and technological safeguards protect their choices.
“We must look the rural farmer, the marketplace woman, and the disillusioned urban youth in the eye and explain to them, in the language they understand, that because of the current technological infrastructure, the era of snatching ballot boxes or rewriting results manually is gone.”
Drawing on the commission’s experience during the off cycle election in Ekiti, Amupitan noted that despite the improvement made in all aspects of INEC operations, the general apathy distracted significantly from the entire exercise.
The Chairman therefore invited the Agency to team up with it to create a robust campaign against vote-buying and other obstacles to electoral integrity ahead of 2027.
“As we look toward the 2027 timelines —with our Presidential election firmly set for January 16 and Governorship polls for February 6— we must begin the heavy lifting right now. This is the moment to institutionalize our collaboration. I want to see a strong working relationship between INEC’s Voter Education department and the NOA’s communication teams.
“Let us build joint campaigns against the toxic menace of vote-buying and misinformation, which threaten to contaminate our democracy. Let us work together with your field officers with the accurate technical knowledge of INEC’s operations so they can act as trusted ambassadors of truth in their respective communities.”
Earlier in his remarks, Mallam Issa-Onilu
pledged closer collaboration between the Agency and INEC, as he expressed confidence that their tenure would mark the era of civic consciousness in the country.
He expressed need for the youth to be properly educated so as to make appropriate decision on who leads the country, against the backdrop of what happened during the last election.
“Regarding deciding who will be our leaders… it is just the right of the citizens to do that we all have the responsibility to protect and I’m sure we also promote it. So that’s where we come up,” Issa-Onilu said.
“The last election in particular saw something happen in this country. The people we refer to as Gen Z came of age… When it came to its own drawback, we saw a huge gap in knowledge and we saw a lot of productive time committed to issues that should never be discussed because there was only so much knowledge. And that was very dangerous for us as a country,” he said.
“We have a total of 818 offices nationwide. We have offices in all local governments, we have offices in the 36 states and 6 zonal directorates… All that we do is to communicate government policies, programmes, and projects to Nigerians and to generate feedback.”
*PHOTO CAPTION: Mallam Issa-Onilu, DG NOA (l), and INEC Chairman, Prof Amupitan.
