NOA set to commence voters’ education/ sensitization in Rivers State.

Lorine Emenike
Ahead of the 2019 polls, the Rivers State branch of the National Orientation Agency (NOA) has held a town hall meeting/electoral sensitization with the theme: “The role of freedom of information act and open government partnership in ensuring a peaceful, transparent and credible 2019 general election” in Port Harcourt on Tuesday.

The meeting was well attended by critical stakeholders in the state, including representatives of all the security agencies in the state, traditional rulers, representatives of civil societies organizations in the state and youth leaders of diverse youth groups in Rivers State.

In his opening remarks, the acting state director of National Orientation Agency, Mr. Young M. Ayotamuno stated that as a co-actor in ensuring credible elections in the country, NOA has remained a major driver in Nigeria’s quest for change and has consistently upheld its mandate of promoting a vibrant Democratic culture and citizens’ participation and responsibility through political and civic education.

Continuing, the NOA state director said citizens’ participation is one of the fundamental principles of democracy, adding that “as a matter of fact, there can be no democracy without citizens participation”. Thus, the agency (NOA) engages in promoting partnership with development agencies, MDAs, civil society organizations (CSOs) and other strategic stakeholders for achieving national goals.

“As part of the activities in sensitizing and educating the citizens for a credible and fair election, all arrangements have been put in place to fully commence the campaign against three aberrations in electoral process that need urgent attention: voided votes, violent elections and vote buying, this exercise will be carried out by the arrowheads of our grassroots mobilization and sensitization personnel, Chief Orientation and Mobilization Officers (COMOS) in all of the 23 local government areas of the state, this program will kick off on Friday 18th January 2019”.

The state director of NOA also condemned the act of using social media to project false information without properly verifying the information by some citizens. He said the act will not protect national interest and advised perpetrators of such acts to desist from it.

He further reiterated that all of the existing political parties in the nation are important. He said: “our interest is people, the voters. It is the people that will definitely decide where their votes go and who governs them. The people are the foundation of democracy.

“It is NOA’s core mandate to orient and to ensure the people build the right culture and that they vote according to their conscience.

The Director General, National Orientation Agency, Dr Garba who was duly represented, in his keynote address said:

“The issues of accountability, fiscal transparency, fight against corruption, peace and security, openness in government business and transactions, are vital to credible elections and ultimately to good governance in Nigeria. To achieve these notable objectives, successive administrations have taken bold steps in developing various policies and initiatives, such as establishment of the Freedom Of Information (FOI) Act, 2011, the whistle-blower policy, the treasury single account (TSA), signing up to the OGP principles and others.

“It is this commitment of the government to stamp out corruption and open up the social space for citizens to freely engage with their governments in an open transparent manner that led to the signing into law of the FOI Act, 2011 and also compelled the President to sign up to Open Government Partnership Principles on 26th July 2016 as the 70th member to commit to the process”.

“Today’s sensitization program is organized as part of the agency’s ongoing interventions to drive the message of citizens’ responsibilities in good governance by examining the roles of both the FOIA and OGP in ensuring a peaceful, transparent and credible 2019 general election.

The NOA national director used the medium to urge Nigerians to seize the opportunity to vote wisely, responsibly and hold government accountable at all levels. “We must ensure that only candidates who are have demonstrated a proven commitment to the needs of the people are voted into power or returned to continue in office”.

On his part, the Lead Discussant of the meeting, Barr. Karebi George in his presentation, said as part of the four points in the OGP’s declaration, “INEC should increase access to openness and accountability, never the less INEC’s website, www.inecnigeria.org, as well as social media pages, should be more dynamic in linking the social media pages to the website”.

He also advised INEC to include frequently asked questions (FAQs) in their links to advance their online business.

He also urged INEC to deepen their relationship with the media as well as the social media influencers by greatly utilizing new technologies, the media in engagements. He said: ” It is better to have the media as ally and advocates than to keep them in the dark and inadvertently fuel speculations and rumours particularly with regards to statistical information”.

He added that “engaging with voters, media, civil society organizations and other agencies of government remains a good part to attaining peaceful, transparent and credible general election in the country”.

Also, the chairman of the occasion, Dr N. S. Okogbule stated, “in the realization of a credible election, OGP principles must be considered, the citizens must be involved in the electoral process as well as the democratic process, of which the electoral aspect is part of.

“So it is important for us to understand that the challenge before us is very very crucial for the success of the 2019 general election and as individuals and representatives of the various organization, we have a large role to play in ensuring that 2019 election is free, fair and transparent “.

Also, the former state director of NOA, Oliver Worlugbum used the medium to advise Rivers State citizens to resist vote selling. He also urged youths in the State to resist being used by politicians to accomplish their selfish and greedy political plights.

Worlugbum advised them never to be used for thuggery to disrupted peaceful electioneering processes.

He urged Rivers people to vote into power candidates of their choice in all of the political offices and not to be forced to do otherwise.