From David Onuoja, Abuja
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), has welcomed the National Orientation Agency (NOA)’s, partnership with the Commission on its voter education which it described as timely and necessary.
INEC Chairman, Professor Joash Ojo Amupitan, made the declaration on Wednesday in Abuja during the NOA’s courtesy visit to the Commission’s headquarters.
According to him, “When we look at the landscape of our nation today as we prepare for the 2027 General Election, it becomes immediately clear that INEC cannot build a robust democracy in isolation. We can purchase the finest Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machines, we can optimise the INEC Result Viewing Portal (IReV), to international standards, and we can map out the most logistical routes for material deployment. But all of these technological and administrative triumphs mean nothing if the citizens remain detached, uninform, cynical, or completely uneducated about the power of their votes.
“To me, this is not a routine visit; it is a vital meeting of minds and a reunion of two institutions constitutionally saddled with the responsibility of educating Nigerians on democratic culture.
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“This is where the National Orientation Agency comes in. 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) which talk about establishing social institutions and framework for deliberate exposure of Nigerians to democratic norms and values for virtue, peaceful, united, progressive and disciplined society.
“Energise the conscience of all categories of Nigerians to their rights and privileges, responsibilities and obligations as citizens of Nigeria, propagate the need to eschew all vices in public life, including corruption, dishonesty, electoral and census malpractice, ethnic, parochial and religious bigotry, mobilise Nigerians for positive patriotic participation in and identification with national affairs and issues.
“Therefore, our partnership with you on voter education is not a secondary option; it is an absolute necessity. We must be honest with ourselves. 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.
“It is a loud diagnostic signal that far more needs to be done in the area of intensive, deep-rooted voter education, and it proves that we cannot afford to wait until the eve of the 2027 polls to start talking to our people.
“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.
“My pledge to you today, DG, is that our doors are wide open. We are ready to pool our resources, share our data, and give your teams all the institutional support required to make this collaboration a resounding success.
Earlier, the Director General of National Orientation Agency (NOA), Mallam Lanre Issa-Onilu said NOA is in INEC to collaborate with it in order to bring voter education especially apath to the bearest minimum and understanding of Nigerians.
He said, “I promised to collaborate with INEC on voter apathy, vote buying and fake News by carrying out massive and effective voter education on the electorate in all the 36 states of the Federation FCT.
