NGO trains Journalists, CSO’s, others on voters participation, peaceful election 

By,Venica Uchechukwu Enugu 

A non governmental organization known as Kimpact Development Initiative (KDI) has trained Journalists, CSO’s, religious body, students, Community influencers, political parties members and other stakeholders in Southeast on advancing voters participation.

The NGO, however encouraged the participants on the need for peaceful election, especially in the forthcoming 2027 general elections in Nigeria.

The capacity building training with the theme “Voters Mobilisation and Peace Building Training” was held at Best Western hotel Independence layout Enugu.

The team lead of KDI, Bukola Idowu, in his lecture emphasized that voters participation in Nigeria is seriously declining and there is need for mobilisation and also encourage eligible voters in Nigeria to come out and participate in the forthcoming 2027 general election.

According to him “In Nigeria today, the most important thing is election, because it is in election that we choose the leader that will manage the resources and govern the people, and Nigerians have not understand the importance of government. 

“No one can exist without the government. If you stay away from governance and do nothing about it, you will be ruled by your inferiors”, he said.

However, he pointed that currently in Nigeria, governance or appointment is by your efforts or work in the political party, and not by competent. 

He noted that governance is an important endeavor stressing that, what put people in governance is election. 

“The ability to recruit a quality leadership is through election, therefore the person you elect in government in the next four years will determine how you live, 

“Your educational direction, economic direction, taxes, infrastructure and your health”. 

“The next person that will rule Nigeria will be determined by election, therefore the aim of this training is to strengthen stakeholders of the electoral process, equip them with tools and platforms for accessing credible electoral information,  

“Build practical strategies for promoting informed voter participation, community based voter mobilisation and peace building 

He noted further that the training will equip participants with practical skills to identify conflict drivers, recognize early warning indicators, analyze electoral risks and apply community based approaches for preventing electoral violence before, during and after election.

Bukola in his lecture noted that he acknowledged that there are barriers, conflict drivers and indicators that influences people’s participation in Nigeria election, which includes electoral violence, disenfranchisement,

 Distrust, rigging, intimidation and other election malpractice, but encouraged Nigerian citizens not to allow any factor to discourage them in carrying out their civic responsibility. 

He urged the participants to use their different mediums and educate Nigerian citizens especially those in their communities on the need for them to go and register for PVC, 

Ensure they collect their PVC’s, cast their vote on the election day and monitor the election, from the polling unit to collation center and finally to the judiciary level. 

He noted that it will help Nigerians to elect a credible candidate of their choice for a democratic government in the forthcoming 2027 general election.

He further urged the participants to enlighten eligible voters to be careful while thumbprinting on the ballot papers to avoid invalid or rejected votes that can affect the election of a credible candidate, stressing that “every vote cast is very important”.

The participants at the end of the training had a practical group exercise session where they developed practical state level action plans, identified priority audiences, key civic messages, mobilisation channels, peace building intervention, conflict hotspot, implementation timelines and responsibilities.