The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has pleaded with the political advertisers to support the 2015 election by placing adverts that will portray Nigeria to the rest of the world in a positive light rather than otherwise. The Commission also commended the advertisers through its umbrella body, the Association of Advertising Agencies of Nigeria, AAAN, and other organizations for their drive in making issues pertaining to the electoral process in Nigeria their priority.
INEC Chairman, Prof Attahiru Jega who gave the commendation in a remark at the International Political Advertising, Perception Building and Voter Education Seminar in Abuja, said that with the support of all stakeholders in both civil society and media, the success of the 2015 general election would not be in doubt. “As we approach the general elections in February 2015, no effort should be spared by stakeholders in promoting civic enlightenment among the electorate in line with global best practices among the political elites.“For us at INEC, we have always said that even though the 2011 general elections were widely acclaimed as a major improvement on the past elections, we are determined to raise the bar much higher in 2015.
“Our goal is not to only make the 2015 elections much better than 2011; they should also be very good when measured using international benchmark of democratic elections. We encourage other stakeholders to come on board and contribute their quota towards achieving this mega objective,” Jega said. The INEC boss said that the seminar with the theme, “PoliticalB Advertising, Perception Building and Voter Education” was quite timely. Prof Jega who stressed the need for voter civic education assured participants in the workshop that the Commission was doing all within its powers to ensure that adequate voter education.
“INEC recognizes the profound importance of building the right perception of the Nigerian electoral process among the electorate. That is why we are leaving nothing to chance in our effort to improve the level of voter education and civic sensitization about the process. “We know too well that poor voter education partly, if not substantially, accounted for some major challenges we experienced as a country in past elections. These challenges include voter apathy, unduly high level of void votes in elections and, indeed, the unfortunate incident of post-election violence in 2011,” he said.
Source: Nigerian Pilot
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