EU partners INEC to get more youths to participate in electioneering process

The European Union (EU), in partnership with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), said it is organizing a musical concert for the youth titled “Youth Vote Count Mega Concert,” to encourage the youth to show more interest in the electioneering process and come out en mass to vote, come 2023.

EU Representative, Miss Laolu Olawunmi, made this disclosure on Tuesday at a press conference, which took place at Tawafa Balewa Square, Lagos where INEC was currently carrying out a voter registration exercise till Saturday when a concert would hold.

Also present at the media parley were the INEC Resident Commissioner in Lagos State, Mr Olusegun Agbaje; Dr Akin Akingbolu, Bimbo Oladunjoye, Lanre Arogundade, and Samson Itodo, amongst others.

Already musical icons, artistes and comedians, including M I Ababa, Small Doctor, Pasuma, Uche Jumbo, and Omi Obohi, among others have been lined up to perform on the day in order to get youths to participate in the next elections.

Explaining the reason for the involvement of the EU in the project, Olawunmi said the international body was worried about the low turnout of youths on election day, pointing out that it was designed to increase youth participation in the voting process in the country.

This was just as she quickly recalled that in 2019, the EU took the campaign of youth voting on election day to schools, saying that the message was also extended to those who were not in school, stressing that no youth was exempted in the campaign.

“EU is supporting the democratic government in Nigeria, and as such EU went around the country in 2019 and get 25,000 youths registered,” she recalled.

“We believe through this campaign youths can begin to change and think of how the political system can benefit them.

“It is an event we started planning last year, and here we are today. We need the commitment of INEC and that the process will continue to improve, and that we have free, fair and credible elections.

“The Youth Vote Count Mega Concert is a non-partisan thing to ensure that youth participate more, get more involved in elections and allow other Nigerians to participate as well,” she added.

Shedding more light on the concert, INEC Resident Commissioner in Lagos State, Mr Agbaje, who buttressed that a similar exercise took place during last elections, said the concert was put together to encourage more youths to get registered and obtain their PVCs ahead of the coming elections in the country to enable them to participate in the exercise.

Agbaje stated that the ongoing voter registration exercise which commenced on Monday would terminate on June 13, 2022, without further extension.

The resident commissioner, who further disclosed that the Commission estimated that thousands of youths would seize the opportunity to get registered, said PVC and voter registration slips will serve as tickets to admit participants into the concert.

Agbaje maintained that to make the registration of voters easier in Lagos State, 50 machines were deployed to the venue of the concert, while 30 of the machines were allocated to register newly eligible voters, with 20 set aside for those who had problems with their PVCs.

According to him, Lagos State is focused due to its high population, saying that 13,325 polling units had been created in the state, “so as to bring the polling units nearer to the people, and also the commission is interested in each polling unit having a significant number of people.”

Agbaje assured the electorate that the commission had improved the way election was conducted and further assured them that their vote would count as, according to him, the elections would be credible.

The resident commissioner, who lamented that out of 34,000 unclaimed PVCs since Monday that the program started, however, appealed to the electorate to come to the Commission’s office to collect theirs, even as he further disclosed that the PVCs of those that registered between June and December 2021 were now ready for collection.

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