CHAIRMAN’S REMAKS AT THE INTERNATIONAL SEMINAR ON POLITICAL ADVERTISING, PERCEPTION BUILDING & VOTER EDUCATION’ AT YAR’ADUA CENTER, ABUJA, ON FRIDAY, JULY 11, 2014

BY

PROFESSOR ATTAHIRU M. JEGA, OFR

HON. CHAIRMAN, INDEPENDENT NATIONAL ELECTORAL COMMISSION (INEC)

PROTOCOLS

It gives me great pleasure to make a few remarks at this Seminar, which I consider to be a useful contribution by the organisers to our collective yearning in this country for free, fair and credible elections. I commend the Association of Advertising Agencies of Nigeria (AAAN) and other organisations supporting the seminar for making issues pertaining to the electoral process the focal point of this event. As we approach the general elections in February 2015,no effort should be spared by stakeholders in promoting civic enlightenment among the electorate and global best practices among the political elite.

For us at the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), we have always said that even though the 2011 general elections were widely acclaimed as a major improvement on the past elections in this country, we are determined to raise the bar much higher in 2015. Actually, our goal is not to only make the 2015 elections much better than 2011, they shouldalso be very good when measured using to international benchmarks of democratic elections. We encourage other stakeholders to come on board and contribute their quota towards achieving this objective.

The theme of the seminar, namely ‘Political Advertising, Perception Building and Voter Education,’ is quite timely. One of the major requirements of liberal democracy is mobilisation and participation of the people in the process. However, the enthusiasm of the electorate about a political process invariably has much to do the level of civic education about that process. For this seminar, we have a Keynote Speaker, Mr. Craig Smith, who is reputed and tested in grassroots political mobilisation in the United States and will be sharing with participants here from his wealth of experience.I am aware that officials of all the registered political parties have been invited to this seminar. We should all have a lot to learn about international best practices in grassroots mobilisation, perception building and voter education. I also expect that the panel discussion subsequently by representatives of professional media bodies, the civil society and INEC will bring out the varied stakeholder perspectives on the subject matter.

We in the Commission recognise 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. But I can confidently say here that we have come a long way since 2011 with our voter education efforts in INEC, even though we really must do much more. The things we have done in the last couple of years include the following:

• In line with the Commission’s Strategic Plan (2012 – 2016), we have instituted an Inter-agency Committee on Voter Education and Publicity at both the national and state levels.

• We have formulated a Communication Policy / Strategy to guide both the Internal and External information dissemination processes of the Commission, and improve our voter education and civic sensitization engagements with diverse stakeholders.
• We have regularly been holding quarterly meetings with all the registered political parties, where we share information about INEC’s operations and processes and get the input of these parties. We expect that the information shared at these meetings will be passed down the party ranks, and ultimately to their supporters.

• We have increased our engagement with civil society organisationsand media stakeholders. Consequently, we regularly share information that could be used in further educating the public about the political process.

• Through the establishment of the INEC Citizens Contact Centre (ICCC), we have strengthened the Commission’s reach in public sensitization and its responsiveness to public enquiries on the political process.

• We have also strengthened the Commission’s compliance with the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and trained different categories of INEC on the provisions of this important law.

But, as I have always said, the responsibility for voter education and civic sensitization about the electoral process does not lie with INEC alone. Other stakeholders – namely politicians and political parties, media professionals, civil society organisations, faith-based organisations, community and opinion leaders, among others – must join in the task of promoting greater enlightenment about the political process in the citizenry. Equally important is that politicians, in particular, must cultivate the right attitude to the contest for power and imbibe best practices that would boost the confidence of the electorate in the process.

This seminar is evidently an effort towards promoting the afore-stated values, and it is highly commendable. I wish us all fruitful deliberations and an enriching experience.

Thank you.

Professor Attahiru M. Jega, OFR