Chairman of the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Joash O. Amupitan has urged the National Orientation Agency (NOA) to support the commission’s quest to deliver a credible election as the 2027 general elections draw near.
Speaking when the management of the NOA, led by the Director General Mallam Lanre Issa-Onilu paid a courtesy call to the commission on Wednesday.
He said: “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,” emphasising that “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, uniform, cynical, or completely uneducated about the power of their votes.”
“This is where the National Orientation Agency comes in,” he said. The NOA is Nigeria’s premier organisation 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,” Osupitan said.
He cited the influence of fake news in the electoral ecosystem leading to 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,” he said.
“Together, INEC and the NOA must rewrite this narrative. We need to co-create a decentralised, 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.”
The INEC boss said the partnership with the NOA on voter education was not a secondary option but “an absolute necessity.”
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