The Chairman of the Commission made the suggestion yesterday, when the Director-General (D-G) of the National Orientation Agency (NOA), Dr. Garba Abari, led a delegation to the Commission’s headquarters in Abuja. Professor Yakubu noted that elections were civic processes and INEC needed partnership with an agency such as NOA to educate, enlighten and mobilize the electorate. He stressed that “this responsibility is squarely within the mandate of both organizations”. He said: “new innovations have been introduced to the conduct of elections; the old problems haven’t gone away so we need to keep constantly engaging not only with the stakeholders but also the voters as well as to enlighten them and educate them so that we have seamless, violence free elections”.

The INEC Chairman argued that “for credible elections to occur, voters would have to be mobilized and educated and there is a part of the voter education and mobilization that is squarely within our purview and there are others that are within that of the NOA, but working together, I believe, we shall surmount all the obstacles”. He called for sustained consultations, discussions and cooperation between both organizations on areas that would benefit the conduct of free, fair and credible elections in the country. He assured that the partnership with the NOA would continue and be deepened and strengthened.

Earlier, the D-G NOA, Dr. Garba Abari, explained that their visit to the Commission was to cement existing relationship with INEC and to exchange ideas, to extract inputs on both sides on how to make an impact on the society. He also explained that beyond the visit, a very compelling situation which our nation was facing today warranted the need for both organizations to work together. He said the country had experiences to draw from past elections. “These experiences should make us more prepared, improve and prepare adequately”. The NOA Director-General assured that his organization was ready to deploy all its robust platforms and structures in the 36 states and the FCT as well as all 774 local government areas across the country to assist INEC in voter education and mobilization to strengthen democratic processes.