Media professionals to educate prospective voters ahead of elections

Media professionals in Nigeria have been urged to educate prospective voters ahead of the 2023 general elections on the need for them to turn out and perform their civic responsibilities.

This was part of the resolutions reached at a media roundtable, organised by the Justice, Development and Peace Commission (JDPC), on Wednesday in Ibadan.

The meeting said that the media should let the electorate know that the voting process, judging from the just concluded governorship election in Osun, had become more friendly.

It also tasked the media to step up their games by becoming more recognised as essential workers.

Worried over the large numbers of uncollected Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) in various states, the meeting urged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to make its collection less cumbersome for prospective voters.

"Media should communicate the urgency of PVCs collection as a strong determinant of the outcome of elections. They should set an agenda for the 2023 election," said the meeting.

It also advised JDPC to engage traditional and religious leaders in mobilising their subjects and congregation respectively, toward the collection of their PVCs.

It agreed that INEC should embark on aggressive sensitisation of the stakeholders, especially the media, on the use of the new technological process, Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS).

Earlier, Mr Jide Bamgbose, JDPC Head, Democracy and Governance, said that a critical appraisal of two successive governorship elections in Oyo State showed a disturbing trend, as voters turnout in the two elections was absymally poor, when compared with the total number of registered voters.

"This, coupled with the higher number of invalid votes during polls, calls to question the legitimacy of whosoever emerges victorious, because of the figure, when compared to the numbers of registered voters, is significantly low," Bamgbose said.