Juliet Buna
The Independent National Electoral Commission has revealed that it will make use of 707,384 presiding officer for the 2023 general elections, consisting of National Youth Service Corps members and students.
Premium Politics reported that the general elections will begin in 23 days time with the Presidential and National Assembly polls holding 25th February 2023.
However,, during a public presentation of the Electoral Education Curriculum and Teachers’ Guide for primary schools, INEC’s National Commissioner and Chairman of its Information and Voter Education Committee, Festus Okoye, confirmed that the commission will deploy 707,384 presiding officers.
The curriculum which was developed by the Consortium for Elections and Political Process Strengthening – Sustaining Electoral Engagement for Democracy project funded by USAID and FCDO and implemented by National Democratic Institute and IFES, was in partnership with the Nigeria Educational Research and Development Council, INEC (through the Voter Education Department), National Orientation Agency, Civil Society Action Coalition on Education for All and academia from across the country.
Okoye said, “We believe that electoral education is important in the goals of our nation. Electoral education is a specialized area and that is why we have this curriculum being infused into the National Values Curriculum in our primary schools.
“For instance, for the 2023 general elections in Nigeria, the commission will deploy a total of 707, 384 presiding officers and assistant presiding officers.
“These presiding officers will be drawn from the crop of young men and women doing their National Youth Service Corps, while the assistant presiding officers will be drawn from students from federal tertiary institutions.
“It is therefore important for us to understand the importance of electoral education in the development of our democracy.
“A national civic education curriculum and teachers’ guide with a specific focus on electoral education will prepare our children for the challenges ahead and also prepare them on how to respect other people’s races and also prepare them to assume leadership in future.”
*Fuel Scarcity To Affect 2023 Elections*
Meanwhile, the INEC chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, has said the lingering fuel scarcity in the country could disrupt logistic arrangements for the forthcoming general elections.
Yakubu made this known at a consultative forum with the transport unions including the Nigerian Association of Road Transport Owners, and the National Union of Road Transport Workers, amongst others on Tuesday in Abuja.
He said, “The commission shares your concern about the fuel situation in the country and its impact on transportation on election day.
“The truth is that our arrangement may be negatively affected by the non-availability of products.
“For this reason, the commission will this afternoon meet the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, to find a way to address this situation.”
The electoral umpire chief, also charged the transporters to be neutral and non-partisan as they commute INEC staff to-and-from polling units.
The INEC chairman said inter-state trips won’t be allowed, nothing that all INEC and adhoc staffers must not go beyond their local government areas.
