By Adeyinka Adeniran
Some stakeholders have called for improvement in the nation’s electioneering processes to ensure credible, free and fair elections come 2027.
They spoke in their various remarks in Ibadan on Thursday at the town hall meeting on the review of the 2023 general elections in Nigeria.
The Town hall meeting with community stakeholders in Akinyẹle and Ibadan North Local Government Areas (LGAs) was organised by SOS Children’s Village.
The Assistant Secretary, Joint Association of Persons with Disabilities (JONAPWD), Musa Akinsawe emphasised the need to increase access for persons with disabilities and involved them in planning during electioneering processes.
He also stressed reorientation for electoral officers and continuous voters education, saying “Part of what we are clamouring for is accessibility to electoral venue and convenience in voting.
“Elections for people living with disabilities must be easily accessible; the ballot box must be where PLWDs can vote without being assisted by anyone,’’ Akinsawe said.
Also, the Assistant Secretary, National Council for Women Societies, Chief Isimiola Olowoyo, said there was a need for increased community engagement to restore cultural values that had been eroded.
She said there was community engagement towards the 2023 general elections and such would be sustained by her association to ensure that the right values are imbibed that would translate to good governance in Nigeria.
According to her, lapses recorded in the last elections should be worked upon such as availability of few security personnel.
“They should empower more security officers so that there would be no violence and there was places where electoral materials were not available on time, this should be worked on,” Olowoyo said.
Representatives of religious bodies and traditional rules from the two local government areas called for increased awareness creation right from the basic education level as well as continuous voters registration.
In her address, the Program Officer, SOS Children’s Village Nigeria, Grace Sambo said communities should learn lessons from past elections and choose their representative based on competency.
Sambo said ethnicity, tribalism and religion shouldn’t be the criteria to elect leaders adding that sentiments must be thrown away.
She called for social reengineering in Nigeria adding that peaceful election and existence had a lot of benefits such as stability of families which would impact children positively.
Also, the State Coordinator, SOS Children’s Village Nigeria, Mr Gabriel Adajie urged participants to rejuvenate cultural norms that promote value system in communities.
He identified that poverty has been weaponized as well as other factors that have been dividing Nigerians hence the need to change the narrative come 2027.
He noted that the electorates in a way were the ones encouraging the political class to continue with the way things are in the country.
“For us to change what is on ground, we have to make sacrifices. We need to endure hunger so as not to continue to make the same mistakes,” Adajie said.
