By: Monday Danladi, Bauchi
The Bauchi State Government has, organised a One-day sensitization workshop for Local Government Information Officers on voter registration exercise with the aim of boosting the exercise at the grassroots across the State.
The workshop was organised and facilitated by the State Ministry of information and Communications with the Information Officers from the Twenty LGAs in attendance.
While declaring the workshop opened on Tuesday, the Commissioner of Information and Communications, Usman Shehu Usman, said that the initiative aims to educate officers on the importance of voter registration and equip them with strategies to mobilize citizens, particularly in remote areas participate actively in the process.
He emphasized the need for the citizens to register and participate in the electoral process.
According to him, the Bauchi government, in collaboration with Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and National Orientation Agency (NOA), is working to strengthen awareness creation and education on voter registration, with INEC providing registration points in all LGAs.
The Commissioner appreciated the State Governor, Sen Bala Abdulkadir Mohammed for approving the workshop, among other initiatives of the Ministry for the betterment of the citizens
He described voter registration as a fundamental step in solidifying Democratic governance and stressed that voter registration made citizens become bonafide voters and by extension, key stakeholders in selecting leaders at all levels of government.
He commended the INEC for making the registration exercise ongoing, providing every LGA with specific registration points.
The Commissioner expressed concerns that Bauchi being one of the most populous States in Nigeria, is always recording very poor voter turn out despite having good number of registered voters.
“It is a great source of concern to see that only less than 50 percent of our registered voters used to show up during election”, the commissioner said.
He then tasked the Information Officers to go back to their LGAs and design a workable modalities that they can reach the people at the grassroots particularly, the remote areas to know about the importance of getting their registration done.
According to him, “INEC is here to guide us on the modalities and procedures, you must therefore, listen attentively to understand the process so that you can equally inform those in your domains accurately.”
In his remarks, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Ibrahim Adamu Ganbaki, stressed the importance of the workshop and encouraged the participants to be attentive to the presentations in order to know what to do when they got back to their respective areas.
The participants speaking through their representative, appreciated the Ministry for organizing the workshop assuring that it will assist them in sensutizing people at the grassroots on the importance of the exercise.
Yahoo Mail: Search, organise, conquer
Leave a Comment