Ahead of General Election scheduled to hold next year 2027, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has reaffirmed its readiness to work and partner with the National Orientation Agency (NOA) in the fight against Voter Aparty,vote buying and fake News.
The Chairman of the Commission ,Prof Joash Amupitan SAN, who seek for the partnership and the collaboration on Wednesday in Abuja at the Commission’s Headquarters when the Director General, National Orientation Agency,Mallam Lanre Issa-Onilu paid him a courtesy visit.
The INEC Chairman recalled that during the off-cycle governorship elections in Anambra, FCT Area Councils, and the Ekiti State Governorship conducted recently voter aparty and Fake News have constituted the biggest challenges faced by the Commission.
"Our partnership with you on voter education is not a secondary option; it is an absolute necessity.
We must be honest with ourselves. We are battling a silent, dangerous enemy in our electoral ecosystem: voter apathy and deep-seated cynicism.
"We see it in the off-cycle polls where turnout does not match the energy of our national conversations. We also see a sophisticated, orchestrated wave of fake news and disinformation designed to make the ordinary Nigerians believe their vote will not count.
"Together, INEC and the NOA must rewrite this narrative. We need to co-create a decentralized, grassroots voter education campaign that goes beyond simply telling people when to vote. We need to teach them why their vote matters and how our new legal and technological safeguards protect their choices."
Professor Joash said, " We must look the rural farmer, the marketplace woman, and the disillusioned urban youth in the eye and explain to them, in the language they understand, that because of the current technological infrastructure, the era of snatching ballot boxes or rewriting results manually is gone.
"We do not have to look far to see the practical validation of these upgrades. The recent February 21 Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Area Council elections and the June 20 off-cycle Governorship election in Ekiti State served as critical, real-world stress tests for our machinery. In both outings, our operational achievements were undeniable: we recorded over 90 percent early opening of polling units, impressive biometric authentication via the BVAS, and exceptionally swift, transparent result uploads to the IReV portal. Administratively and technologically, the template is working.
"Yet, these very same elections brought a sobering discovery to the fore—one that underscores why your visit today is so timely. Despite our operational precision, both the FCT and Ekiti polls revealed a persistent, deeply concerning undercurrent of voter apathy, alongside widespread confusion among urban newcomers regarding local polling unit splits and registration transfers.
"This is a clear indicator that while our technology is moving forward, civic familiarity with the evolving system is lagging. It is a loud diagnostic signal that far more needs to be done in the area of intensive, deep-rooted voter education, and it proves that we cannot afford to wait until the eve of the 2027 polls to start talking to our people."
He further added,"As we look toward the 2027 timelines —with our Presidential election firmly set for January 16 and Governorship polls for February 6— we must begin the heavy lifting right now. This is the moment to institutionalize our collaboration. I want to see a strong working relationship between INEC’s Voter Education department and the NOA’s communication teams.
" Let us build joint campaigns against the toxic menace of vote-buying and misinformation, which threaten to contaminate our democracy. Let us work together with your field officers with the accurate technical knowledge of INEC’s operations so they can act as trusted ambassadors of truth in their respective communities."
Earlier, NOA DG,Mallam Lanre Issa-Onilu had pledged his Agency's preparedness and willing to collaborate and work with the INEC on voter apathy, vote buying and fake News through its massive campaign and effective voter education to the electorate across the 36 states of the Federation and the FCT.
According to him, the Agency has the offices in all the states of the Federal including the Local Government Areas.
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