Yakubu who stated this while addressing a delegation of the United Nations Needs Assessment Mission, led by Serge Gakwandi Kubwimana, in his office said given the size of the country, there is a need to keep engaging citizens and stakeholders using different media platforms.
Restating the Commission’s fidelity to conduct a free, fair, credible and inclusive election, Yakubu identified five areas of concern that it would request the assistance of the global body.
He listed the other areas to include training and capacity building support for the staff of the commission, vote education and sensitization, security, capacity building for political parties and inclusivity measures.
He said: “The first one is Training and Capacity Building support for the staff of the Commission. The second is Voter Education and Sensitization. Given the size of the country, we need to keep engaging using different media.”
Because according to him “basically what the Commission does is to conduct the secondary election.
“The political parties conduct the primary elections, so the candidates we put on the ballot are candidates nominated by the political parties.”
“So we need to build the capacity of the parties to nominate good candidates so that when elected they can represent the country well,” he added.
The INEC Chairman further identified inclusivity measures as the 5th area of support. He said, “In your interaction with the technical staff of the Commission, you will discuss the specific issues under each one of the 5 broad areas we have identified.”
Prof. Yakubu who disclosed that 18 political parties would be fielding candidates in 1,491 Constituencies across the country in the next general elections further disclosed that the voters population could be 90 million for the 2023 elections.
Speaking earlier, the leader of the UN delegation, Kubwimana, said they were in Nigeria in response to a letter written in January to the UN Secretary-General, seeking the support of the organisation ahead of the 2023 general elections.
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