Abuja- The Electoral Institute (TEI), a centre of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), on Friday expressed readiness to hold a lecture series on youth and electoral violence on Dec. 1 .
The Director-General of the Institute, Prof. Abubakar Momoh, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja that the lecture series would be geared towards curbing violence in 2015 general elections.
“We intend to use lecture series as we have always done, as a way of drawing attention not only public but also the commission to key issues.
“The lecture is also expected to upscale and improve the quality of electoral service to us in 2015.
“In the past, we have done lectures on delimitation, we have done on electoral system and so on, just to improve the quality of electoral process.
“Fundamentally, the reason we are holding this lecture is precisely because all over the continent, youths have been very active participants in the electoral process.
“But the unfortunate thing, however, is that some youths have often been used negatively to undermine the electoral and political process,’’.
Momoh said the ideal was to get the views of an expert who has been working on youths, security issues and conflicts and who has written widely on the subject.
“Dr Funmi Olonisakin had been the Director of Conflict, Security and Development Group
King’s College, London; she had also worked and headed different organisations in Africa and at global level,’’ he explained.
Momoh said that the lecture would be attended by political stakeholders, including NGOs, development partners, such as USAID, UNDP, youths organisations and others.
“We are inviting a lot of youth organisations, including 10 prominent organisations that are going to be active in the lecture.
“At the end of the day, they will take something away to adopt at their own levels.”
He said that the institute would continue to do things that would improve the electoral process in the country. (NAN)
