ABUJA – The National Orientation Agency (NOA) said that lack of funds was preventing it from educating the public on the ongoing voter registration and collection of Permanent Voter Cards (PVC) from INEC.
Mr Afam Anene, the agency’s Director of Political and Civic Education, made this known to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Wednesday while speaking on NOA’s perceived silence on the ongoing processes.
“We’ve been talking about 2015 elections but the problem is a hit and run approach, you do one in one state with the meager fund you have and then you go back and relax, because it is not enough.
“Even if I have 300 million leaflets to share in the whole country it is not enough now, some people may not be able to read; even if you write it in their local languages they are not literate enough to read them. [eap_ad_1] “So we need to go through the radio, and all the media and then do the traditional media as well; is it not money?
“If I have to go to your village to do the town crier thing, it’s not me who will do it; I have to commission the people who do town crier work in your village to undertake it for me and it’s for a cost.
“Even if we have we are just scratching it.“
Anene said that the responsibility of NOA was to ensure that government policies got to the people adding that awareness campaign had already begun in some states but there was need for aggressive campaign.
According to him, NOA is a member of the National Voter Education Campaign.
He added that voter’s education became the responsibility of NOA because of its reach, structure and trained manpower, adding that INEC should concentrate its energy in organising elections.
The director said that voter education was not an issue that should be put on hold until the “11th hour“, adding: “it should be a continuous exercise from year to year; we should be doing voter education consistently.“
He said that if voter education were to be carried out yearly, there would be less work to do, saying Nigeria had penchant for fire brigade approach. (NAN)
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