Voters Education is one topic that I am extremely passionate about. A famous quote by Franklin Roosevelt says, ‘’the ballot is stronger than the bullet’’, and I totally agree.
As one of the most important elections draws closer, the need to sensitize Nigerian citizens on the importance of participating in the process, their rights, the rules and regulations surrounding the process, and how to exercise their rights becomes significant. Voter education involves providing information on who is eligible to vote, where and how to register, how electors can check the voter lists to ensure they have been duly included, what type of elections are being held, where, when, and how to vote, who the candidates are, and how to file complaints.
At the CWCD Africa, matters of social impact have long been important to us. Also,CWCD Africa was just awarded the Civic tech fund grant for one of our mobile technology solutions Zabe. Zabe, our election monitoring app, has the ability to monitor and provide accurate real-time information about any ongoing electoral process.
It crowdsources data from individual polling units, sorts the data, analyzes the data and reports, reporting from pre-elections, during elections, and post-elections. It gives access to fast, reliable information and undiluted collision. Our goal is to create transparency during any electoral process, strengthen democratic values, and allow everyone to be a part of the elections.
The significance of voter education cannot be over-emphasized, by law citizens are given the right to vote and be voted for. Citizens vote for leaders to represent them and their ideas. We are deciding the kind of future we want to see not only for ourselves but our country and those around us. Elections cannot be genuinely democratic unless voters understand the differences between who they are voting for, how they are voting, and why they are voting. There is an acute need for meaningful participation by African citizens in addressing and solving governance and development in our African states.
Participating in elections is one of the key freedoms. No matter what you believe or whom you support, it is important to exercise your rights.Not being a part of the voting process means that important local and international issues are determined by a limited group of voters.
