The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has urged youths in the country to take advantage of their voting strength to elect quality leaders in the rescheduled 2019 general elections.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Presidential and National Assembly elections initially scheduled to hold on Feb. 16 was shifted to Feb. 23 by INEC following what it called challenges of logistics.
Also, the governorship and state Houses of Assembly elections earlier slated for March 2 was moved to March 9 by the electoral body.
Mr Kassim Gaidam, the INEC’s Resident Electoral Commissioner for Adamawa, gave the advice on Tuesday in an interview with NAN in Yola on the sidelines of a sensitisation programme to rekindle the interests of electorate in the polls.
According to him, youths make up 42, 842, 083 of the total number of 84, 004, 084 registered voters in Nigeria.
“We hope to see a large turnout of youths in the forthcoming elections across the country; particularly in Adamawa.
“This is important because their voting strength will impact positively on the elections; because they are also the highest single group in the country.
“I urge youths to take charge of the electoral process specifically in the area of ad hoc service, where we often hire corps members in the NYSC programme.
“We hired 18,000 youths as ad hoc staff toward conduct of the forthcoming election and we have also finished configuring the Card Readers, even before Feb. 16, the date earlier scheduled for the presidential and national assembly elections.
“I urge the youth to see their large number as voting strength through which they will be contributing their quotas positively to the electoral process which will ensure better future for them,” Gaidam said.
The REC decried the attitude of some youths who abstained from voting in elections there by hindering the growth of democracy in the state.
He urged young people that had duly registered and collected their PVCs to come out en masse and cast their votes for candidates of their choices.
Gaidam said that the youth would be contributing their own quotas toward the enthronement of good leaders and good governance in the country. (NAN)