Janet Samuel
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has called for stronger collaboration with the National Orientation Agency (NOA) to enhance voter mobilisation and civic education, particularly as preparations intensify for the November 2025 Anambra Governorship election and the 2027 General Election.
INEC Chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, made the appeal on Wednesday during a courtesy visit by the NOA Director-General, Mallam Lanre Issa-Onilu, at the Commission’s headquarters in Abuja, emphasizing that INEC’s mandate requires active partnership with institutions like NOA to successfully engage citizens and improve democratic participation across Nigeria.
Yakubu commended the NOA’s nationwide infrastructure and innovations such as the NOA TV, NOA Radio, The Explainer newsletter, and virtual hackathons, describing them as vital tools for civic sensitisation, expressing interest in leveraging these platforms through INEC’s Voter Education and Publicity Department and the newly created Artificial Intelligence Division.
The INEC Chairman also noted the need to increase voter turnout among underrepresented groups such as women, youth, and persons with disabilities, saying the Commission was revamping the National Inter-Agency Committee on Voter Education and Publicity (NICVEP) and reaffirmed NOA’s critical role in both NICVEP and the Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security (ICCES).
In his remarks, NOA Director-General, Lanre Issa-Onilu, thanked the INEC Chairman for the warm reception and expressed deep commitment to supporting the Commission’s electoral activities, emphasizing that civic education must go beyond seasonal campaigns and become a continuous national effort to build patriotic and informed citizens.
Issa-Onilu stated that while physical infrastructure is important, building patriotic citizens is more fundamental. “You can build all the bridges and hospitals, but if the people are disconnected psychologically from their country, it will all collapse,” he said. He stressed that patriotism cannot be legislated or enforced, but must be inspired through consistent government engagement and strategic communication.
He lamented that despite the presence of institutions like NOA and INEC, many Nigerians still lack basic civic knowledge, leading to voter apathy and misinformation., promising that NOA would intensify community-based outreach, youth campaigns, and media sensitisation to close this gap, especially ahead of the Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) exercise starting in August.
Both INEC and NOA expressed readiness to leverage their strengths and infrastructure to deliver a more inclusive and participatory electoral process, with shared responsibility for voter education and national reorientation.
