A leading Nigerian Civil Society Organization (CSO), Connected Development [CODE] with Observer Status to monitor the US Presidential elections departs ahead of time for the United States. This was informed by a scheduled briefing with the Director of Elections in the State of Colorado for appropriate clearance.
The participants constituting of young people are expected to join other observers in the United States to ensure a credible and transparent polls in the forthcoming elections. This initiative is geared towards observing and learning from the US electoral processes and engaging staffers of Colorado Electoral Administration.
The Chief Executive of CODE, Hamzat Lawal said that the goal of this initiative is for CODE observers to make recommendations to Nigeria’s electoral body, the Independent National Electoral Commission {INEC}, towards informing better electoral principles.
He explained that the importance of this initiative at a time when Nigeria’s elections have been held lately, riddled with credibility shortages, and with most of the elections being inconclusive because of high rate of violence and malpractices.
“At CODE, we believe that youth participation in elections is very vital and relevant in democratic transition and it is only right that the country’s development and awareness should be raised on that, in fostering transparency and democratic governance”, he said.
Mr Lawal, said that observing the US presidential elections from a youth perspective and publicizing the reports, will highlight youth issues of democratic engagement, engage young minds in active democratic processes and will also offer professional experience to other young observers.
He noted that young minds could be fully engaged in electoral process with the use of technology, in particular social media, this he said will enable speed in delivery of result globally.
In line with the just constituted 24-man electoral reform committee by the president Buhari Muhammed, which is to ensure an electoral process that would meet the global standard and satisfy the desire of the electorates, it is expected that at the return of the young observers, they will be able to present recommendation that will help strengthen the electoral reform committee.
Hence, Mr Hamzat has appointed Mr. Emmanuel Njoku as the lead during the elections. Mr Njoku has been working with CODE for the past three years specifically on civic engagement and electoral issues
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