By Itohan Abara-Laserian/Stellamaris Ashinze and Millicent Ifeanyichukwu
A member of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Mr Temitope Adewale, representing Ifako-Ijaiye Constituency 01, has identified orientation as a means of curbing voter apathy in the country.
Adewale, who was seeking re-election, gave the advice on Saturday against the backdrop of the governorship and house of assembly elections and the poor turnout recorded during the exercise.
According to him, a lot of youths still fail to understand the full import of the elections.
I have also realised that it is on the election day that we have our youth doing their own inter-house sports, that is when they decide to play football on the street.
You know, it is a Saturday and you will be surprised that most of them do not even have Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs), so they are not engineered to go out and vote, he said.
Adewale stressed the need for more enlightenment of such youth on the reasons why they have to exercise their franchise.
He also expressed displeasure that the actual people that turned out to vote was a far cry from the number of PVCs collected in Lagos.
It is saddening because it is less than 10 per cent; movingforward, we need to continue to orientate our youth to get them involved in carrying outtheir civic responsibility, he said.
Adewale also berated the propagation of ethnicity and religious bigotry by some people during elections, saying these had no place in politics.
We should focus on what can be delivered in terms of the dividends of democracy to the people rather than going to religion and everything, he said, while also kicking againstpromoting the ethnic card.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the polls witnessed low turn out in many areas of the state. (NAN)(www.nannews.ng)
Edited by Oluwole Sogunle
Source: NAN News