Òsárétín Òsádébàmwén, Abuja
Nigerians should blame the National Orientation Agency (NOA), for its failure to properly educate the population, on the new Naira policy which has led to panic withdrawals and the associated challenges nationwide.
Former Chief of Staff to the immediate past Governor of Imo state, Uche Nwosu said this to journalists in Abuja.
Nigerian Tribune can report that N80m was captured in the 2023 Appropriation Act for voter education toward successful 2023 general elections in the NOA budget.
In a document sighted by Nigerian Tribune, N75.5m has been estimated for expenditure in the 2023 fiscal for the communication of government policy.
Nwosu who is a member of the All Progressives Congress a said with a few days to the general elections, the National Orientation Agency, as lead organ of government, for public sensitization and enlightenment should be at the forefront of educating the population the critical civic duty for all eligible Nigerians voters is carried out to enable voters cast their vote properly and reduce the incident of invalid votes.
He said another important task before the agency was to ensure the policy direction of the administration on the Naira redesign.
Nwosu, who said the NOA has not complained of insufficient funds to prosecute these assignments opined further that there was still time for the agency to harness other government media houses like the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN) and others to mobilize the public for this all important assignment.
He pointed out that the new Naira re-design and the cashless policy was a good gift from the APC led administration of President Buhari to leave a legacy of credible election free of any kind of inducement.
Nwosu said: “The red-design and cashless policy is very good? It is perfect and a wonderful policy. The President did well in bringing this policy, it is a beautiful one.”
The former Imo state Chief of Staff said “do you know the problem? The agency that is supposed to take this message right to the grassroot and let them know why we are having challenges is not doing it. Who among us politicians will go to London and bring out £100,000 or even £50,000 cash? You do not do that.
“Let me tell you in every society once you produce a policy, there must be some bite and at some time you will gain from it.
“NOA is an agency under the ministry of information. I believe that the Minister of information sees the president always, I have not heard the minister said they are cash trap and that is why the national orientation agency cannot work, remember that we have some other agencies and government media, Radio Nigeria is there, NTA is there Voice of Nigeria is there, How many times have your heard them on this issue.
“Okay take for example, this election now, is it not the duty of the national orientation agency to educate Nigerians on how to vote, you see INEC doing the voter education, you see parties doing the voter education. For such an important and sensitive national assignment on all qualified citizens NOA should be up and doing on this.
“It is the duty of NOA through the federal ministry of information to highlight how people should vote, to advise the children and their fathers to make sure that there is no violence. This is common sense.
“They do not need to pay money to NTA or Radio Nigeria, there are some government agency to be used to push out these public interest messages and you start from there first.
“Everything cannot be money. The challenge is that in this country, we believe that everything has to be money. If you want to move a paper from point A to B, you claim you need money for that, everything is not money.
“When the head of any agency is wrong, the entire body would go wrong. So, the blame should go to the national orientation agency for not sensitizing the people on the policy.
Nwosu said the statistic of the election favours the Nigerian youth, especially as they for over 35% of the voting block, he said while it was important to vote their conscience, the youth should ensure they come out to vote.
He said the outcome of the election would largely be decided by the youth, because of her population.
He said youths should shun any kind of violence and face the ballot by electing a leader of their choice.
According to him it was counterproductive to destroy limited infrastructure needed to support the economy.
He said the Nigerian youth should pay attention and protect the national assets which would support the various economic enterprise as against destroying them while the children of the politician are relying on foreign infrastructure in foreign land to support themselves because they are already living there.
He pointed out that since the advent of democracy, the youth population have grown to be one wiser and can be the deciding force with their population for the next set of leaders.
According to him, the youth are no longer waiting to be told what direction to go in voting a candidate because they are politically enlightened can outrightly tell the elders, we have our candidates.
His words: “I think the political awareness among the youth is different from what we saw at the advent of democracy. During the Obasanjo time in 1999 upwards we saw our elders going to a room and the youth would be shouting their names and ones they come out after they have decided inside the room, they come out and say this is where we would go.
“The youth will shout and clap for them, indeed, After Obasanjo comes Yar, Adua, may he rest in peace, They said no we cannot allow your people again, that you people have deceived us.
“That era, now birth carrying youth along. The Niger-Delta youth made trouble and there was sense of belonging.
“After the Yar’ Adua Era, there comes Gooodluck Ebele Jonathan, their eyes begin to open, They now know that, this power and this election depends on them. If we have a country, where the population of the youth is 60%, what it means is that, they are the people that will determine who becomes the President, who becomes the governor, senate or member of the house of Reps.
“They determine who even becomes their house of Assembly member and even a local government chairman, with the current situation of things now and the awareness and the enthusiasm in our young people and has shown that they are really awake. Is the story of business as usual, even the old ones, they have become aware that there is a problem.
“They know that if this young people are not carried along, and treated well.
“You might go to your village and tell the young people that we are voting party B, They will tell you to your face, we cannot do that, with due respect sir, that is what we have now.”
He enjoined the youth of the south east to take advantage of the election period and vote for the kind of leader they want, instead of deploying aggression and violence to make their point.
“We will have an election in Imo state, issues of election is one in which people want to exercise their right and choose who they want to be their leader.
“My belief is that on the 25th Imo state will hold their presidential election and it will be a free and fair election. We do not have that in Imo state and again, the issue of violence, it is everywhere in this country.
“What we should preach among the young ones and among the citizens across the federation including Imo state, is that if we miss this opportunity, tomorrow, we will start shouting on the street that we did not elect this person.
“The opportunity to avoid that is here in February 2022 and an instead of saying agh we do not want this person, we have the opportunity now to actually decide who will be your president and who will be your senator, or who will be your house of representatives member or governor and the house of assembly, my belief is that elections would hold in Imo state.
“Our politicians should mind their utterances and the words they use before, during and after elections because I cannot be happy to see property being destroyed after an election but some of our politician say it to young people is that when you destroy your future, these leaders future, which is their children and grand children are all abroad.
“We are all here, so if you destroy government property which is your property and mine property anyway, and other government facility, you are still here to deprive yourself of these facilities.
“So, the issue of thuggery should not arise, what we have that is our strength is our strength, our power, is the permanent voters card converted to a vote. That your INEC card is what will give you whatever you need in this nation. Going out to fight is out of a democratic process,” he said
