By Adeyemi Adeleye
A political group, Youths In Politics (YIP), Nigeria, on Sunday in Lagos kicked off voter education and sensitisation campaign against vote buying and vote selling ahead of 2023 general elections.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the campaign, titled, “Don’t Sell Your Vote, Tomorrow Is Now”, started in Ikeja area of the state and had in attendance some celebrities who preached against vote selling in 2023.
Addressing newsmen, the President/Convener of the group, Mr Micheal Nwabufo, said the sensitisation had become imperative following challenges the nation was facing.
Nwabufo said: “We are against vote buying. We are here to educate the general public not to sell their votes in 2023. They should vote the right person.
“We are not campaigning for anybody, all we are after now is to discontinue the trend of vote buying and selling in our elections.
“Enough is enough of suffering; people should not sell their votes but vote in right leadership based on their conviction and not because of the money collected from any politicians.”
He said that the group would carry the same campaign against vote buying and vote selling to over 500 local government areas in Nigeria.
According to him, the youth group has over 9.6 million membership across the nation including celebrities to sensitise the public on the need to install right leadership.
Nwabufo said that it was better for people to go hungry for a while than to sell their votes and enthrone bad leadership that would bring years of hardship to them.
He added: “A lot of things are happening in the country that we cannot bear any longer, we just have to vote right leadership now.
“Time is going, we should not delay in putting right people in leadership.
“Nigeria should be competing with America with all the enormous human and natural resources at its disposal.”
On the July 31 INEC deadline for the Continuous Voter Registration (CVR), Nwabufo urged the commission to extend the registration to capture more people who were seeking opportunity to register.
According to him, the group has about 60 celebrities who are ready to sensitise people more to come out and register to exercise their franchise.
Also speaking, Mr Seyi Awolowo, one of the group’s leaders, begged Nigerians not to sell their votes for any amount, so as to create a better country for themselves and their children.
Kneeling down openly to beg the crowd, Awolowo said that people should not because of hunger sell their votes, adding that Nigeria must get its leadership right in 2023.
“The masses have the voting power, they should use this to create the country they want for themselves and their children,” he said.
On the CVR deadline, Awolowo said that it was not fair to end the exercise six months to the elections, saying many people had not got opportunity to register.
Also, Mr Odion Osaron, another leader of the group, said that the sensitisation became imperative because of the recent development in Ekiti and Osun governorship elections.
Osaron said: “It has become important for us to educate the voters on the importance of not selling their votes because where we are today as a nation is as a result of people who sold their votes.
“We should not repeat the same mistake. 2023 remains a very important year for us to install right leadership.”
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the group doled out cash and foodstuff to the aged, children and people in need. (NAN)
