Ajiri Imah
The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has said it will deploy 707,384 presiding officers for the general elections to commence on February 25.
INEC National Commissioner and Chairman of its Information and Voter Education Committee, Festus Okoye, made this known during the public presentation of the Electoral Education Curriculum and Teachers’ Guide for primary schools.
According to him, electoral education is important and there is a need to include it into the National Values Curriculum of primary schools in Nigeria.
Okoye said, “We believe that electoral education is important in the goals of our nation. Electoral education is a specialized area and that is why we have this curriculum being infused into the National Values Curriculum in our primary schools.
“For instance, for the 2023 general elections in Nigeria, the commission will deploy a total of 707, 384 presiding officers and assistant presiding officers.
“These presiding officers will be drawn from the crop of young men and women doing their National Youth Service Corps, while the assistant presiding officers will be drawn from students from federal tertiary institutions.
“It is therefore important for us to understand the importance of electoral education in the development of our democracy”, he added.