The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) says it will deploy 707,384 presiding officers across the country for the 2023 general elections.
INEC also said that since electoral education was important, there was a need to infuse it into the National Values Curriculum of primary schools in Nigeria.
The INEC National Commissioner and Chairman of its Information and Voter Education Committee, Festus Okoye made the remarks during the public presentation of the Electoral Education Curriculum and Teachers’ Guide for primary schools.
The curriculum which was developed by the Consortium for Elections and Political Process Strengthening – Sustaining Electoral Engagement for Democracy project funded by USAID and FCDO and implemented by National Democratic Institute and IFES, was in partnership with the Nigeria Educational Research and Development Council, INEC (through the Voter Education Department), National Orientation Agency, Civil Society Action Coalition on Education for All and academia from across the country.
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.
“A national civic education curriculum and teachers’ guide with a specific focus on electoral education will prepare our children for the challenges ahead and also prepare them on how to respect other people’s races and also prepare them to assume leadership in future.”
