RETHINKING THE INDEPENDENT NATIONAL ELECTORAL COMMISSION’S VOTER EDUCATION CONTENT AND APPROACHES FOR EFFECTIVE VOTER INCLUSIVENESS AND PARTICIPATION

Abstract

This is an investigation on rethinking the Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC) voter education content and approaches for effective voter participation and inclusiveness in Sokoto State. The eligible voter in Nigeria is unavoidably an adult and his/her active and lawful participation in electioneering processes is one of the key measures to ensure effectiveness, efficiency, credibility and acceptance of every democratic system. Scholars and statistics shows that voter turnout in Nigerian elections is declining, due to inefficient, less inclusive and less effective approaches and content of voter education. The study argued that, INEC voter education content and approaches are not efficient and all-encompassing enough and it has less impact on changing voter behaviour and influencing lawful participation of voters during elections. The objectives of the study were to investigate: how INEC voter education contents and approaches encourage voter participation and inclusiveness. Qualitative research methodology was used to conduct the study. The study used semi-structured interview questions to interview 12 participants and the collected data was analysed thematically using categorization and coding after transcription of the raw data. The study found that, INEC voter education content encourages voter participation, the approaches are not effective enough to inclusively educate all voters, the voter education programs has less impact to inclusively educate all voters and indicator for an inclusive voter education were established. It was recommended that, INEC should re-strategize the current methodology of voter education to make it sufficiently inclusive and impactful.