The Chief Press Secretary to the Governor of Delta, Mr Olisa Ifeajika, has urged Deltans of eligible age to turn out en masse and participate in ongoing Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) recently flagged off by Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) across the country.
Ifeajika made the call when he received on courtesy call the Director-General of Revive Africa Initiative, Mr Ogagaoghene Yole and some participants of the organisation’s leadership programme from Illah community, at Government House, Asaba.
He stated that those who were 18 years and above and not registered as voters should avail themselves of the current window created INEC to do so “because government takes the issue of voter-registration seriously.
He remarked that INEC had made the process less cumbersome with the introduction of online registration.
Ifeajika pointed out that government at all levels considered communities with high number of registered voters in attending to their infrastructure needs and therefore, encouraged Deltans to make use of the opportunity.
“As global change agents, one of the duties expected of you is to embark on sensitisation to encourage Deltans and Nigerians to take advantage of ongoing Continuous Voter Registration.
“This exercise is very imperative because it will enable all those who have come of age to register, those who have lost their cards to get new ones and for people to also change their voting points.
“If you want to have a say in government you must ensure that you register and vote. The size of the voting population matters a lot to any politician; so, communities must encourage their people to register.
“Thankfully, INEC has made the exercise easier with the introduction of online portal for registration, so eligible Deltans should make use of this rare opportunity to be adequately captured in the ongoing continuous voter registration,” he said.
He commended the Director-General and his team for the wonderful work they were doing, recalling that he was first invited to the training “boot camp in 2019’’.
“When I got there in 2019, I said to myself if youths in other communities could have such trainings for development, why won’t youths from my Illah community be part of it?
“I am happy with what I am hearing because some of you had called to tell me how much the training had impacted on you.
“The training is about showing you light to navigate through life journey and I must say that it was quite thoughtful of you to come and show this appreciation and to also tell me what impact it has made on you,” Ifeajika stated.
Earlier, Ogagaoghene had said that the Revive Africa Initiative was a Non-Governmental Organisation dedicated to raising global change agents in communities.
“We are a non-governmental Pan African organization, focused on building a better Africa by mobilising young people across communities through enlightenment and trainings.
“Nation-building can only be achieved when people make their collective contributions at the community level because every nation is made up of communities.
“We believe that in building the nation we must begin to build the citizens at the community level to make their contributions to governance and nation-building.
“We are here to present to you the people you sponsored for the last boot camp as a way of being accountable as young people and as an organisation.
“You have continued to support us over the years and we are entirely grateful to you for your support,” he stated.
Also speaking, Leader of the Illah group to the boot camp, Sylvester Onochie, thanked the CPS for his kind gesture, adding that the purpose of sending them to the boot camp as global change agents had been fulfilled.
He described the CPS as one of the illustrious sons of Illah that had been contributing to the growth and development of the community.
