JUST IN: Senate opens public hearing on vote-buying

The Nigerian Senate has formally declared open the public
hearing on vote-buying and improving electoral processes in the
country.

This was contained in a tweet on the verified Twitter handle of
the Nigerian Senate @NGRSenate@

The @nassnigeria Joint
Committee on INEC welcomes all to a one day Public Hearing on Vote
Buying and Improving Electoral Processes in Nigeria. #NASSOnElections pic.twitter.com/iA7FHDteY5^[1][2][3]

— The Nigerian Senate (@NGRSenate) December
10, 2018^[4]

Earlier, Senate President Bukola Saraki had welcomed the
National Assembly Joint Committee on INEC to the one-day event,
even as the Chairman, Senate Committee on INEC, Senator Suleiman
Nazif, led the opening prayer and welcomed the Bukola Saraki, House
Speaker Yakub Dogara, senators and honourable members.

Nazif, in his welcome address, said the National Assembly
amended the Act, noting, “Any person who processes fake voters card
or violates the rules and regulation is liable to five-year
imprisonment.”

“It is not only the responsibility of the legislators, but the
Executive, Police, Armed Forces and other agencies are to ensure
credible elections,” Nazif said.

In his welcome address, Dogara said, “I am delighted to address
you on this public hearing. This is one of the important issues of
the moment that needs to be addressed before the 2019 general
elections.”

“For election to be qualified under a democratic government, it
must be free, fair and credible.

“The recent phenomenal and direct buying of votes is very
disheartening. As citizens, we must not surrender to this
criminality.

“Vote-buying and other criminal electoral process have left our
citizen in disaster because they are ruled by fear, rather than
challenging them.

“The purpose of this public hearing is to enable all of us to
interrogate the issue and proffer solutions in order to ensure that
every vote counts.

“I call on all Nigerians to rise and condemn all practices of
vote-buying, as it is the worst form of corruption and should be
treated as such,” Dogara said.

Related

Why We Host Army PR Workshop- Kukasheka

On behalf of the Officers and Soldiers of the Directorate
of Army Public Relations (DAPR) and Nigerian Army School of Public
Relations (NASPRI) I welcome the Special Guest of Honour, Major
General MS Yusuf, General Officer Commanding 81 Division Nigerian
Army, distinguished invited guests and participants to the combined
DAPR/NASPRI media workshop and study period for the year 2018.

This combined workshop and study period is coming at a time when
Nigeria is facing myriads of security challenges and at a point
when public’s understanding and support is very desirable. As
public relations practitioners in the Nigerian Army, you have a
great role in making the public understand and support the Army as
it confronts these security challenges.

Our assignment is critical to the public perception and image of
the Nigerian Army. We will therefore be required to develop,
implement and monitor operational and tactical communication
strategies and provide timely advice to all levels of command
within the Nigerian Army. For you to meet up with these duties, you
must keep abreast with contemporary development in the field of
public relations, this could be attained through training such as
this.

You will recall that during the DAPR Third and Fourth Quarter
Conference 2017, the need to effectively use the social media by
the Directorate was re-emphasized. Therefore, the Directorate has
evolved the use of the social media to tell the Nigerian Army’s
story and also listen through interaction and gauging feedbacks
from the public. It is heartwarming to note that the response from
the public have been quite encouraging. However, a new development
associated with this phenomenon is the issue of inaccurate
reporting of events that often graduate to sheer fabrication or
fake news. It is on this premise that this media workshop and study
period tends to focus on fake news.

Consequently, the theme of the combined media workshop/study
period is “Fake News a Threat to National Security: The Way
Forward” was carefully chosen to drive home the urgent need to
address it. This study period is to also serve as a platform to
build capacity in our personnel through intellectual interactions
with carefully selected resource persons for these two days. From
your interactions, you stand to benefit from the wealth of
professional experience of the resource persons and guest lecturers
on the various topics that aptly address the theme. This training
will also provide a good opportunity for the participants to expand
their knowledge and exchange ideas that would enhance overall
performance in the discharge of assigned tasks. I hope at the end
of it we would come out with great strategies that would mitigate
the menace of fake news. This will enhance awareness among NA
personnel on the effective ways to respond to wrong messages.

Fake news is a misconception and misrepresentation of issues as
it affect our operations and other military activities when not
properly addressed, it hampers our operational activities and
demoralize our troops. Therefore there is need to engage the public
by telling our story rightly. The DAPR is also mindful of the risks
associated with fake news hence the need to set aside this training
period to help our personnel understand how to liaise with the
media and present the true situation of event as they occur. I urge
all participants to make good use of the training opportunity
afforded them by this study period to bring out their best in all
interactive discussions.

The DAPR will be willing to implement well thought out ideas
that emanate from our fruitful deliberations especially if they
will enhance the achievement of the COAS vision which is “To have a
professionally responsive Nigerian Army in the discharge of its
constitutional roles”. It is hoped that the fruitful deliberations
from the Study Period will thoroughly reinvigorate the professional
competence of NA public relations practitioners in handling
contemporary challenges.

Brigadier General Sani Kukasheka Usman
Director Army Public Relations