Perfect7Project, a group in the School of Politics, Policy and Governance (SPPG), has stressed the need for Nigerians to be actively involved in the political process, saying this will help to establish true democracy and good governance.
  
Perfect7Project team lead, Soni Gold, stated this at the launch of ‘voter mobilisation skits,’ which are produced in different Nigerian languages with the aim to support political processes and rally Nigerians to actively participate in the 2023 general elections.
  
Gold expressed optimism that if the voter mobilisation skits get wide acceptance, Nigerians would move from the election and political apathy to participation.
  
In a statement signed by Gold, Collins Okeke and Glory Okon (members of Perfect7Project), the group said: “Since the return to electoral democracy in 1999, elections in Nigeria have been characterised by voters’ apathy. For instance, in 2019, the INEC’s record revealed that there were 82.3 million registered voters nationwide, however, only 28.6 million (a mere 35 per cent) voted.  President Muhammadu Buhari received his mandate for a second term on the strength of votes cast by a paltry 18.5 per cent (15,191,847) votes.
  
“The skits were designed to change this depressing narrative and galvanise the electorate to participate actively in large numbers, in the electoral process, as well as hold elected candidates accountable for their stewardship.
  
They added that the short term goal of the Perfect7Project has been achieved with the skits, saying that the medium-term goal is to make Nigerians imbibe, own and act on different slogans, such as: ‘Politics is Life,’ ‘Oro Oselu Se Koko’ and ‘Politics Na Life’ among others.
  
“Our long long term goal is to FixPolitics and cultivate enlightened, politically active citizens that are ready to occupy the Office of the Citizen. Our strategy is to create a database and platform of interaction for politically active citizens in each state.
  
“We intend to measure impact through citizens’ acceptance, ownership of our slogans and their willingness to act based on the message and through periodic surveys to ascertain how many new voters acted based on our message.
 
“We will evaluate the impact of each step and readjust our strategy where necessary. We will enroll and engage like-minded members from subsequent cohorts of the SPPG.”
  
Okeke, a lawyer, stated that existing data on election participation is not encouraging while urging Nigerians to show interest in political matters.
  
“One of the challenges we have identified in Nigeria’s political system is the fact that a lot of people do not participate and if you don’t participate, there is no way we can make a difference. This is why we have decided to focus on ensuring that we get as many Nigerians as possible to participate in the political process.
  
“We have examined the existing data on election participation in Nigeria and what we discovered is that there is a limited number of people that participate in political processes. Our hope is that these skits will help mobilise as many people as possible to begin to take interest in elections and the governance process, to have the kind of government that we want.
  
“If the people do not show interest, then we won’t be able to bring in leaders that genuinely care about the people and implement policies that will bring about change in our society.”