Carrington Fellows charge youths to participate in politics

The Carrington Youth Fellowship Initiative (CYFI), a youth-based initiative established by the United States (U.S.) Consulate, Lagos, has urged young people to participate more in politics in Nigeria.

CYFI, which was set up to promote civil liberty, and others, launched its national campaign drive for youths to get their Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs).

President of Carrington Fellowship, Olusola Owonikoko, while speaking with newsmen, at the weekend, said: “Ahead of 2023, we today launched the PVC drive campaign to promote the participation of young people in electoral processes by sensitising and mobilising them to register, get their PVCs.”

The drive campaign centered on addressing the barriers to young people’s participation in electoral processes with four panellists in a discussion moderated by a journalist, Mayowa Tijani.

One of the panellists, Dr. Azeezat Yishawu, co-founder of ConstitutionLAB, and a Carrington Fellow, who engaged participants from several parts of the country at the campaign launch held virtually, commended the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for the laudable online registration process, which so far has been commendable.

Another panellist, Gabriel Okeowo, CEO BudgIT Foundation, applauded the INEC for doing its homework with the continuous online registration process for PVC.

According to the BudgIT boss, young people are the most influential stakeholders in the electoral process.

He urged INEC to employ technology in the collation of election results in the near future.

Okeowo also advised the electoral commission to eradicate challenges that disenfranchise eligible voters from exercising their civic rights.

He asked INEC to bring polling units to places that help people with multi-layered challenges.

“Why can’t we have a polling unit in hospitals?” he asked.