A non-governmental organisation, Peering Advocacy and Advancement Centre in Africa, has urged journalists to be acquainted with the Electoral Act to strengthen Nigeria’s electoral process ahead of the 2027 general elections.

The executive director, PAACA, Ezenwa Nwagwu, made the call during a one-day capacity-building workshop for media, in Kano.

He said the training was organised by PAACA in collaboration with the MacArthur Foundation.

“We are in Kano in continuation of our engagement across the country to popularise the legal framework with which elections are conducted across the country,” he said.

Mr Nwagwu said the aim of the training was to equip journalists with the requisite knowledge and skills to popularise the 2022 electoral act and INEC guidelines and become acquainted with the election process.

“Lack of understanding of the Electoral Act is responsible for unnecessary tension and crisis. We find out that critical stakeholders are enamoured with elections but are not very clear about the legal frameworks. INEC just released a 503-page report but not many people are engaging with it. The Electoral Act 2022 and INEC guidelines are there and you still see Nigerians, including prominent Nigerians, speaking ignorantly about the electoral processes,” Mr Nwagwu said.

He noted that there was ignorance about the legal framework for the conduct of elections and many stakeholders were not conversant with the content and details of that process.

“We engage the media because they are the window to the minds of the citizens and to educate Nigerians to pay attention to the legal framework. The more we practise democracy, the more important it is for us to also understand that the legal framework is also important,” Mr Nwagwu said.

He charged the media to be acquainted with the Electoral Act to further educate Nigerians about the Electoral Act.

Also, the chairman of the Kano State Chapter of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, Abbas Ibrahim, described the training as timely and a wakeup call to journalists to acquaint themselves with the 2022 Electoral Act.

He urged journalists to continue to use the code of ethics guiding the conduct of their profession. 

(NAN)