A West African sub regional human rights and environmental concern civil society organization, Human Rights Advancement and Development and Advocacy Centre (HURIDAC) today Tuesday 23rd July 2024 in Lagos held an evaluation workshop of its Election and Youth Engagement (EYE) project.
The event had in attendance the project manager of the EYE project Ms Mfon Enoidem, and other support staffs from HURIDAC as well as some of the participants in the project who are students of tertiary institutions in Lagos which is the target population of the project.
The EYE project was implemented by HURIDAC with sponsorship by MacArthur Foundation through the Nigerian Women Trust Fund from August 2023 to February 2024.
The evaluation workshop reviewed the goal and objective of the EYE project of which the presentation was done by the project manager, which was about promoting positive youth participation in the electoral process and governance by leveraging on advocacy tools such as the social media campaigns, town hall meetings and policy dialogue to create awareness among young people on the importance of their participation in the political process.
The EYE project manager Ms Enoidem detailed it’s activities of operations in the last one year which meant to address youth apathy in the political process as gleaned from the 2023 general elections in Nigeria.
As part of its strategy to engender youth participation in the political process, the project involved organization of trainings, town hall meetings, workshops as well as a digital module where the youths largely drawn from institutions of higher learning were educated and informed of the provisions of the electoral process, INEC guidelines as well the roles of relevant stakeholders in the electoral process.
The participants also gave their insights about the need for the EYE project to be continued just as they highlighted steps that could be taken to engender youth participation in the political process among which are the mobilization of the youths through youth groups and organizations as well as government agencies in charge of youth affairs. They also recommended the urgent need to inculcate the culture of patriotism in the Nigerian youth by developing good slogans such as that of “Nigeria, great people, great nation” of the former Director General of NAFDAC, late Mrs Dora Akunyili. They also advocated that HURIDAC should lower the age bracket so that the EYE project can catch them young by focusing on pupils in primary and secondary schools.
Organizing quiz on the provisions of the electoral process with incentives of prizes to be won by participants, was also advocated as a means to attract the interest of the youths in the political process.
