Building Capacity for Public Affairs Officers

To build the editorial capacity of its public affairs officers, especially in the light of the forthcoming 2023 General Elections, the Independent National Electoral Commission in collaboration with ECES, recently held an intensive workshop in Lagos targeted at equipping participants with up-to-date techniques in handling fake news, misinformation and propaganda. Chiemelie Ezeobi reports  

Come 2023, the General Elections will take place and to umpire this election is the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). Thus, to prepare its Public Affairs Officers (PAO), the commission recently held a two-day Editorial Capacity Building Workshop in Lagos in collaboration with the European Centre for Electoral Support (ECES). 
At the training, all INEC PAOs across the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory were in attendance and they were charged to be knowledgeable and abreast of the newly-signed Electoral Act 2022, as this would enhance their performance for the forthcoming 2023 General Elections. 

INEC’s National Commissioner and Chairman, Information, Voter Education, and Publicity, Mr. Festus Okoye, gave this charge in his keynote address, just as he added that the commission will leave no stone unturned in building the capacity of staff, especially PAOs who interface with the public.
Okoye, who was represented by INEC Administrative Secretary in Lagos, Mr. James Popoola, urged the PAOs to not just be abreast of the new Electoral Act 2022, but to also take advantage of the positives of social media platforms to propagate the activities of INEC.
He said: “Every Public Affairs Officer must be knowledgeable about the rules and regulations, and be ready to communicate same to the public. They must also not be overconfident, but rather study to provide the public with whatever information required correctly.”
Also charging them to be familiar with the media and its workings, he further urged them to engage the social media and explore them for the dissemination of facts about the commission’s activities.

Also speaking, Director, Voter Education and Publicity, Victor Aluko, who noted that with the newly signed Electoral Act, there was the need for training of PAOs to provide knowledge for all INEC stakeholders, posited that the commission is building the capacity of all stakeholders on political activities and the new Electoral Act so as to be agents of positive news dissemination to the public.

Earlier in his address, the Lagos State Resident Electoral Commissioner, Olusegun Agbaje, said the training was necessity as PAOs need to build up an excellent editorial team for the commission.
Also represented by Popoola, he  commended the European Centre for Election Support for partnership, cooperation, support and synergy with the commission in the electoral process in the area of staff capacity building and training.

CollaborationThe workshop was held in collaboration with European Centre for Electoral Support (ECES).In a goodwill message, the Executive Director, ECES, Hamza Fasssa-Fihri, stressed that  the workshop was aimed at equipping the officers with basic skills and techniques in monitoring a variety of media sources, thus, the training is expected to contribute to improving the commission’s internal and external interactions with stakeholders as well as providing accurate information for timely response.

ECES is an independent, non partisan and not for profit foundation whichpromotes electoral and democratic strengthening through the provision of advisory services, operational support and management of large projects mainstreaming capacity and leadership development via peer exchanges and comparative experiences, dialogue and the prevention and mitigation of electoral conflicts.

Suspension of Nationwide RegistrationOn the ongoing nationwide Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) exercise,  Mr Rotimi Oyekanmi, the Chief Press Secretary to the INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, said there is the probability that it would be suspended in July. 

Speaking on the sideline of the workshop, he said while the commission is impressed with those that have  completed both online pre-registration and the physical capturing of biometrics, the suspension, he said it will be suspended six or seven months before the general elections. 
Charging Nigerians, who are still waiting for the last minute rush before  registering, to do the needful, he said: “The commission has not decided yet but from what we know, we will suspend the CVR between six to seven months before the general elections to enable us clean up the voter register and print the PVCs of those who have registered so far. It is extremely important that Nigerians should not wait until June or July before they register.”

Maximising Social Media 
Presenting a paper with the title: “Maximising Social Media Benefits: Curtailing Misinformation and Disinformation,” Mohammed Momoh, former Director, News Agency of Nigeria, who talked on misinformation and disinformation, said the major challenge facing the social media was misinformation and disinformation, adding that this has made the job of information communication very difficult for practitioners.
He said: “Social media is very fast and timely, but is dangerous as the image of an organisation could get battered through it if care is not taken. INEC staff must monitor social media, produce and respond to messages and positions of people while also syndicating messages.
“I urge the commission to provide the PAOs wherewithal to work in the deployment of social media to help in information management.”
Noting that PAOs must not fail to respond and prove wrong purveyors of misinformation, he added that the key principles of social media include “conversations, community, connecting with the audience and building relationships. It is not just a broadcast channel or a sales and marketing tool.
“Social media not only allows you to hear what people say about you, but enables you to respond. Listen first, speak. It is compelling, useful, relevant and engaging and allows you to try new things.
“Social networks and other online media are great tools for engagement and two-way communication, but given the nature of this two-way, real-time communication, there is the potential for significant risks associated with inappropriate use”.
On the major challenge of social media, he said aside “the benefits of facilitating interaction and bringing the globe closer, smooth, interesting, timely and fast; the social media runs unfettered, unrestrained and many times verifiable and unverifiable materials and information that may be positive or negative.
“The social media churn out large volumes of information of different dimension per seconds, including the ones you generate and sometimes it is difficult to track yours except there are specific platforms you assigned.
“Thus the major challenge facing information managers in the world of social medial is sometimes the misinformation and disinformation that pervade the social media as opposed to the conventional media which functions with laid down rules, principles, law and ethics.”
On the twin words of misinformation and disinformation, he said they are the major headache which information managers must try to avoid or manage adequately in burnishing the image of his or her organisation. 
“In order to continue sustain the confidence of the publics, information managers must be able to adequately confront misinformation and disinformation which have over the years continued to blossom in the social media,” he added.

Technological Innovations
Speaking on Technological Innovations for 2023 General Election, Dr. Lawrence Bayode Deputy Director, ICT, disclosed that the commission has since 2011 been progressively deploying technology to improve the transparency and credibility of the electoral process in Nigeria. 
This he said led to the introduction ofchip-based voters’ card and Smart card Reader (SCR) technologies for electronicaccreditation of voters, which were widely acclaimed to be behind major improvements in the quality of elections, particularly in 2015;
“Since then, the electorates have yearned for more technologies to reduce human intervention that could alter the wishes of voters in elections ;
“Consequently, the Commission began to electronically publish images of Polling Unit results through its INEC Result Viewing (IReV) Portal. This System has been deployed in several major off-season/end-of-tenure and bye -elections.
“Different technologies have been applied over the years, and regularly, INEC makes it a point of duty to continuously improve and redefine the technological processes.”

Summarily, he said the commission’s desire of having credible elections issacrosanct and technology deployment has proven to be an effective tool inachieving the set objectives; the need to have one-person-one-vote is what has necessitated the deployment of a Bimodal Voter Authentication System (BVAS); and the need to ensure the credibility and openness of the commission has necessitated the deployment of the IReV Portal.

Strengthening INEC Media Platforms In his lecture, Strengthening INEC Media Platforms for 2023 General Election, Mr. Oyekanmi noted that given that so much is at stake with this elections given the trust imposed on the commission by Nigerians, the PAOs must not forget that fifth columnists and hired conspiracy theorists that arelurking in the dark, waiting for the righttime to devour.
Therefore, he charged them todevelop the capability to continually setthe agenda and shape the narrativesabout the electoral process as we movesteadily towards 2023. “We must takefull advantage of our various platforms,” he stressed. 

He added that the “Commission leverages a variety of platforms to constantly interact with stakeholders, disseminate information and receive feedback. They include quarterly meetings with Political Parties, Civil Society Organisations, Media, Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security.
“The Commission also meets with the following stakeholders as the need arises: Development Partners, National Assembly Committees on INEC & Electoral Matters, Agencies under the United Nations, Judiciary, Professional Bodies, Religious and Traditional leaders.”
Stressing that the PAOs must implement the INEC Communication Policy, he said they are also expected to churn out  incisive news and feature stories, good pictures with captions, short video clips of between five and six minutes, follow INEC across all platforms, as well as expand their social life and show presence.

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“Every Public Affairs Officer must be knowledgeable about the rules and regulations, and be ready to communicate same to the public”