Youth Organisation Moves against Vote Selling

Emameh Gabriel in Abuja

As the 2023 elections draw closer, a non-governmental organisation(NGO), Youth and Media Network Organisation (YOMEN) has launched a campaign against vote buying and selling.

Chairman,  Board of Trustees of YOMEN,  Emenike Eme, while speaking with journalists in Abuja  said the problem with Nigerian election was more  with “vote selling than vote buying”.

Another arm of the organisation, Ready-To-Vote aimed at addressing voter apathy and disabuse the minds of the youth and electorate generally that their votes count, said it targeted audience was the youths.

Emenike explained that the problem with our electoral process was not vote buying but the willingness of electorate to sell their votes to intending buyers.

He said: “A number of things that work against our elections in this country. One is voter apathy. The other one is what is commonly call vote buying. In YOMEN, we don’t see vote buying as a problem. Let me shock you a bit. Why do we say it’s not a problem? Vote buying is not the problem, the problem is vote selling. Because if you go to the market now to buy a product and you don’t find that product, I know you won’t buy sand.

“So the problem lies with the citizens who are eager to sell their votes. So we have identified that as a challenge and we have come up with package, a app we think can address it.”

He said aside the issue of voter apathy and vote selling, the challenges of vote counting was also an issue of serious concern where citizens have lost confidence on electoral process, therefore they often refuse to come out to vote.

“People at times refused to come out to vote because they feel that their votes will not count. So, what have we done? We have been able to put up a strategy that will check that and even encourage you not to sell your votes and come out vote because their votes will count.

“For good governance to come about, the foundation of the election system must be credible. If it’s not credible, credible candidates will not emerge. If credible candidates did not emerge, there is no future for the Nigerian youths.

“We have our storage system. The people can also fall back to us in case of any  controversy on election results.

“We are partnering with INEC. The commission is also training our staff and has also directed its commissioners in the state to give our staff all the supports they need.

Emenike said the organisation was targeting no less hundred million users to deploy the app, which he said was the first of its kind in the country.

Capitalising on the aftermath of the EndSARS protests that rocked the nation in 2020, YOMEN said the youth are glued to their phones, hence the development of the YOMEN  Cloud APP becomes inevitable.