Ahead of 2023 general elections, the Enugu State Citizens Support for Equity and Good Governance (ESCSEG), has taken its public enlightenment campaign program on voters’ registration to Agbani, headquarters of Nkanu-West Local Government Area of the State.
Agbani is the country home of the former governor of Enugu State, Senator Chimaroke Nnamani, who currently represents Enugu-East Senatorial zone at the Senate.
Speaking over the weekend at the formal kick-off/inuguration of the group at Agbani, the State Coordinator of ESCSEG, Comrade Emmanuel Onyendozi Onwe, explained that they extended the campaign to rural communities to create more awareness to eligible voters in the state.
Onwe who decried apathy in the on-going voters’ registration excercise, noted that good governance begins with credible election, stressing, “ESCSEG as a non-interest political movement was established to promote equity, good governance and social justice with a mission to engage the citizens to actively participate in democratic process to reduce political related apathy among the citizens”
“ESCSEG believes that the current security challenges across the country is traceable to decades of negligence and bad governance by successive governments at all levels”.
“When we talk about societal challenges such as armed robbery, kidnapping, terrorism, economic sabotage, vandalism among others and weigh it with bad governance which is generally believed to be the root causes and the inability of government at all levels to bring all these to acceptable end, could be as a result of citizens unwillingness to participate in governance process.
“When citizens feel that development activities perform by the government is for them, it means the work performed by the government is people-oriented.
“To close the existing gap between the governed and the leaders, the Enugu State Citizens Support for Equity and Good Governance (ESCSEG) has adopted an approach called “Citizen Empowerment through Advocacy”.
“We have also set up bottom-top continuous voter’s registration sensitization committee to ensure that our people are well informed on the need to have their Permanent Voter’s Card (PVC) to enable them participate in choosing who leads them in future elections.
In his speech, the Chairman of the Nkanu-West Local Government Area, Hon. Nwabueze Nnamani, said he was overwhelmed with the activities of ESCSEG, urging them to keep the tempo high.
The enlightenment on voters’ registration excercise is apt and timely and I encourage you all to go ahead with the good job, adding that there is poor turn out of people for the registration excercise in the area.
“We are happy for what you people are doing. Many people don’t know that they can make a positive change in governance with their voters’ card”, he added.
Also speaking, the Officer of the Independent National Electoral Commissioner (INEC) in the local government area, Emmanuel Nzewuihe, commended the socio-cultural group for embarking on the voters’ registration enlightenment, stressing that it would impact positively on the people as many are yet to realize the importance of fulfilling their civic responsibility.
He said that he had been recording low turn out of people in the local government area which he noted was not in the interest of Ndigbo.