By Monday Ogar
CrowdPol, A civic tech startup with headquarters in Calabar, the Cross River State capital, whose mission is to make governance open and inclusive for citizens, will be embarking on civic responsibility awareness campaign tagged ‘I Pledge To Vote’ ahead of the forthcoming 2019 general elections.
Disclosing this In Calabar, the Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Justus Oseuno, said the campaign would use music and entertainment to pass its key messages since the targets are youths.
He stated that the event billed to kick off on the 20th of January 2019, at the Dome, Calabar Municipal Council, will feature musicians and comedians from across the state who would perform in the concert, using it to propagate the ‘I Pledge To Vote’ themes among the youths, whom he posited, make up the larger percentage of voters.
He explained that, “CrowdPol is a non-partisan platform. We’re not there to direct the people which way to vote or where to cast their votes. We know that voting is a civic responsibility. It’s a citizen’s right, and every citizen has the right to demonstrate that responsibility.”
Also speaking, the Director of Content and Community, CrowdPol, Mr Efio-Ita Nyok, said CrowdPol is a digital platform that helps mobilize offline action around ideas that matter more to people.
He added that as a civil society organization, CrowdPol is also committed to voters education, sensitization, political awareness and other related matters.
Nyok said the ‘I Pledge To Vote’ which is one of CrowdPol’s pilot programmes for 2019, is borne out of high level of political apathy among Nigerians, especially the youths.
He however attributed the ugly trend to negative perception the people have about the system, saying the ‘I Pledge To Vote’ campaign would be seeking to address the issue, by re-engineering the people’s mindset.
In his remarks, the state coordinator of Nigerian Movement for Positive Change (NMPC), Mr. Ikake Bassey, lauded CrowdPol for envisioning such a novel initiative which he described as a just course. He said that NMPC being an international civil society organization with headquarters in the United Kingdom, has identified with and would partner CrowdPol towards ensuring the success of the campaign.
He said ‘I Pledge To Vote’ would change the narrative of vote buying, stealing of ballot boxes and running away with people’s votes.
Mr Bassey however enjoined youths from across Nigeria to join the ‘I Pledge To Vote’ campaign as a way of advancing the Nigerian socio-political space.