2023: Shun Violence, Electoral Malpractices, NOA Urges Nigerians

The National Orientation Agency (NOA) has called on Nigerians to shun all forms of violence and electoral malpractices such as selling and buying of votes at the upcoming 2023 general elections.
Speaking at the 2022 Corruption Tori Anti-Corruption Icons Awards held at the weekend to commemorate this year’s Anti-Corruption Day, the Director General, NOA, Dr Garba Abari, urged Nigerians to imbibe national core values which centre on patriotism, social justice, religious tolerance and those positive values that are enshrined in the constitution to make them better citizens and promote unity in the country.
Abari who was represented by Kenneth Onyejepu, Director Procurement at NOA, said  “now we are educating people on the need to vote and participate in the upcoming elections because it is their right to vote, we are telling them not to sell their votes and eschew every form of corrupt practices like selling votes, vote buying and shun every form of election violence.”
He pointed out that corruption was not limited to the abuse of political power but can be found at every level of society, adding that it was the reason the agency has embarked on a campaign on ethics and integrity in schools to catch the young ones to get them to know that there are good values that they can imbibe to shun corruption at their stage.
In his address, the Executive Officer, Signature Communications Ltd, VinMartin Obiora Ilo said that to secure a feat over corruption was by tackling the problem at the grassroots and by drying its source.
Ilo stated that more focus should be on the grassroots because corruption usually recruits its army from the lower level of society, many of whom are misguided in their effort for social, political or economic upward mobility, adding that those who pull through begin to set the corruption value at the top.
He pointed out that the present language of the anti-corruption messages is elitist, speaking above those who provide recruits for the corruption, stating that “if we speak in their language, they could get converted out of the culture of corruption-endorsement, encouragement or active engagement.”
According to him, like the behaviour of animals in the wild, corruption creates a tendency for those afflicted by it, to take, protect self, create a storehouse away from others, protect and favouring either their brood or their kind, hence the world Anti-Corruption Day, a day set aside by the United Nations to draw universal attention to corruption, its dangers and how to address it.
He said: “Our humanity is anchored on shared prosperity, shared protection, shared opportunities, the bedrock of fairness, equity and justice. Unfortunately, corruption violates the essence of our humanity and reduces us to accumulating, favouring and only self-protecting animals”.
He noted that as the global community marked World Anti-Corruption Day, Signature Communications Ltd had decided to share experiences, compare notes and seek collective and effective approaches to addressing corruption and enhancing our humanity as well as evaluating its modest effort in the past four years of entering the trench in the war against corruption in Nigeria.