Project Victory Call Initiative in conjunction with Rotary Club Benin, GRA, today, paid a courtesy visit to the leadership of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, Edo State council.
Speaking at the event, the spokesperson for Project Victory Call Initiative (PVC) Paula Bell- Gam said the visit was to intimate members of the Union their resolve to sensitise and educate the public, particularly the electorate, the ills and counter productive effects of vote buying and selling.
In her speech, she said that the effects of the menace of vote buying and selling on the larger society has become unacceptable, stressing that the practice must stop, adding that the media has a prominent role to play in curbing the unacceptable menace.
According to her, “what happened in the last primaries of political parties by way of financial inducement by politicians was a national embarrassment and such should stop”.
Continuing, She said, “it is high time we stop the mindset of vote buying and selling and as such we are embarking on a peaceful mach to drive home our point”
In her remark, the President of Rotary Club Of Benin, GRA, District 914 of Rotary International, Rtn Nkechi Oyebuchi, pointed out that come the 3rd of October, 2022, Rotary Club will carry out a nation-wide peace walk in commemoration of Nigeria Independence anniversary and to use the occasion to sensitise the electorate of the evil of selling of vote.
Speaking at the event, she said,” there is going to be a peace walk, commemorative of the nation’s Independence anniversary and we are using the opportunity to sensitise the voters of the dangers of selling their vote for a paltry amount of money for an immediate benefit and forgetting the long term negative effects of selling one’s conscience for a paltry amount of money that takes nobody nowhere,” she concluded.
In his reaction, the Chairman of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, Edo State council, Comrade Festus Alenkhe, thanked the visiting team for their efforts to deepen the country’s democratic growth through advocacy promising that the Edo State council would do everything within its power to partner with the organizations to have credible polls in the country.
He said, ” Journalists have very strategic role to play in deepening democracy in Nigeria and according to him their activities would be adequately supported by Edo journalists stressing that vote buying is a ravaging cankerworm that has eaten deep into the national fabrics due to poverty which he said needs credible collaboration to curb through adequate sensitisation.
Still speaking he said, ” we want to join your organization to educate the public that vote buying and selling is not good for democratic growth”. “For us as a union, we are also purging the profession of journalism by embarking on a compendium to contain the names of all the Journalists in Edo State. This has become imperative to curb the incidences of fake news which is common with fake journalists, he concluded.