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<\/p>\nINEC tasks Youth Ambassadors to promote peaceful 2027 polls<\/p>\n
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By Emmanuel Oloniruha<\/p>\n
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has tasked its new Youth Ambassadors with promoting youth sensitisation and peaceful participation in the 2027 general elections.<\/p>\n
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INEC Chairman, Prof. Joash Amupitan, gave the charge on Wednesday in Abuja during the investiture of the new INEC Youth Ambassadors.![\"\"](\"https:\/\/primerisenews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/IMG_20260930_111608-300x169.jpg\")
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Amupitan, represented by INEC National Commissioner, Prof. Rhoda Gumus, also urged the ambassadors to help combat misinformation and disinformation ahead of the elections.<\/p>\n
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He urged them to inspire young Nigerians to view the electoral process as an opportunity to shape their future.<\/p>\n
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He said young people constituted a significant segment of Nigeria\u2019s population and the majority of registered voters, according to INEC\u2019s Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) data.<\/p>\n
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According to him, Phase One of the 2026 CVR recorded 2,611,266 newly registered youths, while Phase Two recorded 4,110,123.<\/p>\n
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He said Phase Three recorded 2,602,960 newly registered youths, bringing the cumulative total to 9,324,349.<\/p>\n
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\u201cThis figure reinforces the critical role of active youth participation in Nigeria\u2019s electoral process, which helps shape electoral outcomes and strengthen public confidence.<\/p>\n
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\u201cTheir voices, ideas, energy and participation are essential to the development and sustenance of our democracy.<\/p>\n
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\u201cFor this reason, the Commission considers meaningful youth engagement not as an option, but as a vital component of our electoral responsibilities,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
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Amupitan described the appointment of the ambassadors as a deliberate step towards strengthening the relationship between INEC and young citizens.<\/p>\n
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\u201cWe believe youth are more likely to engage with electoral information when communicated through credible, relatable and influential voices within their communities,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
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He congratulated the ambassadors, saying their selection reflected confidence in their ability to drive positive change.<\/p>\n
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He urged them to discharge their responsibilities with dedication and humility while promoting civic awareness, peaceful participation and democratic development.<\/p>\n
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He said: \u201cYour position requires you to uphold values of integrity, impartiality, inclusiveness, respect and responsible citizenship.<\/p>\n
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\u201cYou are expected to represent the ideals of credible elections and promote participation without partisan bias.<\/p>\n
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\u201cWhether through social media, community engagement, music, entertainment, education, sports or entrepreneurship, your influence can make electoral information accessible to youth.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Earlier, Prof. Kunle Ajayi, INEC National Commissioner and Chairman of the Board of the Electoral Institute (BEI), said young Nigerians possessed numerical strength.<\/p>\n
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He said available CVR data showed that 7.48 million, representing 69.48 per cent, of approximately 10.77 million new registrants were aged 18 to 34.<\/p>\n
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Ajayi clarified that the figures were recorded before the Automated Biometric Identification System (ABIS) was applied to remove multiple and underage registrations.<\/p>\n
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\u201cThese figures demonstrate the considerable numerical strength of young Nigerians within the electoral population.<\/p>\n
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\u201cThat strength gives them the capacity to influence participation and electoral outcomes,\u201d Ajayi said.<\/p>\n
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He, however, said numbers alone were insufficient unless young people were informed, organised and responsibly engaged.<\/p>\n
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\u201cThe question is not only how many young Nigerians are registered to vote, but how many understand their rights and responsibilities.<\/p>\n
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\u201cHow many will participate, resist manipulation, reject violence, and verify information before sharing it?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n
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Ajayi cautioned the ambassadors against the manipulation of young people for electoral violence.<\/p>\n
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He urged them to tell their peers not to allow political actors to exploit their youth against their future.<\/p>\n
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\u201cPolitical competition should never require young Nigerians to fight, destroy, or kill one another,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
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He also urged the ambassadors to combat fake news by adopting the principle: \u201cVerify before you amplify.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Ajayi charged them to serve as a two-way bridge between INEC and young Nigerians by communicating messages and relaying feedback.<\/p>\n
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\u201cYou are not expected to defend INEC from legitimate criticism. Democracy allows citizens to question institutions.<\/p>\n
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\u201cYour responsibility is to help ensure that criticism is informed, disagreement does not turn into violence, and political participation does not become manipulation,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
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The new INEC Youth Ambassadors are Alex Ibeh, Emmanuel Ikubese, Mike Goodson, Christopher Yohanna, Amal Umar, Seun Ajayi, Thompson Ukeki, Ibrahim Bello and Sunday Agbaji.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has tasked its new Youth Ambassadors with promoting youth sensitisation and peaceful participation in the 2027 general elections.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1310,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3],"tags":[776,12,775],"class_list":["post-1309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-2027polls","tag-inec","tag-inecyouthambassadors"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/primerisenews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/IMG_20260930_111705-scaled.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/primerisenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1309","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/primerisenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/primerisenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/primerisenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/primerisenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1309"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/primerisenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1309\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1314,"href":"https:\/\/primerisenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1309\/revisions\/1314"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/primerisenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1310"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/primerisenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/primerisenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/primerisenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}