Anambra citizens decry lack of quality education in state

Many citizens of Anambra have identified lack of quality education the state as their major concern, according to a pre-election opinion survey conducted by the Election Monitor, a Civil Society Organsiation.

The National Coordinator of the group, Mr Abiodun Ajijola, made this known at the Public Presentation of the Anambra Governorship Election Observation and Research Guide on Thursday in Abuja.

He said the survey identified 19 development issues and asked the respondents to choose the most important ones facing their communities.
Ajijola said out of 722 respondents, 166 or 23 per cent opted for lack of quality education, 15 per cent went for bad roads 12 per cent for poor water supply and nine per cent said unemployment.

Ajijola said that the people complained that these anomalies had hampered their quest to vote in the previous elections.

He said that the survey was conducted as evidence based and pre-election opinion poll in the 21 local government areas of the state to understand the political climate of the state.

Ajijola said that the non-partisan survey studied Nigerian adults of voting age (18) and above living in the state with data collected via face-to-face interviews.

The national coordinator said that the survey revealed that so far, 68 per cent of the population had collected permanent voter cards from previous continous voter card registrations.
“Election Monitor is an observer group accredited by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for the 2017 Anambra governorship election.
“So, we deemed it fit to provide Nigerians with key information about Anambra ahead of the election and the key message is that Anambra election is not different from other elections.

‘’We think that the major advice is for INEC and security agencies to ensure the commission to calm the nerves of the voters and reassure them that they will be safe.

“They need to know that they can come out on election day and exercise their civic responsibility.

‘’However, anyone that counters the message of a free and fair election, or even against holding election should be sanctioned,’’ he said.

Ajijola said INEC needed to work with security agencies to make adequate deployment of the commission’s personnel and encourage voters to come and vote for the candidates of their choice.

“We also see vote buying coming to play because it has become a very big problem in all of our elections and I don’t think Anmabra will be different.

`We have see scenarios where people keep campaign funds to buy votes.”

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Ajijola, who expressed concern that similar scenario might come to play in Anambra ‘’if nothing is done about it’’, urged INEC to ensure prohibition of vote buying, especially within the polling areas.

The national coordinator also urged security agents to ensure that all posters promoting“ no election ‘’ are pulled down immediately.

Ajijola called on INEC to increase its publicity on the continuous voter cards registration and collection, adding that many people were still not aware of the exercise nationwide.

Hajia Salamatu Ibrahim, Administrative Secretary, FCT INEC, said that the commission had been working to ensure that citizens were captured to enable them get their voter card.

She noted that many of the people were not enthusiastic about the exercise and urged Nigerians to reconsider their action.

The administrative secretary said possession of voter cards would enable voters to participate in the country’s electoral system.