*Nigeria’s Independent National Electoral Commission discloses the two-day sessions are aimed at strengthening the capacity of state-level Communication Officers to ‘engage credibly with the electorate’, counter misinformation and disinformation, and enhance public trust in the electoral process
Alexander Davis | ConsumerConnect
As part of its preparations for the 2027 General Elections, Nigeria’s Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has commenced a two-day Strategic Communication Workshop for Heads of Department, Voter Education and Publicity (VEP), from its state offices nationwide.
ConsumerConnect reports INEC said the workshop holding in Abuja, FCT, from Wednesday, 19 August to Thursday, 20 August 2026, is aimed at strengthening the capacity of state-level Communication Officers to engage credibly with the electorate, counter misinformation and disinformation, and enhance public trust in the electoral process.
Health Alert: Lagos warns consumers against harmful products with fake expiry dates in circulation
Declaring the workshop open, Mohammed Kudu Haruna, National Commissioner and Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee (IVEC), said the Commission had continued to contend with a number of operational challenges.
Haruna noted such challenges include funding constraints arising from the envelope budgeting system, the growing size of the electorate, and the breadth of its statutory responsibilities across the country.
He also noted that, with the recently suspended Nationwide Continuous Voter Registration Exercise (CVR), the Commission is expected to consolidate a voter register of over 100 million voters.
This effort underscores the scale and complexity of the task ahead, particularly for officers responsible for voter education and public communication at the state level, stated he.
Commissioner Haruna further described the workshop as a timely response to identified capacity gaps among Heads of Department, VEP, nationwide.
Expressing confidence that the training, he said the sessions would equip participants with the knowledge and practical tools required to effectively deliver on the Commission’s voter education and public information mandate.
The National Commissioner, on the sidelines of the workshop, told reporters, that the training was particularly timely as political parties commenced their campaigns ahead of the 2027 General Elections.
Haruna also noted the workshop would enable VEP officers to develop effective communication strategies in readiness for the elections scheduled for 16 January, 2027, for the Presidential and National Assembly (NASS) polls, followed by the Governorship and State Assembly elections three weeks later.
Addressing voter apathy
In regard to the reported recurring voter apathy in Nigeria, National Commissioner Haruna, however, cautioned against attributing low voter turnout solely to INEC.
He described the development as a broader challenge for democratic participation in the country.
Haruna observed the Commission’s recent conduct of off-cycle governorship elections, describing them as progressively more credible.
According to him, observers, Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), and the media have all commended the most recent exercises by the Commission.
The National Commissioner stressed that while voter education remained a statutory responsibility of INEC, political parties also had a critical role to play in mobilising their supporters to participate in elections.
He added that weaknesses in internal party democracy, particularly in the process of candidate selection, could contribute to voter disengagement.
Earlier, in her welcome remarks, Mrs. Victoria Eta-Messi, Director of Voter Education and Publicity Department at INEC, had explained the workshop was designed to address a longstanding gap in professional communication training among Heads of Department, VEP.
Mrs. Eta-Messi said the gap had been further widened by recent redeployments, which she noted had resulted in some officers without formal communication backgrounds being assigned responsibility for media relations and public communication in politically sensitive environments.
The INEC Director of Voter Education and Publicity also said the training would equip participants to effectively manage misinformation campaigns, coordinate voter education programmes in their respective states, and communicate election-related information and outcomes clearly, accurately and confidently.
Eta-Messi further reaffirmed the Department’s commitment to ensuring that the Commission’s communication remained visible, accessible and accountable to citizens and other stakeholders.
She appreciated the resource persons for the workshop, Prof. Okey Ikechukwu and Mr. Oluwole Osaze-Uzzi, whom she described as experienced communication professionals engaged to strengthen participants’ capacity as effective voter education practitioners.
The Commission said the workshop was structured around five thematic sessions, including Strategic Voter Education as Development Communication for Sustainable Citizenship; Legal Literacy as a Strategy for Effective Voter Education in the Electoral Process; INEC’s Communication Policy, covering both internal and external communication; Understanding and Dealing with Deliberate Misinformation in the Electoral Process; and Releasing Information, which examines the what, where, to whom, when and how of official Commission communication.
INEC said the training workshop attracted Heads of Department, VEP, from INEC’s state offices across the country, alongside officials of the Commission’s Voter Education and Publicity Department.