By Kennedy Dimaku:

As the February 2023 general elections draw closer at the tick of the clock, Nigerians are counting days as the politicians are making the last days preparations to ensure that their political parties emerge victorious. 

Support groups are in top gear to galvanize support for the candidates of their choice. Candidates on the other hand are crisscrossing the states of the federation to woo the electorate on their side with a litany of promises.

Amidst the behives of activities, the All Progressive Congress, APC is very optimistic that its’ presidential candidate, Alhaji Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu would emerge as the next President of Nigeria.  

In contribution to actualizing this dream, the National Coordinator for National Support for Tinubu/Shetima, Dr Miriam Abdulsalam has organized awareness training for support groups rooting for Tinubu/Shetima presidential ticket.

The training was against the backdrop that some electorate do not rightly cast their votes on the ballot paper resulting in a wide range of invalid votes. Others are people who could not identify the symbols and logos of their choiced political parties.

Addressing the mammoth supporters in Abuja, Abdulsalam said the aim of the training was for the coordinators and women leaders of the support groups to go back to their various states and educate the grassroot on election processes. 

According to her, “When you go back to your states, you should concentrate on the grassroot to guide and enlighten them on how they should vote on the election day.” She said,

She noted that a good number of votes are wasted pointing to a large number of invalid votes recorded during the previous elections.

To avoid wastage of votes meant for APC, she instructed the support group leaders from the 36 states and FCT saying, “Go and educate them at the grassroot to enable them solve the problems associated with thumbprinting in the ballot paper so that they do not waste their votes. Make them understand that their finger should be at the right box where APC is indicated on the ballot paper. Let them know that their finger should not be placed in between the lines, or their votes will be invalid. And let them know and identify the symbol and logo of APC which is the broom in the ballot paper. And also how to know and identify the polling units they are to cast their votes.”

Abdulsalam encouraged the people to be courageous and determined to cast their votes and make sure that their votes count.

She however advised those who are yet to collect their permanent voter card to do so before it is late, 

She assured the people that Tinubu and Shetima will emerge as President and Vice President of Nigeria respectively, by the grace of God.