Ahead of July 16, 2022, Governorship Elections in Osun State, the Inclusive Friends Association (IFA) had on Wednesday & Thursday, took her Access Nigeria – Get Out The Vote Campaign (GOTV) outreach to Special schools in Osun State.
These schools include the School For Special Needs (School of Handicap), Ikirun, and the Secondary School for People with Special Needs, Osogbo Osun State.
The Access Nigeria campaign Programs Manager, Mr. Oluwaseyi Moses in his remarks said the outreach was initiated to educate students, who are eligible to vote to know about their civic responsibility and the procedures to follow during the election.
Moses said that understanding the election procedures would assist the students to vote without any form of difficulty.
He said the sensitization was also aimed at reducing voters’ apathy in the community of persons with disabilities starting with students.
During the training, students were taught about the various provisions made by the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) and as well as in the new electoral act. Some assistive materials introduced are the Braille ballot guide for the blind, INEC form EC30E, which is pictorial to enable the deaf to vote independently, and form EC40H for the disaggregated data of the types of disabilities.
Moses also said that over the years, the community of Persons with Disabilities had been disenfranchised from the electoral process.
“Access Nigeria Campaign is all about creating accessibility for persons with disabilities, especially in political and election process.”
“And that is why we are in this school with our program called “GOTV”, Get Out The Vote from people with disabilities.”
“We have realized that concentration is not on these students with disabilities, who are of voting age, and the reason we are here is to teach them various provisions that will make voting easy for them on the election day.”
“We are not here to teach them the party to vote for, but rather to educate them on their civic rights and the assistive provision available for them on the election day,’’ he said.
He appealed to the parents of the students to allow them to vote, adding that they are the future leaders.
