Ahead of 2019 general elections, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Wednesday received a Facebook team led by its Head Of Public Policy for Africa, Ebele Okobi at the commission’s headquarters in Abuja.
Facebook offered to explore avenues with the commission that could help expand voters’ education and engage citizens meaningfully to achieve peaceful general elections in 2019.
Hon. Chairman INEC, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu and members of the Commission today received a Facebook Team led by its Head Of Public Policy for Africa, Ebele Okobi at the INEC Headquarters Abuja. pic.twitter.com/vkumQKomLB
— INEC Nigeria (@inecnigeria) February 21, 2018
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The social networking giant made this offer having noticed that topics Nigerians mostly shared on its platform bordered on elections and politics
Facebook, which noted that it has a membership base of 2.1 billion worldwide and 80 million from Nigeria, discovered that “people care very deeply about how they are governed, about who governs them and other political issues”.
“Knowing that people come to the platform to talk about what they care about, we have developed a politics and government programme essentially to understand how our platform is being used, not just during elections, but also to help governments engage with their citizens and also to see what the risks related to our platform in elections are and what opportunities and programmes can be put in place to address the risks,” Okobi told INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, and members of his commission.
The Facebook Head disclosed that the company was open to ideas on how best it could improve its services and the electoral processes in Africa, particularly in Nigeria.
Responding, the INEC boss, Yakubu told the team that organizing and conducting elections was a huge responsibility for the commission and comes with enormous risks.
“A good election, I have always said, is a recipe for peace and a poorly conducted election could lead to violence and civil war. And part of it is the perception some people create on the social media,” he said.
He acknowledged the large following the electoral body enjoy on Facebook, which he said is the largest among election management bodies in Africa, and underscored its potentials for engaging citizens, disseminating information and dispelling fake news for peaceful elections.
While acknowledging that Facebook has become one of the veritable means of interacting with the public, Yakubu said, “I think more people now get their news from the social media than the traditional media”.
The INEC chairman thanked Facebook for pulling down fake pages of the commission from its platform just as it commended, “the social media giant” for also putting mechanisms for checking hate speech and fake news in place.
He said the commission looked forward to working with Facebook in ensuring that the voting population gets the best to help them make informed choices at the polls.