Electoral Violence not an Option

The Oyo State committee of the Vote Not Fight campaign has commenced advocacy visits to the major stakeholders,  key political aspirants, religious leaders, youth leaders, and the youths to secure public commitment to peaceful campaigns devoid of hate speech and electoral violence in the forthcoming elections. The gong and alarm of the campaign has reached various stakeholders in the state in readiness for the 2023 election.

In our bid to ensure a violence-free election in Oyo State, the Oyo State team paid has thus far advocacy visits to the Oyo State All Progressives Party Youth leader, Oyo State Peoples Democratic Party youth leader, Park Management System Leader, Oyo State Amalgamated Commercial Motorcycle Owners and Riders Association of Nigeria Leader (ACOMORAN), Oyo State Labour Party and IPAC Chairman, Social Democratic Party, Labour Party, All Progressives Party House of Representative Candidate, and others.

The campaign did not stop at reaching out to relevant stakeholders alone but also to the general public in the state by visiting different Radio Stations like Splash 105.5 FM, Inspiration 100.5 FM, and Pensioners 106.7 FM to educate, engage and enlighten the public on the need to shun violence and embrace peace as they exercise their right at the poll with emphasis on how youths in the state should avoid making themselves available for electoral violence. The public was urged to keep the peaceful culture and vote for the candidate of their choice and also made to understand that selling their votes would not only result in poverty but harm the coming generation.

Onelife Initiative for Human is leading the Vote Not Fight Campaign activities in Oyo State with convening from the New Generation Girls and Women Development Initiative, and support from the National Democratic Institute. As a youth-focused organisation, we believe the next generation of Nigerians deserves to have a loud political voice in our densely populated political space. The Vote Not Fight Campaign is one of the projects under our Governance and Policies desk aimed at increasing the capacity of young people’s grasp of governance and policy issues and transforming them into active citizens through the use of mass media and other digital tools.  Onelife Initiative is committed to helping promote youth participation and engagement in the political and electoral process by giving them a voice in the electioneering process as candidates and electorates through activities like the Vote Not Fight Campaign.