…Discuss political ads, voter education

By Princewill Ekwujuru

The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, the Association of Advertising Agencies of Nigeria, AAAN, and the Advertising Practitioners’ Council of Nigeria, APCON in a tripartite partnership have agreed to hold an international seminar on political advertising, perception building, and voter education  as a build-up to the 2015 general elections.

The partnership aims to set standards for the next political dispensation in terms of advertising, as well as equipping voters with the needed information.  The seminar is slated for July 11, 2014 in Abuja.

Expected in attendance are key stakeholders in the electoral process, all registered political parties, regulatory agencies, marketing communication industry players, security agencies, the Judiciary, CSOs/NGOs concerned with election monitoring as well as the media.

The seminar, which will be chaired by INEC Chairman, Professor Attahiru Jega, will feature a keynote address to set the tone, which will welcome commentaries from all the registered political parties present. This will dovetail into a panel discussion on the keynote address as well as the issues raised by the political parties.

Speaking on the upcoming event, President, AAAN, Mrs. Bunmi Oke said: “political parties are the primary participants of this discourse focusing on electioneering process towards 2015. For us at the Association of Advertising Agencies of Nigeria, we are desirous of promoting voter education and political advertising and this informed our involvement in the putting together the  seminar.”