By Emmanuel Elebeke

The Ministry of Science and Technology, last week embarked on a capacity development conference for Nigerian youth on use of social media as citizens during the forthcoming 2015 general elections.

The training is expected to equip the participants with knowledge and skills on the application of technology in elections for voter education, citizen mobilization, spreading of peace messages and supporting the overall credibility of the 2015 electoral process.

The Minister, Dr. Abdu Bulama, while declaring the conference open said, the training was aimed at maximizing benefits of the newly introduced card readers by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC for voters’ accreditation, verification and reporting.

The conference was organised by the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology with support from the United Nations Development Programme, aimed at extending technology application training to youth of voting age across Nigeria.

The Ministry is charged with the mandate to create technology infrastructure and knowledge base that will facilitate its wide application for development.

Chief among them includes: strengthening the political framework for free , fair and transparent elections as well as entrenchment of good governance and ensuring more dividends of democracy.

Bulama said, he had no doubt that the card readers being provided by INEC would reduce impersonation and voting by proxy during the general elections, in line with the efforts of the present administration, which is determined to ensure a free and fair election in the 2015 elections.

He said, globally, youth play crucial role in entrenching good governance and maintenance of peace and order during elections contrary to developing countries like Nigeria, where youth are mobilized by some politicians to perpetrate violence and other vices during elections.

“The essence of this training is to produce a new crop of youth that will serve as agents of change through utilization of innovative technological tools in promotion of non violence and spreading of messages of peace during elections.

“Nigerian youths are the fulcrum of the country’s developmental efforts and therefore indispensable in the bid to ensure free and fair elections in the country,” the Minister added.

According to the Minister, the second segment of the project involved contest by participants on the use of technology in enhancing peaceful and transparent elections in 2015.