By Faith Anisiobi, The Sight News
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has commenced a two-day strategic communication workshop for Heads of Department, Voter Education and Publicity (VEP), from its state offices across the country as part of preparations for the 2027 General Election.
The workshop, which opened in Abuja on Wednesday, August 19, 2026, and ends Thursday, is designed to strengthen the capacity of state-level communication officers to engage effectively with voters, tackle misinformation and disinformation, and enhance public confidence in the electoral process.
Declaring the workshop open, National Commissioner and Chairman of the Information and Voter Education Committee (IVEC), Mohammed Kudu Haruna, said INEC was contending with several operational challenges, including funding constraints arising from the envelope budgeting system, the increasing size of the electorate and the broad range of its statutory responsibilities.
Haruna said the recently suspended Nationwide Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) exercise was expected to result in a consolidated voter register of more than 100 million voters, highlighting the scale of the Commission’s responsibilities ahead of the 2027 elections.
He described the workshop as a timely response to identified capacity gaps among VEP officers, expressing confidence that the training would provide participants with the knowledge and practical tools needed to effectively discharge their voter education and public information responsibilities.
Speaking with journalists on the sidelines of the workshop, Haruna said the training was particularly important as political parties begin campaigns ahead of the 2027 elections.
He said VEP officers needed to develop effective communication strategies for the elections scheduled for January 16, 2027, for the Presidential and National Assembly polls, while the Governorship and State Assembly elections would follow three weeks later.
On voter apathy, Haruna cautioned against placing the responsibility for low voter turnout solely on INEC, describing it as a broader challenge affecting democratic participation.
He cited the Commission’s recent off-cycle governorship elections, which he said had become increasingly credible, noting that observers, civil society organizations and the media had commended the most recent exercises.
The National Commissioner stressed that although voter education remained a statutory responsibility of INEC, political parties also had a crucial role to play in mobilizing their supporters to participate in elections.
He added that weaknesses in internal party democracy, particularly the process of candidate selection, could contribute to voter disengagement.
In her welcome remarks, the Director of the Voter Education and Publicity Department, Mrs Victoria Eta-Messi, said the workshop was designed to address a longstanding gap in professional communication training among Heads of Department, VEP.
Eta-Messi explained that the challenge had been compounded by recent redeployments, which had seen some officers without formal communication backgrounds assigned to handle media relations and public communication in politically sensitive environments.
She said the training would equip participants to manage misinformation campaigns, coordinate voter education programmes in their respective states and communicate election-related information and results clearly, accurately and confidently.
The Director reaffirmed the department’s commitment to ensuring that the Commission’s communication remained visible, accessible and accountable to citizens and other stakeholders.
She also commended the workshop’s resource persons, Prof. Okey Ikechukwu and Mr Oluwole Osaze-Uzzi, describing them as experienced communication professionals engaged to strengthen the capacity of participants as effective voter education practitioners.
The workshop features five thematic sessions covering strategic voter education as development communication for sustainable citizenship; legal literacy as a strategy for effective voter education; INEC’s internal and external communication policy; understanding and tackling deliberate misinformation in the electoral process; and the effective release of official Commission information.
The sessions will also examine what information should be released, where and when it should be released, the appropriate audience and the most effective channels of communication.
The workshop brings together Heads of Department, VEP, from INEC state offices nationwide, alongside officials of the Commission’s Voter Education and Publicity Department.
