CITIZENS COMPASS– THE House of Representatives has urged the National University Commission (NUC) to give university students and others break in order to participate in the 2023 general elections.
The parliament made the call through the National Universities Commission, NUC, the National Board for Technical Education, NBTE, the National Commission for Colleges of Education, NCCE and the Federal Ministry of Education.
The House also urged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to make special arrangements for the students to collect their PVCs.
The resolutions followed the consideration of a motion at the plenary by Hon. Kabir Ibrahim.
Presenting the motion, Ibrahim noted that, according to available statistics, there were over 2.1 million students currently studying in Nigerian Universities, while over 2.4 million were students in Polytechnics, Monotechnics and Colleges of Education across the country.
He also noted that academic calendars of various tertiary institutions were structured in a way that most students are disenfranchised as school calendars do not take into consideration the timelines and date for elections.
He said: “This lack of flexibility makes it difficult for students to participate in the electoral process.
“3.8 million of the newly registered voters are students, accounting for 40.8 per cent of the total number of newly registered voters as stated by the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, at the Commission’s 2022 third quarterly meeting with political parties in Abuja.
“These students who constitute 40.8 per cent of the newly registered voters, have their polling units sited in states outside their campuses, thereby necessitating traveling outside their respective institutions to vote in the 2023 elections.
