By Emma Elekwa, Onitsha

YIAGA Africa, a civil society organisation yesterday said it had voted N2 million to support civic projects aimed at mobilising young people to register and vote in the November 6 governorship election in Anambra State.

Communications Assistant at YIAGA  Africa, Miss Chinemerem Onuorah, who disclosed this in Awka, the state capital at a two-day Voter Mobilisation Lab and Training said the projects and ideas were to mobilise over 7,000 youths to participate in electoral processes.

She said: “We launched the Anambra #POWERof18 Challenge in June and called for entries out of which 10 best project ideas from different local government areas in Anambra State were selected from a pool of over 100 applications.

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“The 10 finalists will get N200, 000 grant each to empower them for the task of mobilising 700 young people each, especially first-time voters to participate in the ongoing voter registration and also vote in the election.

According to Onuorah, research indicated that an estimated 4.5 to 5 million Nigerians turn 18 every year, implying that every four years or election year, about 18 to 20 million new voters are ready to hit the ballot.

“If we do not mobilise them, we will be disenfranchising over 18 to 20 million voters. So, the intention is to catch them young, get them to register and vote wisely,” she said.

Programme Manager, YIAGA Africa, Mr Ibrahim Faruq, expressed confidence that with the grant, the state would experience an increased number of youths registering, getting their permanent voter cards and voting in the governorship election.

While explaining that the voter mobilisation lab was to build the participants’ capacity to become peer educators and voter mobilisation champions, Faruq urged youths to take the electoral process seriously, stressing, that “you have the power to change Nigeria positively.”

One of the participants, Miss Obianuju Uyanne, 24, said the grant would enable her to move around and ‘Evangelise’ her fellow youths for good governance and the need for them to participate in electoral processes.

Another participant, Mr Nonso Okechukwu promised to deploy free data as incentives to motivate and encourage students to participate in the electoral process.

The 22-year-old student of Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka said he would also work with the Students’ Union Government and faculty presidents to drive his mobilisation ideas on campus.