 The level of voter turnout in Nigeria's elections has been on a decreasing trend with barely over 20% of Nigerians deciding the fate of a nation from a population of over 250 million people. Plus, the Veneze correspondent Immanuel Obloubo Okho in his report takes a look at the level of voter education in electoral processes as the nation inches close to the general elections in 2023. In our democratic dispensation, power lies with the people. Sadly, the reality of this power is yet to be tapped fully. According to statistics from the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, only about 35% of the over 70 million registered voters in Nigeria in the 2011 elections participated in the voting process. This implies that over 65% of registered voters did not vote, thereby tribalising their civic rights. The electoral body claims to have done its bit in sensitising the public on their rights and roles in election-yaring, but obviously it's easy yet to be impactful. Our next major issue is to make sure that we sensitise our people in relation to how and where they can collect their permanent voter scores to enable them to vote on election day. So in terms of the processes and procedures of the commission, we have targeted civic and voter education both at the national level, the state level and at the local government level. INEC had earlier noted that the bimodal voter accreditation system, BEVAS, alongside all electronic gadgets that would be deployed for the 2023 elections would end the era of rigging. Okuii chose more light on what is expected from voters. We introduced the INEC voter enrollment device for purposes of voter restoration. For the election itself, we have introduced the BEVAS for purposes of voter authentication on election day and the BEVAS will be in a position to read the fingerprints of registrants and their officials. And if the BEVAS is unable to read either your fingerprint or your facial, the implication is that you are engaging identity theft and we are not going to allow you to vote. There are so many variables and variegated reasons why people may develop a certain aloofness to voting and the voting process. There are those who may believe that they have been voting previously and government has not really worked for them. There are those who may believe that the atmosphere on election day may not be conducive for the exercise of their democratic and civic rights. There are also those who may believe that if they vote, their votes will not count. Our desire and our wish is that all those who registered during the continuous voter registration exercise and all those who registered prior to the 2019 election should turn up on election day and exercise their democratic mandate. Only 28 million people were recorded to have voted in the last general election in 2019 as against the country's over 200 million people. Both with the recent massive turnout of citizens registering for their permanent voters card, the polls in 2023 may be a game changer. Our main focus at this moment is to make sure that those who registered during the continuous voter registration exercise turn up to come and collect their permanent voter cards because it is only those who show up on election day that can affect the change in our electoral process. It is only those who show up that can exercise their right of free choice and it's only those who show up that can exercise their sovereign right of voting for candidates of their choice. What we need to do as a society is to continue to encourage this, continue to encourage participation, continue to encourage turnout in particular because the more we have people involved in the voting process, the higher the chances that you'll get a better quality decision in terms of whoever eventually wins. So it pays all of us if we have a 60% voter turnout than if we are 33%. So having 33% decide for 200 million people, or let's say having the last election was decided by 28 million people. On behalf of 200 million, that's very, very poor. The Centre for Democracy and Development is one of many civil society organisations that has criticized the widespread voter buying and low voter turnout for their elections. There are however, eye-opes that with enough unclear voter education, power will no doubt return to the people at the polling booths.