Prof. Attahiru Jega, the Chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), says the commission will issue permanent voters card to all eligible voters in the country by 2015.
He gave this assurance on Thursday in Abuja when he received the Director-General of the National Orientation Agency (NOA), Mr Mike Omeri.
``With the approval of the contract by the Federal Executive Council, we are looking forward to within this year, to be able to issue permanent voters card to millions of Nigerians in the first phase of the distributions of the cards.
"Our objective is that by 2015 every eligible registered voter in Nigeria will be issued a permanent voter card that would contain all the necessary information and details of the voter which is embedded in the card."
According to him, the chip-based permanent voters cards will guarantee eligible voters the right to vote during elections.
``The commission would spare no effort to make the 2015 general elections is not only the best in Nigeria’s political history, but also the most acceptable to citizens."
He said the commission would rely on modern technology in the electioneering process to ensure efficiency and credibility of the elections.
``We will continue to do our best to bring remarkable improvement to the electioneering process, but we can only succeed through wide range of partnership with other stakeholders and organisations like NOA.''
Jega said the collaboration with NOA was necessary because of its role in dissemination of information, sensitisation and mobilisation of Nigerians for national development.
He commended the efforts of NOA in sensitising eligible voters in previous elections, which he said had helped to facilitate the successes recorded.
Jega said INEC had introduced a ``catch them young sensitisation programmes" in voter education, involving over 3, 347 secondary schools, adding that NOA was actively involved in the programme.
The chairman noted that some politicians had contributed to the existing security challenges by engaging the youths in a very negative manner in their desperation to attain their political objectives.
He urged all Nigerians to fight thuggery, ``because most of the electoral offences were committed by youths at the instance of some of the politicians''.
Earlier, Mr Mike Omeri, commended INEC for ``conducting the best general elections in Nigeria’s political history and the most acceptable to Nigerians''.
He said the essence of the visit was to ensure a robust relationship with INEC in the sensitisation and mobilisation of Nigerians for credible elections.
Omeri called for the setting up of the Electoral Offences Commission to curb violence and civil unrest during and after elections.
He also expressed concern on the activities of some politicians who use thuggery as a means of attaining their political goals.
``I know that in other countries the youths are mentored by politicians to attain greater heights but in Nigeria instead of mentoring the youths for leadership, the politicians mentored them for thuggery, violence and other vices.
``At the end of the day we are left with the kind of security challenges we are battling with now; every responsible Nigerians must stand up against this.''
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