Politics
THE All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Council (PCC) has launched an application titled: “The Thinking Caps” to bridge knowledge gap among young Nigerians, ahead of 2023 general election.
Alhaji Mohammed Idris, the APC PCC Director of Strategic Communications said this at a news conference on Wednesday in Abuja.
He said the app, among other things, was expected to educate, provide vital information and publish the requisite capacity to think out of the box.
He said it was also to provide information to the youth on the antecedents of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, the APC presidential candidate and Sen. Kashim Shettima when they both served as governors of Lagos and Borno.
Idris said the initiative was aimed at ensuring that youths especially who were probably not born when Tinubu was Lagos State governor irrespective of political affiliations got educated about his antecedents and APC government and the opposition.
He explained that the app would have a quiz feature which would be a means of educating youths by getting them to attempt questions, have fun, and be informed while getting some form of rewards in terms of recharge cards.
He said that the app included news feed where end users could read news and articles about the APC presidential campaign.
Idris added that the app also included gallery icon where audio, infographics and video content could be viewed and shared on various social media with capacity to directly engage the 93.4m registered voters.
Idris while justifying the initiative,said: “The demographic analysis of our population shows that the youth aged 35 and below constitute over 60 per cent of our population.
“It means Nigeria is a very young country, too young to know that there was a world without computers and GSM phones, not to talk of internet and social media.
“As far as these youth are concerned, End-SARS protest was the biggest civil disobedience and fight for citizens’ rights that has ever happened.
“They cannot understand what the older population mean when they talk about military rule and how rights and privileges of citizens were curtailed.
“They have no idea that some people came face to face with gun-wielding soldiers and some paid the supreme price fighting for democracy.
“They are not familiar with what it means to be pro-democracy activists, and the sacrifices they made that culminated in the democracy we enjoy today,” Idris said.
According to him, if 60 per cent of the country’s population do not witness these events and have no knowledge about them, they will not able to make informed choice amongst the front-runners in the coming presidential election.
He said this was with particular reference to Tinubu, adding that the “Thinking Caps” app therefore became handy to bridge the knowledge gap and bring the youthful population to support the Tinubu-Shettima presidential ticket.
“When we say Tinubu’s Lagos for instance, they wonder what we mean because they were either unborn or too young to know the hitherto decrepit nature of Oshodi, Mushin, Obalende, Ojuelegba, CMS, amongst others.
“They don’t know what Lekki was or the existential threat that Victoria Island faced because of the ocean surge.
“They have no idea of the state of the Lagos infrastructure or the general quality of life of Lagosians before Tinubu became governor.
“Same way they have no idea about the great achievements of Sen. Kashim Shettima, Tinubu’s Vice-Presidential running mate as governor of an insurgency-ridden Borno,”he said.
He said that the APC PCC had a responsibility to fill this knowledge gap and educate this critical demography with facts about Tinubu and the party’s opponents.
“This app educates the youths about the 16 years of misrule under the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
“With the launch of the app today, we are poised to uniquely tell our story and market our candidate as the best amongst the rest.
“With 24 days to the elections, the time to convince the electorate to secure an emphatic victory cannot be more auspicious.
“The Thinking Caps” is our innovation to get this done so that Tinubu can install Renewed Hope to the benefit of all Nigerians,”the APC PCC Director of Strategic Communications stressed.
Speaking at the event, Mr Dele Alake Adviser, Media and Communication, APC PCC said that although the target of the app was youths, it was useful to everyone, adding that its traction was overwhelming.
He said coming up with the app 24 days to the presidential election was not late.
“It is gaining traction even as we speak, the timing is not late at all, the app will help clear all doubt in the minds of youths, especially concerning Tinubu our presidential candidate,” he said
(NAN)
A.
Tags: Alhaji Mohammed Idris All Progressives Congress Asiwaju Bola Tinubu Mr Dele Alake Sen. Kashim Shettima Thinking Cap App
