Ekiti State Government has said it is deploying arts and culture to sensitise residents on the need to redress voter apathy and improper voting during the June 20 governorship election.
The state Commissioner for Arts, Culture and Creative Economy, Prof. Rasaki Bakare, said that the ministry would, on March 28, begin a statewide mobilisation tour of major communities in the three senatorial districts in the state to sensitise the people on the need to perform their civic responsibilities and how to vote properly.
Bakare spoke at a press conference in Ado Ekiti, the state capital, on Monday, announcing Governor Biodun Oyebanji’s approval of another tranche of funds for the 2026 Ekiti State Art Endowment Fund, providing yearly assistance to workers in the art and creative economy sector.
The fund, which is given to qualified needy art and creative sector players – individuals and groups – as a loan with seven per cent interest, is expected to assist the beneficiaries in setting up their own businesses for them to prosper and become employment providers.
The commissioner, who said the ministry’s mandate included using art and culture to support government policies and programmes, said the sensitisation would be devoid of an electioneering campaign but would be an effort to increase voter participation.
He said, “Election is a government programme. Our intervention here is to complement the jobs of the National Orientation Agency and the Independent National Electoral Commission.
“The ministry is engaging in a statewide mobilisation tour whereby we use both the performing and visual arts and the culture of the people to sensitise Ekiti residents on two important issues – election and preventing flood.
“Elections are coming, a good number of our people still do not know how to vote well, people still don’t know how to thumbprint properly, people still don’t know how to fold their ballot papers after thumb-printing, which is why there is always a high number of invalid votes.
“Many don’t even understand why they must vote, from the research that we did, there are still people who like to be in their farms working on election days, many people still don’t have voters card, and they don’t see the reason they must have voters card. We want to use art, the language that people understand, to teach them how to vote and why they must vote.
“As a ministry, we want to contribute our quota to making sure that our people have information that will make the forthcoming election seamless, that will impact a high number of voters’ participation, and impact the correct voting process and procedure.
“So we are moving round all our major towns and the senatorial districts in Ekiti State to make sure that we use the art, creativity and culture to sensitise the people on election, as well as what causes flooding and how to prevent it”.
Recall that despite the state having 988,923 registered voters for the 2022 governorship election, only 360,753 persons voted on the election day.
The state has been embarking on sensitisation to increase the number of registered voters through the ongoing INEC continuous voter registration exercise, and is also urging citizens to vote in the June 20 election, as it expects to record no fewer than 500,000 voters.
The commissioner, who described the move as ‘Theatre-for-Development’, clarified that the sensitisation exercise was not a campaign for votes or any party, saying, “We are not going to campaign for any political party, we want people to see the effect of not voting on election day and not knowing how to vote directly.
“Our campaign will just be for you to go and exercise your civic responsibility, and we would have only taught residents how refusal to vote can affect their future,” the commissioner said.
Bakare urged needy players in the arts and creative sector to submit their requests and business proposals to benefit from the 2026 edition of the Ekiti State Art Endowment Fund.
He said that feedback showed that beneficiaries in the 2024 and 2025 editions were making headway, noting that the fund was to assist players in the creative economy, including content creators, fashion designers, and other ventures under the arts, culture and creative sector.
“The fund is a loan which attracts seven per cent interest. It is not a grant because we want our people to be responsible for how they spend the money. It is a revolving loan. Whatever the government gives yearly is added to what is already there so that more people can continue to benefit as beneficiaries pay back,” Bakare said.
Present at the press briefing are the Permanent Secretary in the ministry, Prince Adebanji Adelusi, Special Assistant to the Governor on Culture, Adewale Igbeda and all other directors of the ministry.
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