The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has promoted 3,295 members of its staff nationwide.
The promotion came on the heel of the 2019 promotion examination and evaluation carried out by the commission.
According to a bulletin from the commission, a breakdown of the exercise shows that 15 Deputy Directors were promoted to Directorship appointments, while 1,965 other staff were promoted to Grade levels between GL 07–15.
Those promoted from the rank of Deputy Directors to Directors include, Aliyu M. Bello, Victor Aluko, Garba Lawal Mohammed, Osaretin I. O., Shallangwa M. Y., Caroline Okpe, Ichabe Gabriel and Mikah Tabal.
Others are: Abubakar Garba, Jibreen Jameel El-Yakub, Isa Magaji Gummi, Chima Duruaku, Boco Ekong, Waheed Onijo Ganiyu and Ojewande Stephen Akinropo.
The commission also approved the promotion of 1,315 of its personnel from between Grade level 03 to Grade Level 06.
Meanwhile, the commission has been urged to synergize with other public and non-governmental institutions to enhance the integrity of Nigeria’s electoral process.
This is contained in the communique of a One-Day Focus Group Discussion (FGD), organized by INEC under the auspices of The Electoral Institute (TEI) and the University of Ibadan Laboratory for Interdisciplinary Statistical Analysis (UI-Lisa) on “Voter Apathy Towards Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) and Elections in Nigeria”, held in Abuja.
The Forum participants were drawn from carefully selected stakeholder groups including registered political parties, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), religious bodies, academia, press, INEC officials and others.
The forum identified “bad governance, loss of confidence in the political class, lack of democratic dividend, insecurity, threat of violence; and Lack of voters’ confidence in the election process and outcomes. Doubt of whether their votes will count or not”, as some of reasons for increasing voter apathy in the electoral process.
It also noted that a “Large number of people are unintentionally excluded from voting. These include security personnel, Nigerians in diaspora, prisoners, INEC ad hoc and regular staff, patients in hospitals, workers on essential duties.”
It therefore recommended ‘Increase Civic Education’ by political parties, CSOs and INEC, and “synergy between INEC and the National Assembly to provide a comprehensive framework that would enhance the integrity of electoral processes”.
The forum also recommended that “to enhance voting participation, Justice Uwais Report 2008 should be re-visited. Also, there is need to amend the Electoral Act to allow people vote wherever they are irrespective of where they register”.
On the CVR exercise, the group urged INEC to collaborate with relevant agencies with comparable databases for the purpose of cleaning the register of voters, and called for decentralization of the CVR exercise by creating more registration areas in order to reduce the challenge of proximity.
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