The Chairman of Nigeria's Electoral body, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Mahmood Yakubu has charged new new Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs), to focus on how they can acquaint themselves more with the processes and procedures of the Commission.
Professor Yakubu gave the charge at an induction retreat for new RECs in Lagos, emphasizing the importance of reviewing performance, innovation, and capacity building for better service delivery.
The retreat is to induct 10 new RECs: nine of them were sworn-in on 12th December 2023 and one of them on 30th January 2024. In a matter of weeks after the swearing-in, many of the of the new RECs were saddled with the task of conducting re-run elections in a few locations in some constituencies or bye-elections in entire constituencies.
Prof. Yakubu urged veterans, to leverage on privileged field experience to contribute on how to mitigate recurring challenges in the areas of pre-election and post-elections litigations, operational issues especially in the area of logistics, improvement on voter education processes, issues of strategic communication and combating fake news, misinformation and disinformation as well as inclusivity in the electoral process.
Also on voter registration, allotting voters to polling units, the role of technology from pre-election activities to Election Day processes, political party issues mainly arising from leadership crisis and the management of party primaries, the recruitment and training of election duty officials, election security and own code of conduct.
He acknowledged the support of the Development Associates Inc. (DAI) and the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) for supporting this retreat in particular and many other activities of the Commission in general.
The presence and goodwill messages of the DAI Team Leader Mr. Rudolf Elbling and the IFES Country Director Seray Jay is a further affirmation of their commitment to transparent and inclusive electoral process in Nigeria.
The retreat aims to equip RECs with knowledge and skills to excel in their roles, with discussions centred on improving electoral processes.
The INEC Chairman urged participants to engage actively and contribute to enhancing Nigeria's electoral landscape.
