The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC has started Training of Trainers (ToT)in preparation for the conduct of Ondo State Governorship Election scheduled to hold on the 16th of November, 2024.
The intensive training sessions began today at the Electoral Institute (TEI) auditorium in Abuja, where participants gathered to equip themselves with the skills and knowledge required to ensure a credible, transparent, inclusive and verifiable electoral process.
The ToT traning is designed to provide in-depth training for selected INEC officials who will, in turn, train field staff on election day procedures, voter management, and handling election-related technologies.
Welcome address by the Director General of The Electoral Institute (TEI), Dr. Sa'ad Umar Idris, at the ongoing Training of Trainers (ToT) for the upcoming Ondo Decides 2024 Election.
Dr. Sa'ad Umar Idris said training is the foundation for good preparation in any electoral process and a guarantee to achieving successful elections.
The Commission has developed numerous initiatives in the processes and procedures of Election Day activities such as accreditation of voters using the BVAS, the scanning of the Polling Unit result and uploading to the iREV portal for public view and many more technological innovations.
It is incumbent upon you therefore to imbibe these new initiatives with a view to be able to cascade accurately and effectively and most importantly sustain and improve on the successes achieved at the recently conducted Edo State Governorship Election.
It is imperative also that all coordinating Trainers who are here should familiarize themselves with these new initiatives. Therefore, this training serves to equip you with the requisite skill sets and competencies to cascade same down the line. It is worthy of note that your conduct and commitment to duty at this point in time is paramount and unnegotiable. The Commission is determined to deliver on its mandate for free, fair credible and inclusive Elections come November 16, 2024. The performance of the Polling Officials at the recently conducted Edo state Governorship election have been adjudged by various stakeholders to be outstanding and satisfactory and we cannot afford to lower that standard.
It is expected therefore, that you participate actively and make contributions, ask questions so as to ensure that we deliver uniform knowledge of the processes and procedures of Election Day activities in line with the 2022 Guidelines and Regulation for the conduct of Elections.
Earlier in his opening Address the Chairman of the Board of Electoral Institute (BEI), at the Training of Trainers (ToT) Prof. Abdullahi Abdu Zuru noted that the important training organized by The Commission through the Electoral Institute (TEI).
He said the training is a form of Training of Trainers designed to rejig your knowledge of the electoral procedures and processes and sharpen your skill sets, principally to equip you step down this training for SPOs, POs/APOs and Collation Officers respectively.
This is necessary because the Commission understands and appreciates the fact that every election has its peculiarities. The Commission has just conducted the EDO State Off Cycle Governorship elections on Saturday, 21st September, 2024 and will be conducting the Ondo State Off Cycle Governorship elections on Saturday, 16th November, 2024.
As is customary for the Commission, critical lessons learnt in the conduct of an election are diligently assessed and addressed in preparation for the conduct of the subsequent election. Consequently, we here today to review those challenges experienced by our field officials in the Edo Election and address them in preparation for the Ondo Election.
"Our electoral process is technology driven and governed by electoral legal framework that demands appropriate electronic and paper records of our activities. Consequently, our field officials must be diligently trained to operate all machines properly and fill all forms appropriately to ensure the integrity of results and records.
The SPOs, POs and APOs must understand the workings of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS), the INEC Results Viewing Portal (IReV), the INEC Security Alert and Notification System (INEC-SANS). They must also understand how to accurately fill the Forms EC 8A, EC40G, EC40H series etc. Therein lies your responsibilities as the Commission Trainers charged with the responsibility of cascading the Know-How and Know-Why of Electoral Processes and Procedures our Field Officials.
However, in doing so, you must keep in mind the basic fact that these field officials are the face of the Commission as far as the Voters are concerned: Whatever they do, the Voters translate it as INEC in action. Therefore, we must ensure that they are meticulously trained to engage with the Voters professionally and respectfully: our goal should be to leave no Voter in doubt that His/Her Vote will count and that their votes will decide who governs Ondo State in the next four years. Afterall, the Cascade Electoral Training Methodology employed by the Commission is to ensure professional conduct of staff and Adhoc personnel on Electoral Duties.
He noted that the training of Election Security Personnel has been conducted seamlessly and also the Trainings of Electoral Officers (EOs) and Assistant Electoral Officers Operations (AEOops) have also been conducted successfully. I am optimistic the trainings of the Polling Officials will also proceed flawlessly.
he 2024 Ondo State Governorship Election is of utmost importance, serving as another opportunity for the Commission to further assert its commitment to conducting Free, Fair, Credible, Inclusive, Transparent and Verifiable election to serve as a catalyst for good governance.
It is therefore my utmost believe that after this training, you’ll be in better position to train the Poll Officers adequately so as to impart positively on their performance come Saturday, 16th November 2024, when the Ondo State Governorship elections will be conducted. On this note, it is my honour to assure Nigerians in general and the good people of Ondo State in particular, that the election will be Free, Fair, Credible, Inclusive, Transparent and Verifiable.
