The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC held its quarterly meeting with Secretary to the Government of Federation and other States Government Secretaries in the 36 states of the Country.
During the meeting, the Chairman of INEC, Mahmood Yakubu charged the Secretaries to continue to remain professional and not to get caught up in politics as it can cause a setback to the office they are holding.
Yakubu also highlighted the planned programs and progress the Commission has recorded thus far which include decongestion of polling units, introduction of the INEC Enrolment Device, IVED and much more.
Yakubu who was represented by National Commissioner, Mr Sam Olumekun, stated that “all of us seated here today bureaucrats; we must continue to uphold utmost professionalism at all times. This is necessary as political office holders may easily lure you into politics thereby politicizing the bureaucratic set-up and destroying the fabrics of the profession. Political patronage among civil and public servants has the potential to destroy the gains attained over the years.”
“The Commission now has a new Electoral Act (Electoral Act 2022) which was recently accented to by the President. The new act is robust and will further strengthen the operations of the Commission in the delivery of its constitutional mandates. Upon the passage of the act, the Commission has rolled out the 2023 General Election time table and program of activities and it has began to discharge the activities outlined in the document as they unfolds.
Furthermore, “The Political Parties are scheduled for 4th April to 3rd June, 2022 and the last quarter of the Continuous Voter Registration will resume on 11th April and close on 30th June, 2022.
“The Commission has two off-seasons governorship elections in Ekiti and Osun States which will hold on 16th of June and 18th July, 2022 respectively.
Yakubu added that “In order to deepen the process, the Commission has carried out various innovations and activities including the expansion of voter assess to polling units in order to decongest the polling units and make the polling experience seamless.
“It has also introduced the use of technologies like; the creation of online portal for Continuous Voter Registrations and the in- person/ physical registrations using the INEC Enrollment Device (IVED), the online registrations/ Accreditation of Election observers, online submission of Nomination forms and list of Political Party Agents as well as the use of ( Bimodal Voters Accreditation System (BVAS) in the accreditation process in order to eliminate identity theft and INEC results viewing portal which allows the uploaded results from the polling units to be monitored real time by Nigerians and other critical stakeholders.”
