All Eyes Will Be On Us, INEC Chairman Jega Warns Commission’s Staff

INEC Chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega

As the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) moves closer to conducting the 2015 general elections, its chairman, Attahiru Jega, has urged its staff to be more committed and vigilant.

Addressing INEC’s staff, including Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs), at the just concluded four-day retreat at the Asaa Pyramid Hotel, Kaduna, Mr. Jega warned, “All eyes are on us – our friends, partners, concerned citizens and indeed even our adversaries. We must be more vigilant, be more committed and strengthen our harmony at all levels to achieve the desired results.”

Mr. Jega, a former professor, urged the management and staff of the commission “to continue to do the job with integrity and in an impartial and non-partisan manner so that no one will make allegations that will impugn your integrity.”

He remarked that, in reviewing the commission’s sundry programs and plans scheduled to be implemented this year, he realized that there may be gaps.

Mr. Jega charged the retreat participants to ensure that those gaps were filled and that fundamental things that needed to be done were implemented. “We must work assiduously to bridge or mitigate those observable gaps,” he said. He disclosed that, in implementing the programs and plans leading to the 2015 general elections, the commission must ensure that its performance would improve, adding that those with the capacity to deliver more efficiently ought to be given the opportunity to do so.

The INEC chairman identified some of the key objectives of the retreat. According to him, they include to review, discuss and decide on the major policies and programs leading to the 2015 general elections; to share with Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs), Directors and Directing staff decisions taken by the Commission on major policies and programs; to use the opportunity of the retreat to share experiences and lessons from previous elections in order to keep on improving the electoral process; and to further review some of the challenges the commission faced in the conduct of previous elections.