The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Prof. Attahiru Jega, yesterday disclosed that members of staff of the commission were subjected to difficult circumstances during the 2015 elections.
He stated this at a retreat titled, “2015 General Elections: Lessons and the Way Forward” where he reviewed his tenure as boss of the electoral body and concluded that his only regret was his inability to create a separate salary structure for INEC workers.
At the retreat, organised in Abuja for electoral officers of the commission, where the report of the 2015 elections was reviewed, Jega maintained that apart from the special salary issue, the commission under his leadership performed well.
According to Jega, “We have done our best as a commission under very difficult circumstances and the major regret, as I have always acknowledged, is that a major undertaking we made when we first resumed at the commission is to have a separate salary structure for members of staff of the commission but we have not been able to achieve this.
“And obviously this is one area where we still have to do a lot of work and put in a lot of efforts as we move towards the future and to improve.
“But apart from that, I don’t think we have done badly in terms of promoting the welfare and the wellbeing of members of staff.
“We have ensured that salaries were paid regularly, we have ensured that there are a lot of opportunities for self-improvement through the organisation of seminars and workshops with our partners.”
Observing that there was no way the commission could satisfy everyone, the INEC chairman stressed that some were not happy when the commission redeployed some of its members of staff.
His words, “Again as I said, we could not have satisfied the expectations of everybody, we believe that we have done our best. I must say that not all of you are happy with some of the measures that we have introduced as a commission.
“The restructuring and re-organisation certainly could not have satisfied everybody because it required trimming down the size of the commission and also redefining schedule of responsibilities and putting square pegs in square holes as we called it at that time.”
Jega, who noted that the 2015 general elections were better than those of 2011, stressed that there was a lot of room for improvement and that as the country prepares for future elections, the commission must begin to reflect on what areas of further reforms it should focus its attention on.
He went on to enjoin members of staff of the commission not to be carried away by the accolades showered on them because of the successful conduct of the 2015 general elections but they should work towards improved performance in 2019.
“I think not many of us in this room would need a reminder, but it is important that we remind ourselves that the success of the 2015 general elections was as a result of the tremendous efforts and undertaking of many of us to learn from our mistakes, to take measures to learn from those mistakes and to continue to do our best for our country,” Jega added.
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