USE OF OLD AD-HOC STAFF WILL SMOOTHEN VOTING PROCESS — UZU ADVISES INEC

REPORTER: UCHE NDEKE

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has been called upon to consider having a data base of all ad hoc staff trained previously for election purposes in Nigeria.

A Former Deputy Chief of Staff to the immediate past Governor of Anambra state, Mr. Uzu Okagbue, made the call in an interactive with Radio Nigeria in Awka.

Reacting to the recent publication by INEC for recruitment of ad hoc staff in preparation to the 2023 general election, Mr. Okagbue said it was not the best approach as it would not give the maximum anticipated result.

According to Okagbue, recruiting and training new people at every election cycle is counter productive as the new ones will go to the field and encounter the same challenges and mistakes previously made by ad hoc staff in the field.

He said since INEC had a pool of trained staff drawn from government institutions, former National Youth Corps members and higher institutions across the country, the best option was to develop a data base from where it would be using them to execute election processes.

This, he said, would save government cost and strengthen the voting processes as the old hands already had better ideas of managing the challenges, which most times, were occasioned by lack of grasp of the procedure during elections.

The Former Deputy Chief of Staff and political stakeholder in Anambra State noted that INEC had done a fairly good job by bringing innovation into the Electoral System, which he said had strengthened the election process.

Mr. Okagbue also called on the electoral umpire to workout modalities to ensure that thousands of Ad hoc staff recruited for general election get chance to cast their own votes.

He insisted on the need for INEC to be strategic in their posting for duty by ensuring that ad hoc staff were deployed very close to their own polling units so that they woulf not be disenfranchised while working for strong democratic culture for the country.

EDITED BY CHUKWUBUIKE MADU