INEC National Commissioner and Chairman, Planning, Monitoring and Strategy Committee, PMSC, Abdullahi Zuru, has restated the commission’s poise to ensure the conduct of a credible and near perfect general election come 25th of February.
Zuru stated his optimism in Lagos during the Election Monitoring and Support Centre (EMSC) Committee ‘ Amber Zone State-level Implementers’ Workshop which started on Monday in Lagos ahead of the 2023 general election and organised by the European Centre for Electoral Support.
He stressed the need to identify the internal and external factors that may have negative impact on the elections, analyse the factors and evolve effective preventive and mitigating measures.
Prof. Mohammad Kuna, the EMSC Chairman and Special Adviser to the INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu stated the essence of the workshop, citing the need to keep the eventual trainers abreast of basic information about the exercise prior to.
The first batch of the two-days training started on Monday in Lagos comprising officers from the 19 Northern states while staff from the 17 Southern states would start theirs in Thursday.
Kuna said organising a general election in a vast country like Nigeria requires careful planning, coordination, monitoring and implementation of hundreds of activities nationally as well as at the level of states and local governments.
According to him, EMSC tool is designed to help the INEC identify gaps, risks and lapses in the process, and is useful in addressing the same.
Kuna said: “The Commission has promised Nigerians the best election it has so far conducted. It is a national responsibility; it is a national obligation.
“Preparations are at an advanced stage, and we are in the last phases of the implementation of the election.
“Thus, of the 14 activities on the Timetable and Schedule of Activities released by the Commission over a year ago, 11 have already been implemented.
“Only three are outstanding viz: (a) the publication of the notice of polls (30th January 2023), (b) the last day of campaigns by political parties (23rd February for Presidential and National Assembly and 9th March for Governorship and State Houses of Assembly) and (c) Election Day (25th February and 11th March, 2023).”
The professor said that election materials and personnel had to be procured, checked, secured, delivered, trained, and deployed in the right quantities, to the right places, at the right times.
He added that where necessary, third-party service providers have to be engaged to provide critical electoral services on which elections depend; and stakeholder engagements, as well as related activities have to all be planned and implemented.
According to him, since its inception, EMSC has provided the commission with a broad framework for enhancing coordination, efficiency and effectiveness in the planning and implementation of electoral activities.
“Approved by the Commission in January 2014 as a tool for monitoring and tracking the implementation of electoral activities, the tool has been deployed in all general and other off-cycle elections since the Ekiti Governorship election in June 2014.
“It was deployed in both the 2015 and 2019 general elections, and in Off-Cycle elections since, from Kogi to Osun.
“The EMSC is a planning, monitoring, implementation, early warning, and support system that enables the Commission to proactively plan, monitor and implement electoral activities,” the chairman said.
Kuna said that the EMSC was designed to provide election managers with a tool to visualise electoral activities as they are or should be implemented.
“Through key performance indicators (or KPIs) and dashboards, it provides a real-time picture and assessment of field activities to enable election managers at various levels to identify risks to an election,” he added.
Kuna said that it also helped to provide a level of visibility over field operations by helping to identify electoral risks or threats early enough in the planning and implementation of an election.
He added that the EMSC helped to provide support to field officers and activities in areas when and where such support may be required.
The chairman noted that for the 2023 General Election, the National Level Amber Zone Implementers’ Workshop was the second of three planned training and implementation engagements.
He said that it focused on the training of Administrative Secretaries, Heads of GAP, as well as the three Desk Officers of the EMSC to constitute a core of EMSC trainers for each of the 36 States and the FCT.
He said that the personnel assembled, under the leadership of the Administrative Secretary are expected to implement a training programme for Electoral. Officers (EOs) and other staff at the state level.
He listed the key objectives of the National Level Amber Zone Training to include understanding the concept of the EMSC, enhancing the operational capacity, and generating state level baseline readiness assessment for report for the entire state.
“Although work has been ongoing and the election is being implemented with several materials being delivered to state offices on a daily basis, we need to have a complete picture of the state of readiness state by state and local government by local government across the country.
“This training provides us at both headquarters and state level, an opportunity, and the necessary tools to have clear assessment of the readiness statuses, as well as to have total control over all planned activities.
He called on officers to meticulously monitoring the implementation of the 2023 General Election in the remaining days to identify gaps, assess risks, and provide overall leadership and guidance to the entire range of ad-hoc staff in the field.
According to him, identified gaps must be filled and emergent risks addressed so that voters can come out on Election Day to cast their votes to their preferred candidates.
He commended the Development Alternatives Inc. (DAI) of the European Union Support to Democratic Governance in Nigeria (EU-SDGN) for its continuous support for INEC programmes and in particular to the EMSC.
Also speaking, Prof. Rhoda Gumus, INEC’s National Commissioner in charge of Planning, Monitoring and Strategic Planning Committee (PMSC), said that the commission was depending EMSC for the implementation of electoral processes and activities in the build up to the 2023 general elections.
Gumus, who noted that INEC had the mandate to conduct free, fair, credible and conclusive elections, said, “To successfully carry out this mandate, the commission has deployed EMSC tools for the management and implementation of electoral process.”
In his welcome address, Mr Olusegun Agbaje, the Resident Electoral Commissioner in Lagos State, recalled that the 16-member EMSC committee reconstituted in 2018 with emphasis on the need to constantly track all levels of preparations for the elections.
Agbaje said: ” This workshop will be cascaded to the state on Feb. 2 and Feb. 3 and the experience gathered is expected to impact on preparation, planning and execution of programmes designed for the successful conduct of the forthcoming elections.”
In his goodwill message, Mr Denis Mutabazi a Representative of DAI/EU-SDGN said that one of the ways to improve electoral administration is to ensure that INEC had robust systems and tools to closely monitor the roll-out of keys milestones of the electoral process in general abs in particular, Electoral Project Plans.
“The EU-SDGN is fully committed to supporting INEC’s endeavours to improve the functioning of the EMSC. The key objective of the EMSC is to enhance the effectiveness, efficiency, and coordination around the management and implementation of election plans,” Mutabazi said.