In order to prepare for the 2023 general election, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), announced Friday, September 09, 2022 that it was taking steps to hire almost 1.4 million ad hoc employees.
This information was provided by Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, Chairman of INEC, during his keynote address at the Abuja launch of the Yiaga Africa Election Result Analysis Dashboard (ERAD) Report on Electronic Transmission of Results in the 2022 Ekiti and Osun Governorship Election.
According to Mahmood, the number of adhoc staff that INEC will deploy for the general election in 2023 will be greater than the combined personnel of the military and police, which highlights the size of the election process.
“How many adhoc staff members are we going to hire at the polling unit level for the 2023 general elections?” he asked. is over 700,000, resulting in 1.4 million adhoc employees and polling unit level for the general elections in 2023; the national and state elections exclude our permanent staff and other categories of additional adhoc workers such as collation and returning officers.
READ ALSO: The Challenge Of Foreign Money For National Elections
“INEC will deploy more temporary employees for the general election in 2023 than the Nigerian police and military put together.
“This provides you with a sense of the scale of the problem we face when it comes to overseeing the nation’s elections.
Additionally, hands-on training could be necessary to guarantee that everyone participating in the IReV’s value chain is completely prepared for what is certain to be a significant outing during the 2023 general election. We are bracing for it since it will be a major test for us and the country.
Additionally, he insisted that the commission has improved Nigerians’ trust in the country’s system for handling election results.
“I can safely claim that the days of wanton manipulation of election results are certainly over,” the INEC chief remarked in the meantime.
“Yet, we are not resting on our hoarse knowing that we must remain several steps ahead of those who seek to undermine the system and there are many bad guys in the field trying to undermine the system, but we stand for electoral justice.
“We will make sure that the votes cast by Nigerians are protected and the only determinant of who becomes what in our democracy.
READ ALSO: As Campaigns Start, There Is Only One Issue
“The importance of IReV to transparency and result management is obvious.
Assures Nigerians seamless access to portal, “We expect that with the popularity of the IReV, and the spinoffs, like the ERAD, many more users would seek to access the portal during the general election.
“We are working to ensure that users enjoy a seamless experience with IReV as possible.
“And we are also aware of the sheer size of our country. I have said this consistently that if you take the other 14 countries out of 15 in West Africa, the number of registered voters in the other 14 countries is 73 million.
“As of 2019, the number of registered voters in Nigeria was 84 million meaning that we have 11 million more voters than the whole of West Africa combined.
“So each time an election is conducted in Nigeria is like you are conducting election for the whole of West Africa. That is the size of the country.”
