By Harry Awurumibe, Editor Abuja Bureau
To ensure that the 2023 general election is not marred by late delivery of electoral personnel and materials on election days, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has signed a revised Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the road and marine transport unions in Nigeria designed to facilitate the successful deployment of personnel and materials for the 2019 General Election and other elections.
The three unions that signed the MoU with INEC at the event held at Johnwood Hotels, Abuja on Tuesday are the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW),
National Association of Road Transport Owners (NARTO) and Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria (MWUN).
Speaking at the signing ceremony, INEC Chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu said the event is a demonstration of the Commission’s determination to implement key recommendations of the review exercise carried out after the 2019 general election in order to enhance forward and reverse logistics in INEC’s electoral operations.
According to him the 2023 general election will involve the nationwide deployment of over 1 million personnel and massive quantities of materials twice within a period of two weeks from our State offices to 774 Local Government Areas, 8,809 electoral Wards and 176,846 polling units across the length and breadth of our country.
Yakubu also disclosed that it will require over 100,000 vehicles and about 4,200 boats that will be accompanied by naval gunboats, pointing out that: “this is a huge undertaking that must be accomplished in the next 66 days and we are resolute in doing so to give Nigerians a pleasant voting experience”.
“Let me assure Nigerians that we are determined that all polling units nationwide will open at 8.30am on Saturday, 25th February 2023 for the Presidential and National Assembly elections and on Saturday, 11th March 2023 for the Governorship and State House of Assembly elections”, the INEC boss assured.
Explaining further he said that the Commission is doing everything humanly possible to avoid any last minute hiccup as witnessed once in the last election circle and will like to plug all the loopholes that can derail the preparations already made for a free, fair, credible and inclusive polls in 2023.
Said he: “Four years ago on 12th December 2018, we signed a memorandum of understanding with two transport unions, the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) and the National Association of Road Transport Owners (NARTO).
“The MoU was based on the realisation of the critical role of transportation in the conduct of elections in Nigeria. The MoU was designed to facilitate the successful deployment of personnel and materials for the 2019 General Election and other elections.
“Following these elections, we undertook a comprehensive review to learn critical lessons in planning for the 2023 General Election and beyond.
“The signing of a revised MoU with the road and marine transport unions today is a demonstration of our determination to implement key recommendations of the review exercise in order to enhance forward and reverse logistics in our electoral operations”.
Those who witnessed the signing ceremony are Regional Director, Ford Foundation,
Country Director of ActionAid Nigeria,
Representative of the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES), Representative of the Commonwealth Development Office and the
representatives of Civil Society Organisations (CSO) led by Mrs. Ene Obi.
