INEC, Stakeholders, Begin Strategic Plans, December

The Chairman, Independent Electoral Commission’s  (INEC),  Prof. Attahiru Jega, says  political stakeholders will meet next month to validate the commissions’ strategic plan.

He said this in Abuja during a courtesy call on him by Mr William Sweemy, the President, International Federation for Electoral Systems (IFES).

Our correspondent reports that the commission embarked on the plan to give INEC staff proper and appropriate direction in executing their statutory role to ensure a valued service delivery.

According to him, the commission will commence the by next year and end it by 2015.

Prof Jega said that the commission had been repositioned in response to emerging challenges such as strategic planning process, re-orgernisation process.

He added that INEC had been preoccupied with the task of executing programmes and projects targeted at bringing substantial improvement into the Nigerian electoral process.

Prof Jega said in spite of the challenges facing its operations, INEC had made remarkable progress, adding that the organisation had been working harder to sustain its performance.

Earlier, Sweemy, commended INEC for achieving “laudable feet’’ during the 2011 general elections in the country.

He said that no fewer than 60 members of IFES commended the achievements of the commission and believed that the April 2011 presidential election was a major step forward in advancing Nigeria’s democracy.

Sweemy said Jega and his team had made great strides in improving the quality of Nigerian electoral system, saying that the organisation deserved credit for the feat it achieved “within a short time’’.

He said the fact that Nigerians could exercise their right to vote and made sure that their votes were counted had proved that “democracy had come to stay in Nigeria’’.