INEC chairman inaugurates strategic planning committee

Ahead next general elections, national. chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Mahmood Yakubu on Monday inaugurated a Strategic Planning Committee.

Tagged, 2022-2026 Strategic Planning Committee, the 13- man team has one of the national Commissioners, Air Vice Marshal, Ahmad Muazu (rtd) as chairman.

Inaugurating the team, Professor Yakubu noted that there must be adequate preparations ahead of the 2023 general elections and off-season governorship elections.

He said the initiative was informed by the need to identify all events, programs and actions that needed to be implemented before the 2023 general election.

He said: “I am happy that this is the third time in the history of the commission that such a committee is integrated since the beginning of the era of deliberate planning for elections.

“The Commission believes that we can’t approach election management on an ad hoc basis, but rather, we must deliberately plan for elections. So the commission produces a strategic plan to cover the period of 2012 to 2016. And then we reviewed the plan to cover the period 2017 to 2021. And now we’re reviewing the plan again, to cover the period 2022 to 2026.

“This plan will form the basis set for the full formulation of the election project plan for the 2023 general election. It will also help the commission to identify all events, programs and actions that needed to be implemented before the 2023 general election. It will also help us to track the offseason, governorship elections taking place between this year 2021 and 2023 to ensure that these elections are also properly implemented.

“As you are aware, there are three such elections. The first one for which are already issued and released the timetable and schedule of activities in the Anambra governorship election taking place in November this year.

“Then next year, we have two off-season governorship elections, in Ekiti to be followed by the governorship election in Osun State.

“And then both the strategic plan and the election project plan will enable the commission to monitor all the processes through our election management system platforms. So this is a very important exercise for the commission to be undertaken.”

Chairman of the electoral operations and logistics committee of the Commission, Okechukwu Ibianu, who represented AVM Muazu at the event assured that the team would deliver on the task it has been saddled with.

“The chairman has correctly noted the importance and critical part that planning plays today in the work of the Commission, not just in terms of the broader strategic planning, but also the election project plan.

“The Commission now deliberately formulates these plans to make sure that activities are properly programmed and sequenced and also to enable the commission properly audit its activities and measure the level of success that it records. It also gives the commission an opportunity, to plan for the future so to speak. So, this is a very critical part of the work of the commission now, and members of the committee will not take this responsibility, lightly,” he said.

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