The poor treatment of INEC ad hoc staff

ONE of the negative spin-offs of the February 16 botched elections was the poor and shameful treatment of the ad hoc staff, including the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members drafted by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). These young men and women from across the country were called upon as usual to provide critical services for the smooth conduct of the elections by INEC at patently less than market value of such services. The services of the ad hoc staff embody some form of sacrifice and the least that is expected of INEC is to treat them well. Even in an emergency circumstance such that led to the postponement of the elections, INEC was still obligated to ensure that the security and the already ‘downgraded comfort’ of the ad hoc staff were not compromised.

However, reports from across the country indicated that the ad hoc staff who had moved to the area where they were to carry out the election assignment were left stranded as soon as it was becoming clear that the elections would not hold. Most were to sleep on mats but the election having been postponed, the mats were reportedly taken away from them. But where specifically were the ad hoc staff supposed to spread the mats and sleep?  Was it in the classrooms of the usually dilapidated public schools across the country?  And why take those mats away? Was it that the postponement of the election also meant postponement of sleep for the ad hoc staff?  Or must the postponement of the elections necessarily occasion intolerable discomfort for the ad hoc staff? Many of the staff reportedly had to sleep on the bare floor and many others on the lawn where they were exposed to harsh weather elements.

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The young men and women were not even paid, unlike members of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) who were also engaged by INEC to provide transportation services. They were practically left in the lurch. Human beings are not supposed to be treated that way. It smacked of insensitivity and even cruelty to leave the ad hoc staff to their own devices in a terrain that many of them were not familiar with.  Clearly, funding was not one of the challenges that INEC had to contend with but its attitude in the handling of the emergency, especially the treatment of the ad hoc staff, tended to suggest, albeit erroneously, that it was not adequately resourced by the state.  However, what came clearly to the fore, and sadly so, was that INEC did not include scenarios building  in its strategy because as soon as certain variables failed to assume the expected values in its equation, its entire plan fell through. The reality is that in the crucible world of action, the postponement of the elections was an element in the universal set of the possible outcomes.

And it was expected that INEC should have competently and proactively prepared for that, so that in the event of an undesirable outcome, physical, financial and emotional costs could be minimised. To be sure, it is well appreciated that managing 84 million registered voters, 120,000 polling units  and one million ad hoc staff could  not possibly be a piece of cake. But these challenges are not entirely new and elections had been conducted under them before now and so they should have been reflected in the planning. And theoretically, that is why INEC is usually staffed with experienced and supposedly competent personnel who know their onions and possess the requisite acumen and skill sets to execute the often difficult assignment that the conduct of elections has often proved to be in the country. And in any case, the electoral body had almost 48 months to prepare.

We are aware that while seemingly adequate planning may not totally mitigate the consequences thrown up by unforeseen circumstances, it can rein in the effects significantly.  Did INEC give any thought to the possibility that the appalling treatment could even have compromised the temporary staff? The point we make is that the complete abandonment and shameful treatment of the ad hoc staff consequent on the postponement of the February 16 elections clearly belied any claim of a well-thought-out plan by INEC. And that was most unfortunate. Society cannot grow when people are treated in this shameful manner. It is imperative and in the interest of the country that those who make sacrifices for the good of the society are officially appreciated, well treated and compensated.