ELECTIONS: INEC TO DEPLOY 707,384 PRESIDING OFFICERS, SAYS FUEL SCARCITY MAY AFFECT LOGISTICS

The present fuel crisis in Nigeria will have an impact on the logistics and planning for the general elections on February 25 and March 11. This is according to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

This fear was expressed by Mahmood Yakubu, the chairman of INEC, during a consultative meeting with representatives from the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) and the Nigerian Association of Road Transport Owners (NARTO) on Tuesday in Abuja.

Yakubu said, “The commission shares your concern about the fuel situation in the country and its impact on transportation on election day.

“The truth is that our arrangement may be negatively affected by the non-availability of products.

“For this reason, the commission will this afternoon meet the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited to look into ways to ameliorate this situation.”

The INEC chairman further urged the transporter to be impartial and unbiased ax they transport INEC officials to and from polling units.

He stated that no INEC or adhoc personnel would be permitted to go outside of their local governments and that no interstate travel would be permitted.

The general elections, which will start on February 25, will use 707,384 presiding officers, according to the Independent National Electoral Commission.

The committee added that because electoral education was crucial, it needed to be incorporated into Nigeria’s primary schools’ National Values Curriculum.

Festus Okoye, National Commissioner of INEC and Chairman of its Information and Voter Education Committee, made these remarks at the public unveiling of the primary school Electoral Education Curriculum and Teachers’ Guide.

Okoye said, “We believe that electoral education is important in the goals of our nation. Electoral education is a specialized area and that is why we have this curriculum being infused into the National Values Curriculum in our primary schools.

“For instance, for the 2023 general elections in Nigeria, the commission will deploy a total of 707, 384 presiding officers and assistant presiding officers.

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“These presiding officers will be drawn from the crop of young men and women doing their National Youth Service Corps, while the assistant presiding officers will be drawn from students from federal tertiary institutions.

“It is therefore important for us to understand the importance of electoral education in the development of our democracy.

“A national civic education curriculum and teachers’ guide with a specific focus on electoral education will prepare our children for the challenges ahead and also prepare them on how to respect other people’s races and also prepare them to assume leadership in future.”