The rot in Iwu’s INEC
RECENTLY some
concerned staff of
Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) wrote a letter of petition dated October 17, 2007, to the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Alhaji Babagana Kingibe, appealing to him to save them from Professor Maurice Iwu, the chairman of the commission.
Their major grievance is the non-fulfillment of his numerous promises to improve their welfare. Among these are: refusal to pay the promised new remuneration, failure to implement new duty travel allowance, non-challant attitude to the promised provision of housing facilities and lack of provision of car loan.
To worsen the situation was the recent recruitment exercise embarked upon a few days before and after the 2007 general election. The exercise was done without any respect for the principle of federal character. About 45% of the successful candidates are from the same zone with the chairman. Apart from this, no recourse was made to the Civil Service Rule in placing the candidates on grade levels. There were instances where fresh graduates without the required cognate experience were placed between GL09 and GL12 while many old graduates without the required cognate experience were also placed between GL10 and GL14 depending on the muscle of the personality that brought them in. There are some powerful commissioners and directors whose children are still in schools and yet, draw salaries from the purse of the commission as full fledge members of staff.
Consequent upon the above scenario, some staff who feel cheated and believe in the dictum that “if you cannot beat them you have to join them” have also resorted to uncivil methods to get undue promotion through the back door, in which surprisingly, many people were able to get it.
In addition to this, is how conversion from one cadre to another is being handled. In INEC, it is possible for someone who is either a typist, a secretary, or a clerk today, to emerge tomorrow with a letter of conversion to administrative cadre upon completion of “university or polytechnic” education and be placed above or at par with his or her erstwhile boss. This is made possible through the monkey business in the administrative department where it is possible to change a man into a woman once money exchange hands.
Many staff of the commission are suffering in silence while many of them across the nation are striving to make ends meet as a result of the callous attitude of their leaders to their plight. It is not indubitable that anybody working with such an organisation deserves to be treated in a way that will not make the desperate politicians “buy” them over. INEC staff deserve special salary scale as it is being enjoyed by other agencies that are saddled with sensitive national assignments.
Conclusively, no amount of electoral reform will change the usual election fraud unless the welfare of those who conduct and count election results are improved.
Ibrahim Salisu Aliyu,
16, Temidire Street,
Ikate, Surulere,
Lagos.
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