…NURTW, NARTO, MWUN included
…requires 100,000 vehicles, 4,200 boats
Nigeria’s Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is leaving no stone unturned in its bid to deliver free, fair and credible elections in 2023.
The electoral umpire on Tuesday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with road and marine transport unions to facilitate successful deployment of personnel and materials during the polls slated for 25 February (presidential and National Assembly) and 11 March 2023 (governorship and Houses of Assembly).
Mahmood Yakubu, INEC chairman, signed the MoU with presidents of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), National Association of Road Transport Owners (NARTO), and the Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria (MWUN) in the presence of INEC national commissioner, resident electoral commissioners (RECs), secretary of the commission and development partners.
The agreement is in recognition of the critical role transportation plays in the conduct of elections in Nigeria where sensitive and non-sensitive electoral materials will have to be moved around across the country.
For the 2023 general election, Yakubu said over 1 million personnel and massive quantities of materials would have to be deployed twice within a period of two weeks from INEC’s state offices to 774 local government areas, 8,809 electoral wards and 176,846 polling units across the country. This would require over 100,000 vehicles and about 4,200 boats that will be accompanied by naval gunboats.
“This is a huge undertaking that must be accomplished in the next 66 days and we are resolute in doing so to give Nigerians a pleasant voting experience,” Yakubu said during the signing ceremony in Abuja.
Early arrival of materials to polling units has always been a challenge during elections in Nigeria, but this time, the INEC chief has assured of the commission’s determination to see that polling units nationwide open at 8:30 a.m. on the election day.
“In order to ensure that personnel and materials will be at the polling units on election day awaiting the arrival of voters rather than the other way round, INEC requires large numbers of vehicles, including motorcycles, tricycles, boats and canoes in the riverine areas which cannot be met from its internal resources,” Yakubu said.
He said it was for this reason that the commission signed the first MoU with the NURTW in January 2015 and, subsequently, in 2018, prior to the 2019 general elections.
“In order to expand the pool of our service providers to meet the requirement for the increasing number of vehicles, the MoU was reviewed in December 2018 to incorporate NARTO. Over the years, the commission has come to rely on the partnership with the NURTW and NARTO to provide vehicles for the successful deployment of electoral personnel and materials,” Yakubu said.
Whereas previous agreements did not incorporate the Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria (MWUN), often resulting in logistics nightmare in the deployment and retrieval of personnel and materials to the riverine areas of the country, the revised MoU now includes MWUN comprising sailors, dockworkers, and those in related trades, he said.
“The signing of a revised MoU with the road and marine transport unions today [Tuesday] is a demonstration of our determination to implement key recommendations of the review exercise in order to enhance forward and reverse logistics in our electoral operations,” he said.
Yakubu said the latest MoU is a general framework, but the contractual agreement between the commission and the transport unions would be worked out at the state level between officials of the unions and RECs and electoral officers.
He said it was expected that the leadership of the unions would effectively supervise their members in the various chapters and branches to fully implement the MoU.
“In doing so, you will be required to work very closely with our Resident Electoral Commissioners and collaborate with the federal regulatory and safety agencies to ensure that the objectives of the MoU are fully realised in terms of required road/seaworthiness and safety standards of your vehicles and boats,” he said.
The INEC chairman disclosed that the commission would electronically track the movement of all vehicles and boats in real-time to ensure that election personnel and materials are not diverted.
He warned that everyone involved in election duties, including motorists who will deliver electoral logistics, must abide by the commission’s oath of neutrality, assuring that security operatives would be on ground to escort all vehicles and boats to all locations to ensure safety and protection of election personnel and materials.
He urged transport union leaders to adhere to the MoU to avoid the ugly experience of the past regarding logistics delivery.
