My Regret As INEC Chairman – Prof. Jega

The Chairman, Independent National

Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof.

Attahiru Jega, on Monday reviewed his

tenure as the boss of the electoral body

and concluded that his only regret was

that he was unable to create a separate

salary structure for INEC workers.

Jega spoke in Abuja during a retreat

titled, “2015 general elections: Lessons

and the way forward.” which was

organised for the electoral officers of

the commission where the report of the

2015 elections was reviewed.

He said apart from the special salary

issue, the commission under his

leadership performed well.

He said,

“We have done our best as a

commission under very difficult

circumstances and the major regret as

I have always acknowledged is that a

major undertaking we made when we

first resumed at the commission is to

have a separate salary structure for the

members of staff of the commission but

we have not been able to achieve this

“And obviously this is one area where

we still have to do a lot of work and

put in a lot of efforts as we move

towards the future and to improve.

“But apart from that, I don’t think we

have done badly in terms of promoting

the welfare and the wellbeing of the

members of staff.

“We have ensured that salaries were

paid regularly, we have ensured that

there are a lot of opportunities for self

improvement through the organisation

of seminar and workshop with our

partners.”

“Again as I said, we could not have

satisfied the expectations of everybody,

we believe that we have done our best.

I must say that not all of you are happy

with some of the measures that we

have introduced as a commission.

“The restructuring and reorganisation

certainly could not have satisfied

everybody because it required trimming

down the size of the commission and

also redefining schedule of

responsibilities and putting square pegs

in square holes as we called it at that

time.”

Jega, who had insisted that he would

leave INEC after the expiration of his

tenure, said that the 2015 general

elections were better than those of 2011.

He added that there was a lot of room

for improvement and that as the

country prepares for future elections,

the commission must begin to reflect on

what areas of further reforms it should

focus its attention on.