Prof. Jega: "My regret as INEC Chairman"

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.

[Punch]