TheCable

Mahmood Yakubu, chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), says the commission is the most improved public institution in Nigeria.

He made the claim at the 2019 post-election review session with second batch of electoral officers (EOs) from 17 states, held in Abuja on Wednesday.

Yakubu said the commission should be rated highly when compared with its counterparts across West Africa, given its area of wide coverage and “staff dedication” to duty.

“Whenever I compare what we have done with what my colleagues elsewhere have done, I sometimes say we are many countries in West Africa rolled into one,” he said.

“Given the size of our voter registration, our population, one can conveniently say, if you look at what happened in our elections from 1999 to date, I have no doubt in my mind that INEC is the most improved public service institution in Nigeria.

“We have offices in all the local government areas (LGAs). Tell me one agency which has offices in LGAs and the staff work as hard as our EOs and staff at the LGA levels?

“We have everything to be very proud of, but however, we never rest on the understanding that we have done very well and we are doing very well. We are convinced that we can do more.

“Therefore, the purpose of this interactive meeting is for us to explore ways and means by which we can improve the system even more.”

Yakubu pledged that the commission would not loose the experience it had gathered over the year on improving electoral process.

He advised the electoral officers to share their experiences to help improve on the country’s electoral process.

“So, feel free to make suggestions, observations, comments on how we can make the system even better,” he said.

“This is our meeting we should open up better where we need to work even harder to make the electoral process what it should be.”