• SSS cautions Jega on recruitment of ad hoc staff
• Commission’s staff rise against chairman
A double whammy is being served the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) with reports of a planned infiltration by Boko Haram and rising opposition against Attahiru Jega by senior staff for asking them to take another promotion examination.
Discontent over the test may disrupt preparations for the elections in February 2015, which are just six months away.
And even if that problem is solved, a bigger trouble may sprout as the State Security Service (SSS) has informed Jega of a plot by Boko Haram to infiltrate the INEC to destabilise the ballot.
The jihadists plan to penetrate the INEC with female suicide bombers disguised as ad hoc electoral staff.
Boko Haram’s greater ambitions
Boko Haram leader, Abubakar Shekau, with Amoured Personnel Carrier
Boko Haram has become highly ambitious and hardened in its resolve to destabilise Nigeria – to replicate what its Arab counterpart, the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS), has achieved by capturing a string of Iraqi towns and parts of Syria which it renamed ‘the Islamic State’.
Boko Haram has infiltrated Nigeria’s security system, judging from the success of its operations in the North East, even in the face of emergency rule and government troops everywhere.
The Islamic sect has also expanded its attacks across the borders to the heart of Cameroon and Niger.
The presidential and National Assembly (NASS) elections are scheduled for February 14, 2015 and governorship and state Assembly elections for February 28. But Boko Haram seems determined not to let that happen.
Jega meets RECs over Boko Haram
Prof Attahiru Jega, INEC chairman.
A highly placed source in the INEC told TheNiche that Jega held a security meeting with his Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs) in Abuja last week.
He reportedly told them that he received a letter from the DSS which said Boko Haram had perfected a plan to embed its female members in the INEC as ad hoc staff ahead of the elections.
The INEC uses members of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) as ad hoc staff for elections.
But because the number of NYSC members usually falls short of requirement, plus the fact that they are currently not serving in the high security risk states of Borno, Yobe, Adamawa and Bauchi, the INEC may recruit ad hoc personnel from other sources.
Boko Haram, it was learnt, wants to exploit that window by presenting its female suicide bombers for recruitment and use them to cause pandemonium during the elections.
Jega told the RECs to be vigilante on how they recruit ad hoc staff for the 2015 general elections, the source said.
INEC dismisses possible Boko Haram infiltration
But his spokesman, Kayode Idowu, riposted that he was not aware of a meeting called specifically to discuss Boko Haram’s infiltration.
Idowu also denied knowledge of any letter written by the DSS to the INEC, stressing that the commission only engages NYSC members as ad hoc staff.
But he confirmed that there have been meetings on the security of the 2015 elections.
However, a DSS source, who spoke on condition of anonymity on Friday, August 1, confirmed that a high level security memo was written to the INEC.
“Our intelligence on Boko Harm picked that they are plotting to infiltrate the INEC through ad hoc staff.
“So, we wrote to alert the INEC leadership that we are not sleeping,” he told TheNiche.
Staff discontent
What is not denied, however, is that INEC senior staff on Grade Levels 15 to 17 are grumbling and gearing up for a showdown with Jega for insisting that they write a fresh examination to qualify for promotion.
He has commissioned a consultant to handle the new test, even as the full implementation of the last one is in limbo.
Grouse over previous test
The staff are grumbling that Jega has not fully implement the result of the last promotion examination conducted in 2012.
The employees, who pleaded not to be named, complained that the test taken two years ago favoured mainly those from the North.
They alleged that Jega implemented the result of the last examination to favour people from the North East and North West because of his claim to balance the organogram fostered by his predecessor, Maurice Iwu, which he said favoured the South East and South South.
Ethnic cleansing allegation
They accused Jega of ethnic cleansing, questioning the rationale for another test when the result of the last one has not been fully implemented.
It is alleged that he has placed an embargo on the promotion of staff from the South East, South South and North Central from Grade Levels 15 to 16 and 16 to 17 while those from the North East and North West are being promoted.
According to the employees, those from the North East and North West who scored below 60 per cent in the last examination were promoted from level 16 to 17 but promotion was denied those from the South East and South South who scored 69 per cent and above.
The protesters warned that the partial implementation of the result of the last test may affect the elections next year because they will not be willing to put in their best.
They urged Jega to implement it in full before conducting another examination.
One confided that “there is tension and big victimisation going on at the commission but people are afraid of speaking out.
“Since 2012 when the last promotion examination was conducted, a good number of those who were successful have remained at their old levels simply because they do not come from the favoured geo-political zones of the country.
“The management has refused to promote those of us from the South who passed the exam because they claim that they are balancing the lopsided nature of employment and promotion to the management cadre.
“Under this claim, some people from the North East and North West who scored far below those from the South have been promoted from levels 15 to 16 and 16 to 17.
“Jega has completely placed a promotion embargo on members of staff from the South East, South South and North Central.
“People have remained at a particular level in this commission for over 10 years, while others have been receiving rapid promotion because of the section of the country they come from.
“Now they are calling us out to write another promotion exam, does this make any sense? What happened to the result of the last exam?
“They should first act on that and implement it to the full rather than spending another money to conduct a fresh exam, which implementation may go the way the 2012 exam went.”
INEC justifies promotions
INEC Director (Information, Gender and Voter Education) Oluwole Osaze-Uzzi, confirmed that the result of the examination conducted in 2012 was implemented in favour of those from the North East and North West to balance the lopsided promotion of staff from Grade Level 15 to 16 and 16 to 17.
Others were not promoted because there is no vacancy in the slots for their states and zones, he said.
Osaze-Uzzi, from Edo State, explained that a second examination is being planned because some states are yet to fill their quotas on those levels.
His words: “Certain programmes have been cancelled at the commission because of the ongoing promotion exams. The lack of full implementation of the result of the last examination is because there are no vacancies from those states and zones, especially the Southern part of the country.
“It is all about federal character. Every state and zone is expected to have equal representation at the management level of the commission. That is just the reason some members of staff have remained at their positions for a number of years, even after doing very well in the last exam.”
INEC to address journalists’ complaints
In another development, Osaze-Uzzi has appealed to journalists to join hands with the INEC to serve the interest of Nigerians better.
He made the plea when he met with the INEC press corps in Abuja on Thursday, July 31, where he promised to address complaints by journalists that their access to the commission has been hindered since Jega assumed office.
