The authorities of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) have decided to conduct fresh promotion exams for INEC staffers from levels 15 to 16 and 16 to 17 and the idea is eliciting a lot of reactions among the staffers in the build up to the 2015 general elections.
INEC had conducted a promotion examination in year 2012 but failed to use it for anything, a source told newsmen.
Currently though, Chairman of lNEC, Professor Attahiru Jega, has commissioned a consultant firm to handle the re-evaluation/ promotion examinations, the source explained.
“There is tension and big victimisation going on at the commission but people are afraid of speaking out,” the source said.
Since 2012 when the last promotion exam 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.”
Some staffers of the commission revealed their unhappiness about INEC’s failure to implementation the results of the earlier promotion exam in year 2012. The said that the implementation was greatly skewed to favour a staffers from a particular region of the country. They accused the Jega of “ethnic cleansing” at the commission, pointing out that the last promotion only favoured people from the North West and North East.
They complained that the chairman based his decisions to implement the result to favour the North because of his claims to balance the lopsided nature of employment and promotions into management cadre at the commission, which he claimed favoured the South East and South South zones during the administration of the former chairman, professor Maurice Iwu.
Asking why a fresh promotion exam should be conducted when the last one has not been fully implemented, the staffers accused the Jega of deliberately refusing to promote staffers who are from the South East, South South and North Central zones of the country, from levels 15 to 16 and 16 to 17. They regretted that people from the North West and North East who scored below 60 percent at the 2012 promotion exam were promoted from level 16 to 17, ahead of those from the three other zones who scored 69% and above.
The vexed members of staff warned that the decision to sit on the implementation of the results of the last promotion exams by the leadership of the commission may affect the smooth run of the 2015 general elections. They charged Jega to implement the results before thinking of another promotion exam, stressing that the situation of things at the commission demands that equity must reign for the staff to put in their utmost best in delivering the requirements of conducting a free and fair election.
“Now they are calling us out to write another promotion exam, does this make any sense?” The source quizzed.
“What happened to the results 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 perhaps its implementation will go the way the 2012 exams went.”
INEC director in charge of information, gender and voter education, barrister Oluwole Osaze- Uzzi confirmed the allegation, saying that 2012 promotion results were only implemented in favour of members of staff from a particular zone of the country so as to balance the lopsidedness in the management staff levels of 15 to 16 and 16 to 17 respectively.
“The lack of full implementation of the results of last examination was because there are no vacancies from those states and zones, especially the Southern part of the country,” Uzzi said.
“It is all about federal character. Every state and zone is expected to have equal representation at the management levels of the commission, that is just the reason why some members of staff have remained at their positions for a number of years even after doing very well at the last exams.”
