2015: Promotion scandal rocks INEC

2015 general elections appear to be under threat as some senior officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, vested with the responsibility of planning and implementing the vote, are enmeshed in a dispute with the Chairman of the Commission, Prof.  Attahiru Jega.

The affected staff, who had taken their promotion examination since May 2012 and had been expecting their promotion letters having passed the test, are angry that the Commission has not only  withheld the result but has also gone ahead to use extraneous criteria to promote selected staff from some states in the country.

The action has given rise to the fear that some staff are systematically being positioned to give a section of the country undue advantage in the 2015 presidential election.

“The structure of the place (INEC) remains skewed, biased and worrisome as we approach 2015. Promotion has been swayed more by regional control of the place to the extent that the criteria are not certain. Recently, at a meeting, a suggestion was put forward for what was termed ‘special promotion’ without giving details of what constitutes special promotion and if there is any promotion in the civil service called by such name. It all turned out to be more people from a section of the country who would be promoted.

It  is still in the cooler because it could not be defended but the move may come under a new strategy”, a source said.

Findings by Sunday Vanguard revealed that apart from scoring a minimum of 60 percent in the May 2012 promotion exam, INEC also considered state quota in promoting most of the 669 senior staff who took the exam and were recommended for promotion.

Trouble  started when some of the affected staff awaiting their promotion letters got to know that they had been stagnated because of what INEC described as “lack of vacancies in the affected employees’ states”.

On the promotion list, which Sunday Vanguard sighted,  last night, some staff who scored 60 percent in the examination were recommended for elevation while others who scored 67 percent were stagnated because there were ‘’no vacancies” in their states.

Some of the aggrieved workers have, however, dismissed the claim of  lack of  vacancies as an afterthought by the electoral body’s  authorities  to deny them career advancement since the issue was not a criterion before the examination was set.

Their grouse is that Jega invented a ‘strange rule’ to promote people in some states to the detriment of those from other states who passed the examination in flying colours.

The breakdown  in some states shows that the staff  from many states were denied promotion because of their number. For instance, of the 15 senior staff  from Abia State recommended for elevation, only three were denied  due to lack of vacancies.

Only eight of the 30 staff of Akwa Ibom origin in INEC,who were successful in the exam, were promoted due to the fact that the state has had it’s fair share in the Commission.

Similarly, in Anambra, only nine persons out of 25 who passed the test  were promoted. The situation was the same in Imo, where only seven out of 37 were lifted to their new ranks while six were elevated out of 17 who made it in Benue.

But some states were lucky. Lagos got 12 out of 12, Delta got all its 11 workers lifted, Zamfara, all four, Yobe, all eight, Sokoto got all seven recommended, Ekiti,  nine,  Nasarawa, all seven, Gombe seven, and Taraba, all 12. Bayelsa, Ondo, Enugu and Kebbi got close to getting all that was recommended for promotion in those states.

Only one out of the nine recommended for elevation in Bayelsa did not get it just as two out of 13 in Jigawa lost  out. ”0ur worry is that the chairman is inventing a segregative measures to favour those he likes and stagnate the others from certain states in the country”, one of the aggrieved INEC staff said.




Read more: http://kaaf.com/2013/03/2015-Promotion-scandal-rocks-INEC-311321