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.
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