From Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has revealed that it will be requiring over 100,000 duty vehicles and 4,200 boats for the conduct of the 2023 general election.
INEC chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, made the disclosure during the signing of Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the commission and the Road Transport and Marine Workers Union held in Abuja on Tuesday.
He emphasised that the 2023 general election will involve the nationwide deployment of over 1 million personnel and massive quantities of materials twice within a period of two weeks from our State offices to 774 Local Government Areas, 8,809 electoral Wards and 176,846 polling units across the length and breadth of our country.
“It will require over 100,000 vehicles and about 4,200 boats that will be accompanied by naval gunboats. This is a huge undertaking that must be accomplished in the next 66 days and we are resolute in doing so to give Nigerians a pleasant voting experience.
“Let me assure Nigerians that we are determined that all polling units nationwide will open at 8.30am on Saturday, February 25, 2023 for the presidential and National Assembly elections and on Saturday, March 11, 2023 for the Governorship and State House of Assembly elections,” the electoral umpire boss explained.
While defending the decision to sign an MoU, Yakubu said that; “in order to ensure personnel and materials will be at the polling units on Election Day awaiting the arrival of voters rather than the other way round, INEC requires large numbers of vehicles, including motorcycles, tricycles, boats and canoes in the riverine areas which cannot be met from its internal resources.
“It was for this reason that the commission signed the first MoU with the NURTW in January 2015. In order to expand the pool of our service providers to meet the requirement for the increasing number of vehicles, the MoU was reviewed in December 2018 to incorporate NARTO.
“Over the years, the commission has come to rely on the partnership with the NURTW and NARTO to provide vehicles for the successful deployment of electoral personnel and materials.
“However, we did not incorporate the Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria (MWUN) within the ambit of the MoU, a situation which has often resulted in logistics nightmare in the deployment and retrieval of personnel and materials to the riverine areas of the country.
“This oversight is now addressed by the revised MoU to include MWUN comprising of sailors, dockworkers and those in related trades in our electoral logistics planning and delivery,” he explained.
He further revealed that; “in this MoU, the contractual agreement between the commission and the actual service provides will be worked out at the State and LGA level between officials of the Unions and our Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs) and Electoral Officers.”
“The agreement which is legally binding will be based on the actual breakdown of the number of vehicles, tricycles, motorcycles, boats and canoes per State. It is therefore significant that our RECs are present here today to witness the formal signing of the framework that will enable detailed work at State and LGA levels. I am also glad that the Unions are represented by their national leaders and as many of their zonal and State officials,” Yakubu said.
He also made special appeals to the transport unions, noting: “It is our expectation that the leadership of the unions will effectively supervise their members in the various chapters and branches for the full implementation of the MoU. In doing so, you will be required to work very closely with our RECs and collaborate with the Federal Regulatory and Safety Agencies to ensure that the objectives of the MoU are fully realised in terms of required road/sea worthiness and safety standards of your vehicles and boats.
“Furthermore, the knowledge of your members of the routes and topography in various parts of the country is especially important for ease of movement and a timeous and safe delivery of personnel and materials, especially to areas with difficult terrain,” he said.
Interestingly, the leaderships of the transport unions assured that they will do everything to required of them to ensure early delivery of materials on time.