INEC to review MoU with NYSC over corps members’ participation in elections

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Friday revealed it is planning to review its Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) on the rules regarding the engagement of corps members as electoral adhoc staff.

The Director General, The Electoral Institute, Dr. Sa’ad Umar Idris made this known on Friday, in Abuja at the Policy Dialogue on “Dynamics of Delegation: Reforms In the Recruitment of Ad-hoc Election Personnel.”

He said: “We (INEC) are going to review the MoU with the NYSC to ensure that the members on election duties are loyal and can be held accountable and punished for their actions.”

He observed that NYSC staff put the reputation of the commission at stake whenever they are on election duty, stressing that obedience to INEC core values, code and conduct is very important.

“When they (corpers) are on the field they are INEC. Whatever the ad hoc staff does it is INEC. Are they loyal to the commission?

Read also: 40-year-old man lands in jail over alleged visa fraud

“We need to interrogate that. We really need to look into the MoU and see are there any mechanism where we can establish the issue of loyalty.

“Can we make them accountable for their actions? Is there any way we can to something in the MoU where we can ensure that they are loyal and when they go wrong the commission can punish them.

“There has to be something where we can hold them accountable to their own actions.”

He added that the commission was also mulling administrative measures of dealing with malfeasance, especially a mechanism for punishment such as denial of discharge certificate and a repeat of the service year.

“Is there any way we can get NYSC to sanction them? Maybe in the MoU of getting the NYSC to extend the service year of that corper, that is a deterrent, for instance.

“We can find a way of getting NYSC to say you repeat your service year or consider you not to have served for that year because you are disgrace to NYSC and disgrace to Nigeria,” he said.

Join the conversation

Opinions

Support Ripples Nigeria, hold up solutions journalism

Balanced, fearless journalism driven by data comes at huge financial costs.

As a media platform, we hold leadership accountable and will not trade the right to press freedom and free speech for a piece of cake.

If you like what we do, and are ready to uphold solutions journalism, kindly donate to the Ripples Nigeria cause.

Your support would help to ensure that citizens and institutions continue to have free access to credible and reliable information for societal development.

Donate Now