Jega sensitises key stakeholders on constituency delimitation
The Chairman of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Attahiru Jega, on Thursday in Enugu sensitised political stakeholders and international experts on the ongoing constituency delimitation exercise.
This is contained in a press release issued by Press Secretary to the commission’s Chairman, Kayode Idowu, in Abuja on Thursday.
Jega said the retreat had become imperative in order to educate the major and critical stakeholders adequately about the exercise.
He identified inadequate public enlightenment as one of the major flaws with previous efforts to review constituency delimitation.
The current delimitation structure is a product of the defunct National Electoral Commission of Nigeria in 1996, under the military regime based on the 1991 census.
The delimitation structure has been criticised on the ground that it does not meet best standards, and it deviated from the population quota as enshrined in the constitution among other imbalances.
Jega said that INEC was committed to eliminating the existing imbalances in line with the constitutional provisions.
According to him, this will go a long way to move the country closer to the global best practice of equal strength for all votes.
He said that the commission was making conscious and deliberate efforts to review the constituencies in order to eliminate, or at least reduce to a minimum level the current imbalances.
According to Jega, since the inauguration of the present commission in June 2010, it had been trying to design and implement necessary initiatives, systems and processes aimed at improving the electoral process.
The chairman said that the retreat was to sensitise stakeholders on the electoral process and provide an environment for robust discussions on the unique aspect of the mandate given to INEC by law.
He said it would also provide an opportunity for sharing of experiences and lessons learnt in some sister African countries, which had recently undertaken review of their electoral constituencies.
The chairman expressed the hope that the retreat would afford participants better understanding of the subject matter and give insight into the road map to the defined goal.
Jega urged the key stakeholders to find better ways to ensure the successful review of the electoral constituencies.
A similar retreat was held in Sokoto in early April, with the Senate and House of Representatives committees on INEC.
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