Independent National Electoral Commission takes out life insurance on 1m youth corpers as elections loom

NIGERIA's Independent National Electoral Commission (Inec) has taken out insurance cover for its 1m ad-hoc staff and officials who would participate in the forthcoming general elections including members of the National Youth Service Corp (NYSC).

On February 16, Nigeria will hold presidential and national Assembly elections, followed by gubernatorial and state house of assembly polls on March 3. Inec, who is charged with conducting the elections, will use NYSC members as its ad-hoc staff across all 36 states and has opted to insure them against injury and possible death.

In past polls, particularly in 2011, NYSC members were the target of angry mobs across northern Nigeria, who were angry that their then candidate General Muhammadu Buhari lost the presidential elections. Dozens of corpers were killed during several days of bloody violence and to protect them this time around, Inec is insuring their lives, although the scheme does not cover election observers.

 Inec chairman Professor Mahmoud Yakubu, said: “The sheer number of Nigerians that we require to prosecute elections means we cannot rely only on our staff. The commission has a staff strength of a little over 16,000 and on elections day, we would require the services of over 1m Nigerians.

"We draw most of our ad hoc staff from the National Youth Service Corps, so we insured the corpers and other election duty staff and we would continue to do so. The election cannot be manipulated by political parties reportedly collating the identification numbers of voters."

Rudolph Elbling, the project coordinator of the European Centre for Electoral Support (Eces), said his organisation would continue to partner with Inec in promoting the participation of women, youths, persons living with disabilities and other marginalised groups in the electoral process. He added: “Coming less than two weeks to the elections, it is our expectation that resolutions at this summit will create synergy and strengthen commitment of all stakeholders towards non-violent conduct of the next election.”

Meanwhile, the Inec's deputy director of voter education, Lakunuya Dorothy-Bello, has asked Nigerians to pick up their permanent voter's cards before the closing date. Speaking during a rally on voter education at Wuse market and in Gwagwalada, in the Federal Capital Territory, she also advised voters to shun violence and all forms of electoral malpractices.

Yesterday's rally was organised by Preventing Election Violence and Education for Inclusion in Nigeria in collaboration with Eces, the German embassy, Inec, the Nigeria Women Trust Fund and the Joint National Association of People Leaving with Disabilities. Eces governance adviser Dominique Weerts, noted that the polls provided an opportunity for Nigerians to determine the direction of the country.