INEC offers assistance to AU, ECOWAS

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has said that it would soon sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the African Union (AU) and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) on technical assistance to the two continental bodies.

INEC said the technical assistance would be offered to the two bodies through its Electoral Institute.
Director General of the Electoral Institute, Professor Abubakar Momoh, disclosed

this at a two-day Certified Trainers workshop organized by TEI and International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) on Wednesday in Abuja.
Momoh told participants, who were drawn from different departments of the commission, that “the training was the first in a series aimed at putting everyone on the same page and ensuring that there was a pool of trained and certified personnel that could be called upon at anytime as trainers to be deployed.”
INEC’s bulletin reported that the institute’s boss had reiterated “the commission’s confidence in its effort at building capacity and technical skills for staff to strengthen the electoral process thus far, assuring that Nigeria stood out in building technical competencies among electoral institutions in West African countries.”
Momoh added “when the MoU with the international organizations are eventually signed, certified trainers could be deployed to any country.”
IFES Country Director, represented by deputy Country Director, Uloma M Osuala, while appreciating the support and co-operation of INEC, said the training was the beginning of several courses IFES and TEI would be organizing in a bid to ensure that the electoral process was strengthened.