•INEC chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu
Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, has defended the commission’s N126 billion budget request for 2025.
Yakubu clarified that N85 billion is earmarked for personnel costs while the remainder will be used to fund electoral activities, reports Saturday Guardian.
The INEC chairman, while defending the 2025 budget proposal before the Joint Committee on Electoral Matters in the National Assembly, said the commission would require about N126bn to fund its activities in 2025 and begin preparation for the 2027 general elections.
But the commission’s request drew public scrutiny with some Nigerians questioning the rationale behind such demand in a non-election year.
Providing clarification on the matter at a consultative meeting with media executives in Abuja on Friday, Yakubu explained that INEC’s budget for 2024 was N40 billion, the same as in 2025 despite the increasing cost of electoral operations.
He stressed that not all the N126 billion would be allocated for elections.
Yakubu explained: “The first point to make here is that our budget for this year is N40 billion. Our budget for last year was also N40 billion. Last year, we managed with what we had at the expense of many critical activities, including the resumption of the continuous voter registration. We simply couldn’t resume the voter registration
“So we asked for N126 billion. We submitted a 15-page document to the joint committee of the National Assembly, giving detailed breakdown, line by line, of the N126 billion. It’s not all the money that is going into election or electoral activities.
“N85 billion is for the payment of personnel costs of INEC for the year. So we basically have a little over N40 billion for electoral activities.”
Yakubu disclosed that INEC has about 15,000 permanent staff, but recruits nearly one million ad hoc staff during elections.
“We have one of the largest workforces in the country at 15,000. So one lawmaker asked, he said, this 15,000, is that the number that you will require for the general election? We said, No. During the general election, we’ll recruit close to a million ad hoc staff.
“Polling units alone in Nigeria, we have about 177,000. And each polling unit is manned by four officials. So, how can 14,000 staff, from the chairman to the watchman, man 177,000 polling units?
“Probably it’s only INEC and the police that have functional offices in all 774 local government areas. Assuming on average we have 12 personnel in each local government, 12 times 774 will automatically translate to 9, 280 staff at local government level alone.
“Then we have 37 state offices and the FCT. We have the electoral institute. We have the INEC headquarters here. We have zonal and sub-zonal stores. We have eight stores nationwide for election materials. So a large chunk of the money actually goes into the payment of personnel salaries.”
The INEC chairman further disclosed that 774 electoral offenders from the 2023 general elections are currently facing prosecution across the country.
Noting that this highlights the challenges the commission is facing in dealing with electoral offences, Yakubu said the recent successful prosecution of a Returning Officer in Akwa Ibom state is a case in point.
He said the Commission has been diligently pursuing the case which arose from the 2019 General Election.
Yakubu said, “In this particular case, it took nearly six years to achieve the successful prosecution at the trial court.
“Through our collaboration with the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA) cases involving 774 alleged offenders from the 2023 General Election are being prosecuted.
“So far, successful prosecutions have been recorded in Kebbi and Kogi States while our collaboration with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on vote-buying has yielded similar results in Lagos, Kwara and Gombe States. Yet, many cases are still pending.
“A major obstacle to the speedy dispensation of justice in this regard is that electoral offences are not time-bound as is the case with post-election offences through the tribunals.
“Furthermore, they are solely prosecuted by the Magistrate and State High Courts in the jurisdiction where the alleged offences are committed. No priority attention is given to such cases as the courts deal with a variety of other cases.”
