PARTNERSHIP WITH THE NATIONAL POPULATION COMMISSION IS A CONSTITUTIONAL NECESSITY- INEC
Oru Leonard
The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), in NIgeria, Professor Mahmood Yakubu has said that the duties and responsibilities of the two Commissions under the Constitution has made the existing partnership necessary.
Prof Yakubu stated this during a courtesy call by the Chairman of the National Population Commission (NPC), to INEC headquarters today.
He noted that over the years, INEC has established collaboration and strategic partnership with the Population Commission noted, “In carrying out our statutory duty to organise, undertake and supervise elections, “INEC is charged with the responsibility of reviewing the division of the States of the Federation into Senatorial Districts, Federal and State constituencies as well as Wards in the Area Councils of the Federal Capital Territory. The Commission is mandated to do so at an interval of not less than ten years or by reason of creation of States, pursuant to an Act of the National Assembly or in consequence of a population census in Nigeria. On the other hand, NPC is required, among its many responsibilities, to undertake the enumeration of the people of Nigeria periodically through census and to provide information and data on the country’s population to facilitate national planning and economic development.
“I am glad to report that over the years, the two Commissions have embarked on one of the most imaginative and extensive inter-agency collaborations in Nigeria, in the area of delimitation of boundaries of electoral constituencies. Over the years, officials of the two Commissions undertook a joint project to demarcate the boundaries of INEC’s Registration Areas (RAs)/Wards with NPC’s Enumeration Areas (EAs). This initiative is known as the RA/EAD Project”, Yakubu stated.
He further said the idea is to enable INEC to easily delimit and periodically review Electoral Constituencies based on NPC’s figures whenever there is a new population census and so far, within the framework of the RA/EAD project, INEC and NPC has jointly covered 261 LGAs nationwide.
He reassured the NPC that INEC shall continue to strengthen the existing collaboration and also explore other areas of cooperation to enable them serve Nigerians better.
