Posted by In light of the nation’s economic hardship, National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) Acting Director-General Christy Ubah has stated that Corps members who will work as ad hoc employees for INEC during this year’s elections should receive better allowances.
According to her, the current allowances are insufficient to support the corps members, so it has become necessary to examine their allowances in light of economic realities.
“In its effort to ensure more corps members participated in the election process, the scheme had concluded plans to resume orientation camp for Batch A Stream 1 in January,” she said when Prof. Mahmood Yakubu paid her a courtesy visit on Friday. “The commission should leverage the orientation course to sensitize the corps members on their roles during the elections.”
According to Ubah, state coordinators have also been instructed to urge corps members to register on the INEC portal for the ad hoc staff assignment. He stated that the initiative has made the corps members aware that their security was already being taken care of.
Without the corps members, Prof. Yakubu, the INEC chairman, argued, it would be challenging to hold elections in the nation.
He stressed that it is now vital to involve the corps members in the conduct of elections and that the commission had incorporated technology into the election process that would require educated and tech-savvy individuals to handle.
The most important aspects of the elections, including performing the voting process at the polling places, compiling the results, and transmitting the results, required Corps members to function, he continued.
Prof. Yakubu said that in order to ensure a seamless process, the commission has engaged Corps members in the interagency consultative group on election security at the state level.
In order to ensure their safety when they returned, he said the commission would provide additional security for the corps members’ lodges while they were participating in the election process on the field.
In light of the country’s security issues, he continued, the commission had also given the corps members assigned to election duty insurance coverage.