By Bashir Opaluwa Idris
Nigeria Civil Society situation room in partnership with NESSACTION, has launched the Based on Logistics Project Ahead of Kogi State Governorship election.
NESSACTION is a nonprofit, nongovernmental and nonpartisan organisation mandated to re-emphasize the right to life and right to good governance in societies.
The organization is focused on improving the political and economic participation of citizens and strategically positions Young Women and Men for leadership in Nigeria and diaspora through applied research, field work and collaborative engagements.
Speaking at the occasion in Lokoja, Executive Director of NESSACTION, Ambassador Eniola Cole, said the project will support the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on election logistics tracking by conducting an independent assessment of INEC election logistics processes.
She noted that the project will deploy an innovative technological tool dashboard to support INEC in tracking and monitoring election logistics deployment for identification of challenges by the Based on Logistics technology team deployed to each Local Government for timely resolution by INEC ahead of the election in Kogi State.
According to Ambassador Eniola, the Ello dashboard will be provided as part of NESSACTION technical assistance and provide required data on the state of election logistics and create an avenue for relevant stakeholders to proffer workable solutions post-election.
The Executive Director of NESSACTION maintained that movement of men and materials, sufficiency and adequacy will be tracked from the first port of entry in Kogi State to the Local Government Areas, super registration area centres and sample polling units.
Ambassador Eniola added that election stakeholders including INEC, Civil Societies, Political Parties, Security Agencies and the media, stand to benefit from the Based on Logistics project as lessons will be shared to to address the twenty-four year old challenge of late arrival of men and materials to the polls.
In a message, the Resident Electoral Commissioner in Kogi State, Doctor Hale Longpet said the Commission was eighty percent ready for the off cycle governorship election in Kogi state.
Represented by the Head of Department, Voter Education and Publicity, Haliru Haruna Sule, Doctor Longpet said until the sensitive materials were delivered to the Commission, then would it be able to say it is one hundred percent ready for the election.
Doctor Longpet said logistics had always been a big challenge in the conduct of elections as it borders on the movement of sensitive and non sensitive materials as well as INEC personnel for elections through sometimes very difficult terrains.
