INEC charts new course on information management reforms

Tunde Opalana, Abuja

As the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is determined to reform the electoral process ahead of future polls in the country, there is a need to chart a new course on information management.

This was as the commission acknowledged that part of the challenges it faced during the 2019 general election revolve around information management.

To this effect, INEC is presently harnessing the lessons from the 2019 general election and harvesting positive recommendations aimed at improving subsequent elections.

National Commissioner and Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee, Festus Okoye, said this at the opening of a 4- day workshop on media monitoring for INEC publicity officers in Abuja on Monday.

The workshop is aimed at increasing understanding of new issues, challenges and possibilities in the media and how to harness such possibilities and arrest negative perception relating to the work of the commission and build a positive image for INEC and its work.

According to Okoye, challenges faced by INEC during the course of the 2019 elections “revolve around strategic communication. It revolved around managing public perception around the processes and procedures of the commission. It revolved around the calibre and knowledge of the staff saddled with managing its image and communicating to and with the public. It revolved around making information available to the media in real time to avoid speculation, rumour mongering and fake news”.

The commission, he said, has consistently tried its best to provide information to the media, has been upfront in media appearances and in some instances providing education on novel and unclear areas of the electoral process.

This, he said, demands that the spokespersons of the commission “must be conversant with the happening in the commission, must be conversant with its laws and procedures, must be conversant with its processes and procedures, must listen to the radio and the television, must read newspapers of different qualities and varieties.”

In addition, he said INEC information officers “must access the social media platforms and understand the thinking of the different segments of the populace and their views about the electoral process, must decipher manipulated information from outright fake news, must understand when information is skewed and slanted to appeal to a constituency or achieve a particular result or outcome, must know when a report or opinion is based on outright ignorance.”

He said these must be turned into actionable recommendations for better image management and policy formulation and charged the information officers to improve upon their knowledge as knowledge is central to communication.

He said: “You cannot counter falsehood or fake news when you are bereft of knowledge. Some of our staff have modern communication gadgets in their offices and yet are not interested in them and hardly know how to operate them.

“Some of our staff are availed with the constitution, the Electoral Act, 2010 (as amended), the regulations and guidelines of the commission and other manuals and frameworks are yet to not make efforts to read and understand these documents.

“Society is dynamic and the laws must change and move with the dynamics of the society.”

The commission, he said, appreciates the collaborative partnership existing between it and the European Centre for Electoral Support (ECES) targeted at strengthening the processes of the commission, promoting Nigeria’s electoral process and deepening of her democracy.

He said the establishment of a world class media monitoring centre at the INEC headquarters is no doubt a testimony to this collaborative effort.