The Independent National Electoral Commission has denied stories that poor funding has stalled its activities. The commission said the federal government has always released money for its programmes according to its requests.

The commission’s chairman, Attahiru Jega, who spoke through his aide, Kayode Idowu, however refused to disclose how much had been released to it so far.

A member of the House of Representatives had last week told journalists that the minister of finance, Olusegun Aganga, told a committee of the house that the federal government was unable to release the N87 billion allocated to the commission because government was broke.

Mr. Aganga who later denied making such a statement said although budget cuts had been made across board, the federal government was far from broke. “The fact is that in spite of the recent budget cuts, capital expenditure for this year still comes in at about N1.5 trillion which is more than double what was spent last year.”

On the right course

Although the electoral commission will not say exactly how much money it has collected from the federal government, Mr Idowu said the electoral body has received “what it asked for, for now”.

“I cannot say exactly how much INEC has received, but I can say that INEC has received what it asked for, for now,” Mr. Idowu said, refusing to give further details. Nigerians were concerned when stories spread that the commission had not received enough funds to handle the projects for a new voters register despite the fact that N87 billion was approved for it.

While denying that dwindling revenues has affected the government’s funding of the electoral body, Mr. Aganga disclosed last week that INEC has received N56 billion out of N87.7 billion expected for the exercise, contradicting an earlier statement that the money has been released in full after President Goodluck Jonathan signed the Electoral Act into law.

A source has quoted Mr. Aganga as explaining to the house committee on Works that a severe cash crunch had hit ongoing road projects and hampered the release of funds to the electoral body. He reportedly said that

only N16 billion had been released to INEC by last week.

Shy on details

Responding to inquiries from NEXT at the weekend, INEC said it will neither confirm nor dispute the figures. Mr. Idowu said he is not at liberty to say the exact amount given to the commission but confirmed that the funding was being made in batches as mutually agreed.

“I was assured by the chairman that INEC has from government, depending on the funding plan, what it asked for,” he said. He also denied that funding shortfall caused the delay in the official release of elections schedule, that is “absolutely false”.




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