Comment: D-G, THE ELECTORAL INSTITUTE Even as the Secretary to the Commission, Mrs Augusta Chinwe Ogakwu, was being inaugurated with aplomb and pageantry at the Commission’s headquarters in Maitama, Abuja, another ceremony, quiet and without circumstance, was taking place at the Commission’s annex on Airport Road, Abuja: The new Director-General of The Electoral Institute (TEI), Professor Abubakar Momoh, was assuming office. The unobtrusiveness with which Professor Momoh assumed office on 1st August 2013 does not detract from the significance of the Institute or his exalted position. The Electoral Institute was conceived to train electoral administrators. But like the proverbial mustard seed, it has grown by leaps and bounds and has become central to the training needs of the Commission. By and by, and under this Commission’s watch, its scope was widened and its tenor raised by several octaves. The Institute’s core mandate was expanded to serve as a foremost centre of excellence for electoral training in the West African sub region, providing the intellectual and training needs of the Commission, State Independent Electoral Com-missions (SIECs) and Election Management Bodies (EMBs) in the sub region. With this widened scope and elevated mandate, the Institute needed an individual with the requisite skills, leadership disposition and exposure to steer its course. Professor Abubakar Momoh, a Professor of political Science and a former Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences at the Lagos State University (LASU) aptly fits the bill. He is excellence personified. With not less than 70 published academic papers under his belt, Professor Momoh has been a fellow of, and visiting professor to, several Ivy League universities around the world. He is, to boot, a well known activist. Professor Momoh’s intellectual luminousness and exposure should endear the Institute to other centres of excellence as well as generate considerable goodwill for it. His advent and assumption of duty as Director-General should add value and panache to the Institute. The Director-General will do well to add even more value to the Institute by drawing from the Directors posted to the Institute in the wake of the re-organization of the Commission. There is this temptation to view them as spent and as intellectual dinosaurs at the verge of extinction. This will be wrong as they have accumulated experiences and knowledge spanning over decades. They should be seen instead as reservoirs of electoral knowledge and experiences. And the Institute should draw from this reservoir by using them optimally. We wish Professor Momoh an eventful and successful tenure.
Posted on: Thu, 22 Aug 2013 21:59:26 +0000
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