New INEC Building to Feature Museum for Nigeria’s Electoral History—Yakubu

New INEC Building to Feature Museum for Nigeria’s Electoral History—Yakubu

JOEL OLADELE, Abuja

The Chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, has disclosed that the newly flagged off annex building of the Commission will feature a dedicated museum to showcase Nigeria’s electoral history.

Prof. Yakubu noted this on Tuesday in Abuja, at the official groundbreaking ceremony of the building, led by President BolaTinubu.

According to the INEC Chairman, the museum is designed to serve as a repository for both the physical and digital history of elections and electoral activities in Nigeria.

“This will afford citizens, particularly students that regularly visit the Commission on excursion, the opportunity to appreciate the evolution of our electoral history as is the case in many jurisdictions around the world,” Prof. Yakubu said.

He expressed gratitude to President Tinubu for his personal involvement in the important occasion.

“We are glad that the President found time to personally perform the groundbreaking ceremony of the INEC Annex Building to complement the current headquarters of the Commission,” he stated.

Prof. Yakubu highlighted the pressing need for the new facility, noting that the current national headquarters, commissioned in December 1997, has become severely congested.

He added that the headquarters, originally designed to accommodate eight Commission members and 500 staff, now serves 13 full-time Commission members and over 1,000 staff, leading to significant strain on available resources.

“Every facility is overstretched from offices to meeting rooms for the Commission’s 15 standing Committees and other activities,” he explained.

The Chairman acknowledged the efforts of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Ministry in facilitating the construction.

“I wish to make it clear that this is not the first time that the Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA) is constructing an office for the Electoral Commission. When the Commission relocated its headquarters from Lagos to Abuja in 1991, it was the FCDA that provided it with offices in Garki to  accommodate the national headquarters as well as the FCT office.

“When the facility became overstretched, the FCDA again built our present headquarters. The building in Garki now operates exclusively as our FCT Office. In fact, today’s ground breaking event is the third time in the last 34 years that the FCDA, in the discharge of its responsibilities, is stepping in to either provide office accommodation or alleviate the Commission’s space constraint,” Yakubu narrated.

He disclosed that the new building will include offices, meeting rooms, a 1,000-seat auditorium, and IT-based

facilities for the Election Monitoring and Support Centre (EMSC).

“The main building opposite the present site shall remain the National Headquarters of the Commission. When completed, the new building will complement the main building.

For me personally, this is a special occasion. After almost ten years of persistent effort, the construction of the INEC Annex Building is finally a reality,” he emphasized.