BRIDGE Professional Development Training for Gombe State Independent Electoral Commission (GOSIEC)

GOSIEC an EMB in Nigeria has the responsibility for conducting Local Government Area (LGA) elections in Gombe State. The training held on August 27-29, 2023 comes amidst increasing citizen’s awareness and demand for credible elections at the sub-national levels in Nigeria. Therefore, providing capacity building training to the EMB leadership is critical to ensure the conduct of credible LGA elections in the State.

Nineteen (19) participants made up of the Chairman, five Commissioners, the Secretary of the Commission and twelve (12) senior staff of GOSIEC were trained in the Gombe State capital. Out of nineteen participants, there was only one female candidate. This workshop was conducted as part of technical assistance from the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES), with funding from USAID and UKAID.

The Professional development training exposed GOSIEC staff to basic electoral administration and management aspects to enhance their ability to conduct credible local elections in Gombe State. The training also provided the opportunity for participants to understand and appreciate the knowledge, skills, and attitude that are required in managing an EMB and conducting elections.

The thematic modules and topics covered include: Introductions to Electoral Administrations (Elections: What it is; Why; and Types); EMBs Legal, Institutional Framework, Challenges of Election Administration in Nigeria, Guiding Principles for Election Administration, Ethics in Election Administration, Free and Fair elections, Electoral System, types of EMBs, Access in Electoral Process, Operational Planning (The Electoral cycle as a planning tool, the big logistics event, importance of logistics planning), building strategic partnership for public outreach and Building Institutional Excellence (Understanding Institutional Excellence, Principles, Building Blocks, Internal/External Challenges and Strategic Partnership).

At the end of the training, participants were able to demonstrate better understanding of election administration and operational planning through the completion of their reintegration plan to indicate what, how and when they could apply the knowledge acquired during the training within a period of 3 months, 6 months, and 12 months. The knowledge gained will be useful in the planning and administration of local council elections in the State.

The participants also expressed appreciation to IFES and their funding Partners for creating the enabling environment for the training – this was elicited from their feedback during the final workshop evaluation and workshop reflection sessions.

The training was facilitated by Seray Jah as lead facilitator – Accrediting Facilitator, Obaje Ukeh – Workshop Facilitator and Victor Ajine Enyi a TtF Complete facilitator.