Why I’m leaving INEC with pride – longest serving REC, Gaidam

After serving for a maximum 10 years as the REC in Adamawa State, the INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in  Kashim Gaidam is set to quit the commission,

Gaidam who have declared that he is leaving with pride, said in a press interview with newsmen at his office in Yola, that he derives pride in his modest achievements for INEC in Adamawa State and in what INEC has recently been doing as a national body at elections nationwide.

“I am the longest serving REC in one state, ever in the history of the Commission. It’s been over 10 years because I was in Gombe State briefly and then back to Adamawa. I was also in Edo State,” he said during the interview.

Maintaining that he is leaving office a proud man, Kashim Gaidam said, “I am very proud. I am somebody leaving the commission with my head held high because the commission today is a most developed technology-driven institution.

“I was in Osun for the last election, and by 5 o’clock in the evening, we had 90 percent results in the portal which everyone could view; and by 10pm, 99% of the results had been released and posted, and by 7.30 the following morning, result of the governorship election had been declared.”

He said he expects that the same efficiency will be shown by INEC in the general election due next year.

Disclosing to the journalists at what turned out like his valedictory news conference of Wednesday, Gaidam announced that as of 31st of July 2022, INEC had been able to register 261,300 voters during the just suspended continuous voter registration.

He added that the fresh figures, barring radical changes when the final figures are arrived at, would bring up the total voter strength in Adamawa State to a little over two million.

“We already had 1,973,088 used for the 2019 elections. This will be subjected to scrutiny and a clean-up, after which the final updated figure will be released,” he said.

Kashim Gaidam who hails from Yobe State was a local government chairman and then Commissioner, among other roles in the state civil service, before becoming a top banker and then a Commissioner in INEC.