- It is different from Uwais c’ttee – Malami
- It should have been an implementation c’ttee – Okoye
- We won’t wait for c’tee report – Senate
Doubts by some major stakeholders have trailed the inauguration of the Electoral Reform Committee chaired by former Senate President, Senator Ken Nnamani.
Several stakeholders who spoke with Daily Trust on Sunday described the panel as another round of ‘wasteful’ attempt at reforming the electoral system after many such efforts in the past yielded no result.
The Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami had on Tuesday, inaugurated a 24–member committee on Constitution and Electrocal Reform.
A member of the Justice Mohammed Uwais electoral committee, Barrister Festus Okoye said the Nnamani panel should have been assigned to find ways of implementing reports of past committees on electoral reform.
Okoye expressed doubts in the willingness of government to implement recommendations that would be made by the committee saying “I think that the Nigerian people have almost lost confidence in the ability of the federal and state governments to faithfully, courageously and honestly implement the recommendations of their commissions of inquiry, committees and panels.
“There are reports of several commissions and panels that are on the shelf or have been thrown into the dustbin. No serious country expends resources and energy in pursuing a course of action that is dead on arrival.”
Asked if the Nnamani committee is relevant, Okoye said “no society is static. The Constitution and the law must respond to the changing realities and dynamics of the society. It is important to retool the tools of governance to meet with the reality of the times.
“There are issues and problems with the Constitution and the Electoral Act that have not been addressed. Unfortunately, the frameworks for addressing them are in different reports that are on the shelf.
“What is needed is the will to implement the recommendations and also take on board the changing times and respond to them appropriately.”
“My take is that the current Committee should be an implementation Committee. The Committee will gather what has been done in the past and forward the relevant ones to the National Assembly. The Committee cannot reinvent the wheel because there is a template that is available to them for use.”
On its part, the Senate said it was already in the process of amending the Constitution and the Electoral Act 2010 (as amended) and will not wait for report of the Nnamani panel.
Chairman Senate Committee on INEC, Senator Abubakar Kyari said “the Ken Nnamani-led committee is long overdue and is even behind schedule. We are not going to wait; we will go ahead with our own process. The report of the summit we organised in June will be laid next week.
“If the committee meets us with anything that will add value we will consider it but we will not stop ours. The consideration of our summit report will determine the next line of action.”
He said some recommendations made by the Justice Uwais led committee had been implemented, saying,” two days to the last general elections, former President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan signed the amendment that affects about 20 areas of the Electoral Act”.
The Senate had in June organised a summit tagged “legislating for electoral reform” where stakeholders brainstormed on how to strengthen the electoral process.
The summit, according to Kyari was conceived to aggregate opinion of stakeholders on areas to be reviewed or amended in the electoral processes.
Professor Auwalu Hamisu Yadudu, a constitutional lawyer and lecturer in the faculty of law, Bayero University Kano (BUK) expressed optimism that report from the Nnamani committee will not suffer the same fate as past electoral reform panels before it.
He said “if the committee can come up with necessary recommendations and we will have sufficient political consensus definitely the committee would add value to the ongoing electoral reform. The work of this committee is just the starting point because whatever it recommends has to go along with constitutional amendment and the electoral reform being carried out by the National Assembly. But this is something that requires time and political consensus.”
The constitutional lawyer further stated that if things are done properly, the Nnamani-led committee would not suffer the same treatment the 2014 National Conference suffered, noting that “both the time and motive for the 2014 National Conference were wrong. But this committee has sufficient time and there is also responsibility on the part of the political class and the leadership of the country to persuade the polity and the people to go along the line of some of the recommendations it would make”
Speaking when he inaugurated the committee, Minister of Justice and Attorney General for the Federation, Abubakar Malami said the terms of the committee were different from those of previous electoral reform panels such as the Justice Mohammed Lawal Uwais committee.
He said “It is our expectation that the committee would turn in a report which depth and quality should resound for years to come and would facilitate the re-engineering of our electoral practice.”
Since return of the country to democracy in 1999, several attempts have been made at reforming the country’s electoral system.
Late President Umaru Musa Yar’adua had in 2007 established the Justice Uwais panel on electoral reforms. The panel submitted its report in December 2008, making several recommendations on ways to improve the electoral system.
Part of the recommendations include; autonomy for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), independent candidates in elections, setting up of Electoral Offences Commission (EOC), Constituency Delimitation Commission (CDC) and Political Parties Registration and Regulatory Commission (PPRRC).
Other key recommendations contained in the report include the review of the composition, administrative autonomy and funding of INEC and State Independent Electoral Commissions (SIECs). It also recommended Proportional Representation in elections to the Legislature and local government councils.
Yar’adua forwarded six bills drawn from the Uwais report to the National Assembly in 2009. In March 2010, Acting President Goodluck Jonathan forwarded an unedited version of the report to the National Assembly for approval, saying that the recommendations should be implemented in their entirety before the 2011 general elections.
The issue of power to appoint the INEC chairman remained controversial. Before Jonathan resubmitted the report, the Senate Committee on the Review of the Constitution had rejected the recommendation to transfer power to appoint INEC chairman to the judiciary as recommended by the Uwais panel.
After the resubmission, the Senate argued that letting the judiciary appoint the INEC chairman violated the principle of separation of powers, since the judiciary was responsible for hearing the cases arising from elections.
CSOs support committee
The Director of the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD) Idayat Hassan said the committee was a welcome development and that with the erudite members it would make useful contributions that would improve the electoral process.
“With so much emphasis laid on the Uwais committee report in the Terms of Reference (ToR) of the committee, why should government deploy resources into setting up another committee to review Uwais committee report instead of just working towards its implementation. However, new issues have also emerged so with this new issues, we need a new committee, for instance the new phenomenon of inconclusive elections is worth revisiting in any electoral amendment process.
“The Kogi governorship election also brought to fore new challenges, for instance the law did not envisage explicitly what should be done when a Presidential or Governorship candidate dies before the conclusion of an elections, so there are new issues to be determined and directions given,” Hassan said.
She also expressed fear that the committee report does not meet the same fate as the Uwais’s urging government to implement the report of the new committee whenever it is released.
On her part, the Chairperson of the Transition Monitoring Group (TMG) and a member of the new committee Dr. Abiola Akiyode-Afolabi said that the committee acknowledges and recognizes the enormous work in the Uwais report and does not plan to reinvent the wheel but rather to build on the good work of Uwais.
She said: “Knowing fully that the report is about eight years old, the country has learnt a lot of lessons in its electoral journeys, since then. The committee will look at the level of implementation and hopefully make recommendations that will hasten Uwais realization and further address emerging issues.”
The Chairman Partners for Electoral Reform (PER) Ezenwa Nwagwu said the setting up of the committee was a welcome intervention by the office of the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation to deal with some obvious lacuna in the constitution and electoral laws.
“The quality and rich experience of the members will assist the Minister in his job. We hope that they can draw from the Justice Uwais and 2014 national conference report and take out important things contained therein for constitutional and legislative action,” Nwagwu said.
The Coordinator of Election Monitor (EM) Mr. Abiodun Ajijola said the Nnamani committee was an idea whose time has come.
He said though some argue that most of the recommendations from that committee were yet to be implemented and there should ordinarily be no need to form a new committee, he added that the Justice Uwais committee was almost a decade old and as such there were certain developments in the Nigerian electoral process not adequately addressed by the former committee.
He said: “It would be expected that a key area of focus for the Ken Nnamani Electoral Reform Committee would be in the area of optimisation of technology in Nigerian elections. It would not be out of place to summarize that despite the challenges associated with the smart card readers, they have generally had a positive effect on Nigerian elections and have made accreditation in particular much more credible.
“For this reason the ERC should keenly consider the future of technology in Nigeria elections by strengthening the usage of the smart card reader and gradually phasing it out for the full implementation of a national electronic voting system. This is key, because it is clear that to continue sustainably developing the electoral process in the country leveraging on relevant and adequate technology is pertinent and most likely inevitable.”
Also, the National Coordinator Protest to Power Movement (P2PM) and Director Praxis Center, Mr. Jaye Gaskia said the fact that its ToR includes reviewing the Uwais report and its recommendations with a view to ascertaining what has been implemented, and how those that are yet to be implemented can be implemented even makes this more interesting and more encouraging.
“Nevertheless the problem with the electoral reform process is not so much the lack of understanding and analysis of the challenges, nor is down to a lack of robust pool of recommendations; the challenge has been the political will to push through the necessary reforms.
“So what Nigerians should be demanding and what we require to build a mass movement around is the issue of forcing the political leadership to acquire the necessary political will to push through necessary reforms,” Gaskia said.
He added that given the current economic situation, and the utmost necessity to strengthen existing institutions, the nation may need to think outside the box, and take innovative systems strengthening, but not resource draining steps to address the challenges.
He said the exercise should be comprehensive enough to spare the ridiculous and tragic situation where every Assembly has to undertake electoral reform and amend the electoral act.
In his acceptance speech, Nnamani disclosed that his willingness to serve in the committee was driven by his conviction that unlike past leaders, President Buhari had the political will to implement its report.
Nnamani promised to work tirelessly with other members to produce a document that would amongst other things reduce the tendency of getting electoral victory through the courts other than the ballot boxes.
He therefore on behalf of other members expressed gratitude to President Buhari for counting them worthy to play a role in this regards.
Speaking when he inaugurated the committee, the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami charged members of the Committee to look into the possible amendments to the Constitution and Electoral Act, as well as other legal instruments concerning elections to facilitate the attainment of a more robust and generally acceptable electoral system.
The AGF emphasized that the committee would leverage on their combined wealth of experience to review the electoral environment, relevant laws and also experiences from the recent elections conducted in Nigeria and make recommendations to strengthen and achieve the conduct of free and fair elections in the country.
He affirmed that it was obligatory on the part of the committee “to take a holistic and critical look at the recommendations of Justice Uwais Electoral Reform Committee.”
“The committee must consult far and wide, across all spectra of the society and in particular with the National Assembly and the Judiciary in order to make recommendations that would stand the test of times”.
The AGF also stressed that the committee is expected to come up with a draft executive memo for Federal Executive Council vetting, pledging to back it up with draft Executive Bill that may ultimately place the electoral system on “a good pedestal enough to accommodate progressive reforms in future elections and electoral space.”
Members of the committee include; Dr. Muiz Banire, SAN, Mr. Oluwole Osaze Uzzi, Mrs Babalola O. O., Mr. Duruaku Chima, Mrs. Musa I. Maryam, Mr. H.A Tahir, Mr. Ike Udunni, Ibrahim S. O., Esther Uzoma, Mr. Eze Philip and Bashir Yusuf Ibrahim.
Others are Abiola Akiyode-Afolabi , Mr. Utum Eteng, Mr. Ejike Eze, Chief A.C. Ude, Mrs. E. Ifendu, Dr. Francis Abang Bullen, Mr. Anike Nwoga, Mrs. Cecilia Adams, Mr. Clement Nwankwo, Mr. C. Jude, Mr. Mohammed Bello Tukur, Mrs. Juliet Ibekaku while Dr. Mamman Lawali serve as Secretary.
Terms of reference for the Nnamani committee
i. Review of the laws impacting elections in Nigeria, including relevant provisions of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) and the Electoral Act 2012 (as amended) to assess their impact and adequacy for the administration of elections in Nigeria.
ii. Review and recommend the jurisdictional mandates of the proposed Electoral Tribunal.
iii. Review of recent judicial decisions on election petitions as they relate to:
a. Conflicting judgments.
b. Absence of consequential orders.
c. Delays in the issuance of Certified True Copies of Judgments.
d. Harmonise the Electoral Act in view of these judgments with a view to enhancing the electoral process.
iv. Review of the lessons learnt from the 2015 general elections and make recommendations for the improvement of the electoral system.
v. Identify and assess international best practices on elections and electoral systems relevant to Nigeria’s experience and identify best practices that would impact positively on the quality and credibility of the nation’s electoral process.
vi. Review the extent of implementation of the recommendations of the 2008 Electoral Reform Committee (ERC) headed by Justice Mohammad Uwais and advise on outstanding issues for implementation.
vii. Identify areas of the constitution impacting on the conduct of the elections that needed reform.
viii. Recommend the best approach to effective prosecution of electoral offences.
ix. Consolidate the recommendations for Electoral Reforms into a single Electoral Act Bill to achieve the repeal of the 2010 Electoral Act and re-enactment of a new Electoral Act for the country.
x. Prepare and recommend a draft bill for approval of the President for submission to the National Assembly for enactment.
xi. Coordinate with the National Assembly to achieve timely passage into law of the proposed bill.
xii. Make any recommendations deemed necessary for the realization of these terms of reference and
xiii. Submit a report of its recommendations for reforms and draft clauses and provisions to be proposed for legislative action within (10) weeks.
Challenges before committee
Professor Yadudu said though he was not aware of how the committee would go about its work as it may not likely hold a public hearing, but there were a number of issues related to electoral reform that have not been attended to.
He said “For instance, everybody in this country was full of praises for the introduction of the electronic voting device, the Card Reader. Essentially, the card reader was to be used not as a mechanism of voting system but as a device to verify accreditation for voting purposes and it has been extremely helpful for verifying and authenticating voting process while the actual voting was not electronic.
“Recently, the Supreme Court of Nigeria spoke and it didn’t speak so well of this device. I think it has taken a wrong view on the card reader and it is clear that if nothing is done to the verdict and pronouncement of the Supreme Court regarding the card reader we would be in for very serious problem come 2019 and even before then.
“So, I would like see this committee highlight the difficult and unattainable position that the Supreme Court has taken so that the electoral act can be made far clearer than the Supreme Court understood it to be and if necessary an amendment made to the constitution to make it clear.
“Secondly, I would want see a situation where use of electronic device does not stop at the card reader. Rather, I would like to see the bar raised to amend the existing electoral act and to amend the necessary relevant constitutional provisions also to go all out for electronic voting so that is not just verification of voters before election.
“These are the two distinction areas that the committee should look into. Thirdly, there are a number of things raised in the operation of the electoral act when it was amended that would have to be also attended to, to further deepen the democratic process.
“Fourthly, I hope the necessary political cloud and consensus can be created; we are about mid-term in the present administrations tenure. It would be important of some of the electoral reform measures that I am recommending for the committee to look at are done before the next general elections.”
