Atiku Abubakar Nigeria’s former vice president has called for the implementation of the Justice Mohammed Lawal Uwais electoral reform report, saying that its implementation was crucial to guarantee for free and fair elections in the country.
Recall that the late President Umaru Yara’adua in 2008 after admitting that the election he won the previous year was flawed, set up a committee headed by Justice Uwais to look at what was wrong with the nation’s electoral system and recommend solutions.
The committee had made several recommendations, one of which is the removal of the power to appoint the head of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) from the President.
The former Vice President, made this call on Monday in a statement he personally signed which was made available to BusinessDay by his Media Adviser, Paul Ibe even as he insisted that the 2019 elections were several steps down from the 2015 elections in terms of credibility and obvious lapses.
Atiku who was the president candidate of the main opposition, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in the February election, also advocated for the setting up an Electoral Crimes Commission.
According to him, “I have been pondering on the question, how can Nigeria have credible elections? Our electoral system needs not just to be brought up to date, by the acceptance of the amendments to the Electoral Act passed by the eight National Assembly, we also need to be up to tomorrow, by taking steps today to ensure that the lapses that made it possible for the 2019 elections to be manipulated or rigged are addressed.
“One way of addressing these lapses is to implement the salient recommendations of the National Electoral Reform Committee (NERC) headed by former Chief Justice of the Federation, Justice Mohammed Lawal Uwais. The second is the creation of Electoral Crimes Commission.
“One of such recommendations, which will enhance the independence of the supposedly Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), is the recommendation that the power to appoint the Chairman and board of the INEC be taken away from the President and given to the Judiciary,” he said.
He stressed that the current system where the head INEC was appointed by the executive would always give rise to doubts and suspicion.
“Of all three arms of government, the Judiciary is the least affected by elections, meaning that it has the highest objectivity in matters relating to the INEC. It is therefore in the best position of the three arms, to appoint a Chairman and board members for the electoral body that are impartial, competent and patriotic.
“This recommendation may seem like a small change, but my experience in life has taught me never to underestimate the big difference small changes can make.
“Nigeria today faces a lot of challenges, chief of which are security and economic revival. To effectively tackle these problems, a government must have an honest and indisputable mandate.
“Where you have an administration whose mandate is considered tainted, such a government will lack sufficient moral authority to tackle the myriad of problems this great nation currently faces.”
Iniobong Iwok (Lagos) and Innocent Odoh, (Abuja)
