Nnamani’s report on electoral reforms
Last week the Constitution and Electoral Reforms Committee headed by former Senate President Ken Nnamani submitted its report to the government. The Committee, which was appointed by the Attorney General of the Federation on October 4, last year, submitted its report to the same officer. It was given the task of proffering the way forward on the country’s electoral system.
At its inauguration last year, the AGF said its task goes beyond providing recommendations to government but shall include the articulation of legal instruments that will translate into legislation for moving the country’s electoral process to the next level. This clarification distinguished the Nnamani Committee from an earlier body that was set up by the late President Umaru Yar’adua seven years ago, under the chairmanship of the former Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) Mohamed Lawal Uwais, with an essentially similar mission.
The 22 member Uwais Committee, which was set up in the shadow of the 2007 elections and which were widely acknowledged to be flawed, worked for sixteen months and made far reaching recommendations for reforming the country’s electoral process. Since the report was submitted to the government in December 2012, not much progress has been made in implementing its recommendations. Rather than dust up the Uwais panel report as many people suggested, the Buhari administration set up another committee and added to its mandate the need to provide legislative impetus to Nigeria’s electoral reform exercise. Hence the Nnamani Committee was apparently set up to progress from wherever the enterprise of the Uwais Committee needed additional traction.
It may therefore not be surprising that the Nnamani Committee not only shared several recommendations with the Uwais Committee but has also produced four bills that will form a basis for sustainable reforms in the country’s electoral process. For instance, two most significant areas of agreement between the two Committees are the unbundling of INEC due to its presently overarching workload. The Committee has recommended the creation of two new bodies, namely the Political Parties and Electoral Offences Commission (PPEOC) and the Constituency Delineation Centre (CDC), out of INEC.
PPEOC is to be saddled with the onerous responsibility of supervising political parties with respect to their compliance with extant rules of conduct especially as are provided for in their respective registered Constitutions. It is easily recalled that one of the most disturbing features of the Nigerian political space is the inability of political parties to operate in strict compliance with their registered Constitutions. This anomaly is the most significant obstacle to the growth of internal democracy in the country’s political parties with debilitating effect on the country’s politics and governance.
As for the CDC, it could not have been conceived at a better time given the need for a review of electoral constituencies nationwide. Whereas the Constitution provided in Section 73 that INEC shall review the delineation of Senatorial and Federal Constituencies at intervals of not less than 10 years, demographic circumstances have now made the exercise imperative. There have been noticeable demographic shifts in many parts of the country, especially from rural to some key urban areas. Many constituencies have transformed beyond recognition in population size as well as distribution, leading to conflicts and widespread demand for re-delineation.
However in a departure from the position of earlier electoral reform exercises the Nnamani Committee did not propose the establishment of special electoral tribunals. It recommended instead the expansion of existing courts to handle the prosecution of electoral offenders as shall be apprehended by PPEOC. With the presentation of Nnamani Committee’s report the coast is now clear for the government to proceed with the task of addressing the many shortcomings and malfeasances in the country’s electoral processes. This is in order that Nigerians will have confidence in the process of sourcing suitable individuals to occupy positions of authority without breaching public trust.
POSTED BY:OPUOMONI PRIYE
DATE:05/17/2017
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