Chuks Okocha who has been following the attempts to reform Nigeria’s electoral laws since 2007 reports on the twists, turns, wins and setbacks In the beginning That Nigeria’s electoral system…
Chuks Okocha who has been following the attempts to reform Nigeria’s electoral laws since 2007 reports on the twists, turns, wins and setbacksThat Nigeria’s electoral system hit its lowest ebb by the 2007 general election is not in doubt. But 2007 did not just happen; it was a cumulative of all that had gone wrong with the electoral system. It was such that even the late President Umar Musa Yar’Adua admitted that the election that brought him to power left much to be desired.
“We acknowledge that our elections had some shortcomings. Thankfully, we have well-established legal avenues of redress, and I urge anyone aggrieved to pursue them. I also believe that our experiences represent an opportunity to learn from our mistakes. Accordingly, I will set up a panel to examine the entire electoral process with a view to ensuring that we raise the quality and standard of our general elections, and thereby deepen our democracy” Yar’Adua said on May 29, 2007.
The CSO believed the government should have sent the raw report to parliament. This formed part of the demands by the Save Nigeria Coalition protest in Abuja on March 10, 2010 during Yar’Adua’s illness. But addressing the protesters, Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Mahmud Yayale Ahmed, assured that the Acting President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, had sent an “unedited” version of the Uwais panel report to the National Assembly as demanded.
Checks by THISDAY confirmed that the 6th National Assembly under the leadership of Senator David Mark recorded extensive electoral reform in a process largely driven by his deputy and Chairman of the Senate Committee on Constitution Review , Senator Ekweremadu. The reform efforts translated to the Electoral Act 2010 and a number of constitution amendments.
In one of those embarrassing incidents, INEC had to call off midway the Imo State 2007 governorship election to manually delete Ararume’s detail on ballots to replace it with those of Engr. Charles Ugwu following a very belated substitution by PDP. Meanwhile, owing to the resolve of the Senator Bukola Saraki-led 8th National Assembly to deepen the electoral process and ensure greater use of technology, that Assembly embarked on a number of constitutional cum Electoral Act amendment also led his Deputy, Ekweremadu. Principal among the reforms proposed by the Electoral Act Amendment Bill in the 8th National Assembly was the greater involvement of technology, including electronic transmission of results.
Their mission was, however, not totally successful as Senator Ekweremadu, who presided over plenary on the day declined to hurriedly adjourn the Senate, insisting on exhausting every item on the Order Paper for the day, including the contentious Electoral Bill. Consequent upon this, the Joint Committee on INEC headed by Senator Kabir Gaya and Hon. Aishattu Dukku swung into action, setting up a Joint Technical Committee comprising some experienced Members of the National Assembly, INEC, and some CSOs to dissect the Bill and come up with recommendations to the Joint NASS Committee on INEC. Both Committees undertook marathon sessions at Transcorps Hilton Abuja in January/February.
Whereas the jointly approved Clause provides that “Voting at an election and transmission under this Bill shall be in accordance with the procedure determined by the Commission ,” it was soon discovered that the “doctored” version outlawed electronic transmission of results.
With clean copies of the report printed, vetted and endorsed by Committee members, what played out at the floor of the Senate during the consideration of the report on July 15, 2021 has been variously described as a gang up against democracy by the ruling party. Also, even though the House resolved to invite both the INEC and NCC to brief it on the feasibility of electronic transmission of results, members were surprised that only the NCC was invited and present, leaving the electoral umpire uninvited and out of the picture. It was gathered that this was not unconnected with INEC’s insistence that it could do electronic transmission.
Nigeria Latest News, Nigeria Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
2020 Tokyo: Ese Brume Breeze Into Long Jump FinalEse Brume, African record holder, is through to the final of women’s Long Jump event at the ongoing Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. The Nigeria's star leapt to
Read more »
TIMELINE: Ibrahim El-Zakzaky's long road to 'freedom'Mr El-Zakzaky and his wife were arrested in December 2015, after the Nigerian Army extra-judicially killed over 300 followers of the Shiite cleric.
Read more »
Passengers trek long distance as east-west road protest reaches Day 7Hundreds of passengers and commuters who ply the ever-busy east-west road have been subjected to long-distance trekking as the protest embarked upon by youths of Eleme and other ethnic groups of Rivers State entered the seventh day.
Read more »
Nigerians pray for Amusan as Brume soars to women’s long jump final | The Guardian Nigeria News - Nigeria and World NewsAfter 10 days of action without a single medal to its name, Nigeria hopes that Tobi Amusan will change the narrative in the final of the 100 metres hurdles today.
Read more »