A former Nigerian Senate President, Senator Ken Nnamani has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to implement the recommendation of the Mohammed Uwais Committee report on the nation’s electoral system.
Nnamani who made the plea, Wednesday, in his keynote address at the third Oronto Douglas Memorial Dialogue in Abuja noted, “It is obvious that the Uwais Report represents a high point in the search for an electoral system that will suit Nigeria’s peculiar circumstances.
“The eminent members of that committee proposed many innovations that could restore credibility and fairness to our electoral system. Unfortunately, many of these innovative proposals were not implemented,” he said.
Represented by Mallam Mohammed Bello, Nnamani urged the Buhari administration to emulate South Africa in the appointment of the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.
According to him, “The independence of the election management body is mostly determined by the mode of appointment. In South Africa and some African countries, the process of appointment of electoral management officials is more of competitive recruitment where those appointed will have a sense that they merited the position, not that they are beneficiaries of political patronage.
“We spend so much on providing security, yet we continue to witness a high level of violence and electoral crimes. In a third World country like Nigeria, public offices are very attractive. So politicians have incentive to fight dirty to gain access to these political offices.
“Until we can reduce the financial rewards of occupying political offices through anti-corruption and accountability measures, we should expect desperation from politicians. We must deal with violence and other electoral crimes through institutional redesigning.”
The Senator, therefore, challenged Nigerians to take credible elections more seriously, arguing that many Nigerians, including respectable civil society leaders consider fair, free and credible election as if it starts and ends on the election’s day, noting that the credibility of polls was more than that.
