The straight forward answer to this germane question raised last Sunday to generality of Nigerians by the presidential spokesman, Segun Adeniyi; is simplicita - Peoples Democratic Party and indeed President Umaru Musa Yaradua, the leader of the party. Pundits had contended that no political party with the objective of ruling for 60 years will hold the Uwais Report as an article of faith.
One will first commend seasoned professional Segun Adeniyi for coming to terms and appreciating the truism that the goodwill his boss harvested at his inauguration on May 29 2007 through his humble acknowledgment that the electoral process that brought him to power was flawed consequent upon President Yaradua’s pledge that, ‘ I will set 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’ has evaporated.
The pledge to examine our flawed electoral process, followed in quick succession with the convening of the 22 man non-partisan Justice Muhammed Lawal Uwais’s Electoral Reform Committee {ERC} , armed with granite terms of reference; rekindled peoples hope on Electoral Reform and it was like a Daniel has come to judgment.
One remembers how some people who passionately believed the president’s pledge were taunting, questioning, rhetorically pressurizing and persuading Major General Muhammadu Buhari , Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and co to withdraw their petitions from the Election Petitions Tribunal. They argued that free and fair election in a country exiting from military rule naturally is evolutionary and that unlike ex-president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, we now have a graduate at the helm of affairs.
WOne reminded them that our elections from 1993 had retrogressed and warned then that what our hunches posit is not unwavering commitment to genuine Electoral Reform, but sloganeering and right noises made for regime survival.
As Segun noted some of us kept the ERC on its toes, doubted the integrity of the former Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Uwais going by the arbitrary application of rule of law, arising from plethora of post electoral disputes; evidence that the judiciary is more tainted in the prevailing electoral malpractices than envisaged by Uwais Report.
ERC as if to beat doubting Thomases, went round the country devotedly collated diverse opinion, consulted, held public hearings and as ordered exhumed previous reports, hence religiously discharged its mandate. The Uwais Report has five core recommendations:- one, the National Judicial Council {NJC} should advertise the positions, spelling out requisite qualifications, receive applications from the general public, shortlist three persons for each position, send the nominations to the National Council of State to select one for each position and forward to the Senate for confirmation. Two, INEC funds should be first-line –charge on the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federation. Three, the adjudication of presidential and gubernatorial election disputes should be concluded expeditiously, before swearing-in of winners of the elections. Four, the legal burden of to show that election was not mismanaged should always be on INEC. The petitioner only needs to introduce evidence of mismanagement to shift the burden and fifthly, the proportional representation.
These core recommendations are non- partisan; but garnered from the subsisting national consensus, and the deep concern for the restoration of the social contract between the leaders and the led, the sanctity of the ballot-box and the time honoured basic tenets of jurisprudence which posit that laws are made to serve humanity. Therefore the issue of dogma cannot subsume the peculiarities of our political environment; as reflected in insulating a partisan president from appointing single handedly some cronies and shifting of the burden of proof to the umpire.
Four out of the five core recommendations are up-to-date rejected by President Yaradua and his party; they only accepted the first-line-charge of funding. Then one may ask, of what use is financial independence without commensurate autonomy from a partisan president? Is it not surprise that a president fancies a position where over two years in office, his mandate is still being challenged in court? A lot of people have queried why PDP is afraid of free and fair election inspite of its wide spread structure across the country?
The public perception that President Yaradua is shifting ground or is afraid of Uwais Report emerged when the first nine man Federal Executive Council {FEC} Committee, headed by Dr Shetima Mustapha, Minister of Interior which paged with the Uwais recommendations was overruled and a second three man FEC Committee led by Chief Michael Aondoakaa constituted. The Federal Government White Paper on the Uwais Report eventually as stated above rejected four core recommendations of the Uwais Report; while upholding the Chief Aondoakaa Committee review, hence the seven self-serving Executive Electoral Bills submitted to the National Assembly.
It could also be recalled that contrary to the spin from the presidency, the Uwais Report against the rules of the both chambers of the National Assembly did not accompany the seven tepid Executive Electoral Bills; showing clearly that the presidency handled the Uwais Report with a long spoon. ERC to the chagrin of President Yaradua and his party skipped their brief.
In the defense of President Yaradua’s demonstration of practical commitment to Electoral Reform, Segun reeled out series of court ordered bye-elections conducted by Independent National Electoral Commission {INEC}; but failed to note that the retention of Professor Maurice Iwu as an axe-man, after his record of gross misconduct in the 2007 sham elections is less than honourable. It is on record that both local and international observers rated the 2007 elections as the worst in the annals of elections worldwide. Even the Supreme, Appeal and Courts of first instance in the post electoral petitions had harsh words and admonitions for Professor Iwu in many instances over his complicity and biased posture.
The retention of Professor Maurice Iwu and his cohorts that presided over an Electoral Commission that serially violated the 2006 Electoral Act and disobeyed court orders is one of the high points that fed the public perception that President Umaru Musa Yaradua is not genuinely committed to Electoral Reform. This perception was confirmed when Professor Iwu/ Ajoke played the axe-man role in the Ekiti State electoral fiasco. The flimsy excuse that the president cannot sack Professor Iwu is a stranger to the 1999 Constitution as section 157{1} states otherwise.
On the strengthening and non-interference of Mr President with the judiciary is open for contention, the little one can submit is that the public petition against the outing-going President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Umar Abdullahi by the Conference of Nigeria Political Parties {CNPP} was the elixir that drove Justice Abdullahi to Benin Division of the Appeal Court to preside. The move restored the mandates of Governors Adams Oshiohmole and Olusegun Mimiko; one stands to be contradicted, as they say the rest is history.
Before one goes to examine further the rationalizations cleverly adduced by the spokesman of the president; it is pertinent to note that the Uwais Report has become an article of faith, and the core recommendations sacrosanct in any genuine move to restore our democracy which is dangerously sliding towards one party state and quasi-dictatorship.
It is also pertinent to point out to the handlers and spin doctors of the president, that he would be the greatest beneficiary if he follows his better divineprovidential instinct and muster the political will to embark on genuine Electoral Reforms along the core recommendations of the Uwais Report. To drum electoral phobia in the ears of the president is to deny him the eternal legacy he would harvest opening the democratic frontiers, by mobilizing the over 800 out of 990 members of State Houses of Assembly nationwide, 250 out 360 members of the Federal House, 80 out of 109 senators and 28 out of 36 governors the sham 2007 elections bequeathed to his party to amend the relevant sections of the constitution, Electoral Act and relevant laws.
This is a matter of urgent national importance and is the only route to a truly independent Electoral Commission that will conduct free, fair and transparent elections, which meet international best practices. This cannot be achieved when the handlers of Mr President are preoccupied with personal survival, while the country is drifting towards a failed state because of the alienation and disconnect of the citizenry from their rulers.
One joins most patriots and progressive democrats to disagree that allowing only a partisan president to nominate chairman and key officials of the Electoral Commission will preserve the doctrine of separation of powers or that the judiciary which has two Appeal Court Justices and other High Court Justices dismissed over election petitions will be better insulated in the prevailing scenario.
One does not see what harm the doctrine of separation of powers will suffer, if the judiciary advertises the positions and trims down the names to three and then submits to the executive and the executive trims and submits one for each position to the legislature.
Baron Montesquieu and other philosophers never dreamt of gulf among the arms nor imagined a polity where electoral officials are manipulated. In the Spirit of Laws Montesquieu said, ‘when the legislature and executive powers are united in the same person or in the same body of magistrates, there can be no liberty, because apprehension may arise, lest the same monarch or senate should enact tyrannical laws and execute them in a tyrannical manner’.
Nigeria as a nation is yet to recover from the assault on our image and integrity by the 2003, 2007 and 2009 Ekiti State sham elections; we must learn from President Obama’s admonition to protect our institutions and our dear country not individuals.
Garki-Abuja
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