Electoral Reform And The Federal Executive Council

Electoral reform and the Federal Executive Council By Reuben Abati THE decision of the Federal Executive Council on the recommendations of the Justice Uwais-led Electoral Reform Committee (ERC) is important more for what is rejected, rather than what is accepted and in the forefront, is the sincerity or otherwise of President Yar'Adua about electoral reform. The question indeed should be posed: how truly sincere is the President on the question of electoral reform? The Federal Executive Council must not be under any illusion that its resolutions are in any way final. Although there are to be referred to the Council of State for advice, and the National Assembly for aspects that require Constitutional Amendment, the key issues have been presented as if these were the final words on the matter. Certainly not. The least that President Umaru Yar'Adua can do is to pay careful attention to public opinion. Reforming the electoral fra...Read the full article.

[olusiji]

It cannot be easy for President Yar'Adua to have migrated this far from fraud to legislating against graft. Handed a huge loot by a master thief and enjoying every minute of the benefits, the man has tried so far to mark the sand giving significant distance between the thief and the receiver of stolen goods. I congratulate his inadequate efforts so far. I thereafter commend the next proceedings to the Nigerian people. Only they can amend Yar' Adua's ammendments.
I am not terribly bothered by a partisan president appointing the umpire. This is not good but it is not so troubling to me given the recent intervention of the judiciary in some cases. But how can justice be served when a thief is allowed to enjoy the peoples goods for some time and even use the proceeds to corrupt justice further. That is why the recommendation rejecting judicial decisions before swearing in becomes nebulous. We must reject and fight this particular paragraph.

[emenanjo]

"much of what is wrong with Nigerian democracy is a question of attitude and not exclusively a matter of legal design."


People who benefit from a particular social order or arrangement rarely go all out to effect a qualitative change. The PDP is a commercial venture and not a political party. We should even thank God that the white paper came out from the government, but how white the paper will be is another matter. My hunch tells me nothing good will come out of the whole razzmatazz. Rebranding Nigeria and Nigerians should start from the war against indiscipline {WAI}.That policy should be brought back. There is nothing wrong in bringing back a good policy. {WAI} will partly help to address our attitudinal problem.

[UncleTisha]

Originally Posted by olusiji

It cannot be easy for President Yar'Adua to have migrated this far from fraud to legislating against graft. Handed a huge loot by a master thief and enjoying every minute of the benefits, the man has tried so far to mark the sand giving significant distance between the thief and the receiver of stolen goods. I congratulate his inadequate efforts so far. I thereafter commend the next proceedings to the Nigerian people. Only they can amend Yar' Adua's ammendments.
I am not terribly bothered by a partisan president appointing the umpire. This is not good but it is not so troubling to me given the recent intervention of the judiciary in some cases. But how can justice be served when a thief is allowed to enjoy the peoples goods for some time and even use the proceeds to corrupt justice further. That is why the recommendation rejecting judicial decisions before swearing in becomes nebulous. We must reject and fight this particular paragraph.

@Olusiji,

I believe the Supreme Court has given judgement that Yar'adua was validly elected, even while acknowledging that there were irregularities in the process. To view every issue from the prism of the flawed election is, IMHO, not really helpful in the process of nation building.

George Bush was helped out by pregnant and hanging chads in the first election but i'm not sure he was ever referred to as an illegitimate president.

Having said that, i agree with your sentiments that all judicial decisions should be resolved before swearing in.

Cheers!

[gun ho commando]

The judicial arm of the government is seen by all to play less partisan politics hence appointing the electoral coomission chairman should be reserved for it.
The system concentrates absolute powers on the president

Removing the state elecoral commissions is moving from unitarianism to absolute totalitarianism. Whoever must be elected or gets elected at the federal, state, and local government levels must owe allegiance to Abuja.

Nigerians must opt for true federalism.

[ocnus]

With respect, the problem is not who appoints the head of INEC, the problem is with Iwu. He is a fraud and incompetent. He is a man with no principles and capable of anything, including delaying and leaving the ballot papers in South Africa during an election. He would still be a fraud and incompetent even if the Archangel Gabriel announced him with a golden trumpet and a fanfare. The process of appointing him pales to insignificance when one considers that such a man could ever be appointed at all.

[i-go-better]

Why can't the Nigeria Media pick up from where Saharareporters stopped? Dr Abati, why not use The Guardian's Media machine to look into the claim that;

1. Iwu was hand-picked by Andy Uba for a hatchet job;

2. He parades fake certificates;

3. He falsely claimed to have a cure for Ebola fever:

Because if these are true, no White Paper will be able to clean a man with such baggage and who, considering the calibre of people that always rule Nigeria, will always be in conscientious hostage to whoever is in power.

If you guys in the media compromisingly fail to unmask a character as questionable as this who will always be appointed into high profile offices by high profile criminals that rule Nigeria, like the former president, running commentary on white paper, black paper, yellow paper, etc of some doggy reform by a doggy president is, to my mind, perverse and unfortunate.

If the efforts of Saharareorters were complemented by the rest of you in the Media houses in Nigeria, we may never have come to this tragically designed common ground of confusion.

[LAN]

@ i-go-better
Electoral reform is about future elections, and not about this current Chairman - Iwuruwuru.

Iwu's widespread fraud is a call to duty for ICPC and EFCC, there is nothing left about Iwu that Nigeria media has not reported.

[Enyi]

"The Federal Executive Council's counter-argument that this will amount to a violation of the doctrine of separation of powers is mischievous"
This claim by FEC is highly contentious. The powers given to the President are not sacrosanct. They were given to the President by a group of wise, though not infallible, men and women who drew up the constitution. Since the Electoral Reforms entail ammendment of the constitution, why cann't the power to appoint the INEC chairman be revisited?
"The Federal Executive Council has rejected the ERC's recommendation that election disputes be concluded within six months of the conduct of elections, on the na�ve ground that the present system whereby electoral disputes oftentimes run for two or three years after the elections is good for a "better dispensation of justice to the aggrieved"
Ideally, it is desirable that petitions should be decided before swearing in. However, justice should not be sacificed for speed. I suggest that lawyers should come up with a proposal that will ensure a speedy justice. In the meanwhile until an alternative is found we should consider the following: anybody who is sworn in but eventually loses at the tribunals should refund all financial benefits he/she might have enjoyed in addition to any other punishment that the tribunals may deem necessary. The bottomline is that electoral fraud must not be rewarded in any shape or form.

[omaks]

In a democratic dispensation, there are always checks and balances. That's the whole beauty of a 'properly design democratic process'. If the Executive arm of government was serious about the reforms of the electoral process, it should not display any fears of erosion of its oversight responsibilities. If out of may functions it concedes to the judiciary the responsibility of choosing the Chairman of INEC it wouldn't necessary be the end of the world. My fear though is even if the executive does oblige the judiciary the opportunity to choose the Chairman of INEC, it still withholds the capacity to interfere and manipulate the direction in which the representatives of the judiciary does sway with its selection.

My confidence of the electoral reforms being implimented conclusively has started to wane even before the process gathers momentum, largely because there have already been concerted efforts by the political elite to unearth ways to circumvent the reforms. there is ongoing moves to establish another 'SUPER POLITICAL PARTY', when the reforms clearly indentifies that there shouldn't be more than between 2 and 7 political parties in the country. Secondly, there are also concerted efforts by the state governors of the PDP to hijact totally the machinery of state party politics by abolishing the election of delegates to various levels of party conventions, and replacing such with state governors' cronies and party leader. This in in a bid to exert immense control on the outcome of party elections and decision making, and in the process inadvertently destroying democracy in party politics.

Though Reuben Abati points out the need to guarantee people's rights to choose their own leaders, the type of politics being played by State Governors and their cronies in stifling the entrenchment of democracy in party politics is the type of untoward behaviour that largely puts our nascent democracy at risk of hitting the rocks. Even at the highest leves of party politics, it is claring for all to see that the leaders are not comfortable embracing the recommendations of th Electoral Reforms commission, because in implimenting this to the very last letter, tey stand to lose immensely in the political rostrum. Unfortunately, as laudable as the ERC's efforts at sanitising our electoral process is , it appears that there are still a huge amount of work to be done to actualise these recommendations.

[tonsoyo]

Neither Yar'Adua nor his "nest of killers" political is sincere about electoral reforms. This is why they have rejected the two most important provisions of Uwais Panel.

The separation of powers argument is not only self-serving but equally ridiculous. Of all the three arms of government only the Judiciary is not an elective arm, they are therefore more properly positioned as uninterested umpires in electoral matters. All we need to do is to divest the Executive of such powers as an interested party and vest it in an uninterested party.
Like Enyi said nothing is sacrosant about the powers of the President to appoint INEC Chairman.

Na the people wey make pencil also make eraser.

The decision not to cap the period of time for judicial dispensation of electoral disputes is even worse.
Are we more interested in just the aggrieved parties but quick and eefective justice? How else can the interest of an aggrieved parties be served if not through prompt justice and not delayed justice?

[i-go-better]

Originally Posted by LAN

@ i-go-better
Electoral reform is about future elections, and not about this current Chairman - Iwuruwuru.

Iwu's widespread fraud is a call to duty for ICPC and EFCC, there is nothing left about Iwu that Nigeria media has not reported.

LAN
You failed to connect the kernel of my post. The National Assembly will as sure as the day churn out a "bow-and-go" screening for even an Armed Robber. The Media is therefore the only effective personality profile watchdog against a FUTURE Iwuruwuru.

My post is questioning their incorruptibility capacity to carry-out this very vital assignment given that they failed to investigate and expose the stated fraud in the appointment and person of the present INEC helmsman.

Hillary Clinton almost lost Secretary of State post, not because she committed any criminal offence, not because she is not eminently qualified but because of donations made to her husband by foreign government officials, etc. and the fear that might skew her foreign policy decisions.

It was the media that made that a major issue otherwise she would have had a clean bill by any screening/appointing body. . That is my point.