2011 Intrigues Threaten Uwais Report

Culled from Thisday Newspaper

What is considered the most critical recommendation of the Justice Muhammadu Uwais Panel on electoral reforms – that the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) should not be appointed by the President – is about to be jettisoned, THISDAY has learnt.
The three-member White Paper Review Committee headed by the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Chief Michael Aondoakaa, which was mandated to review the White Paper Draft Report on Uwais recommendations, has asked that the status quo should be maintained.
THISDAY learnt that the final report stated that the appointment of the INEC Chairman be made through nomination by the President and forwarded to the National Assembly as against the recommendation in the white paper that “the appointment of INEC chairman be advertised and coordinated by the National Judicial Commission (NJC), which will forward the name of the nominee to the Senate for ratification”.
It is generally believed that the independence of the electoral commission is critical to the conduct of free and fair elections, but the Aondoakaa recommendation, according to THISDAY sources, is part of the calculations for the 2011 elections.
This is to avoid a situation where the President loses “control” over the electoral commission.
Most of the other recommendations on INEC by the Uwais Panel and the Shettima Mustapha Committee that produced the Draft White Paper were, however, endorsed by the Aondoakaa Review Committee.
The committee, in reviewing the proposal in the Draft White Paper which had concurred with Uwais Panel that all petitions must be exhausted before an elected officer is sworn in, has instead proposed that all election-related legal battles are to last for a maximum of six months – four months for trial and two months for appeal.
Also to be considered for approval is the aspect which states that any politician convicted for thuggery-related activities and other electoral offences is to be banned for 10 years from holding public office and that instead of the establishment of election offences commission, an agency be set up to try election offenders.
A source revealed that the three-man review committee agreed with the White Paper recommendation of the unbundling/reorganisation of INEC but faulted the inclusion of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) as one of the organizations to nominate a member to the board of INEC, saying that the NLC has a registered political party that now has a governor.
While the review committee did not disagree with the nine-man ministerial White Paper drafting committee on independent candidature, it introduced a new clause that will compel such candidates to make financial deposit to be determined by INEC before he/she is eligible to contest the election. The independent candidate is only entitled to a refund if he/she wins a specified percentage of votes cast as was the practice in 1978.
Another recommendation strongly opposed to by the Aondoakaa committee, which was eventually expunged, according to our findings, is the issue of “burden of proof”.
The Shettima committee recommended that relevant provisions of the Electoral Act should be amended to create exception to the general legal rule which places the burden of proof in respect of allegation of election rigging on the party that alleges. The electoral body, the committee had recommended, should be made to prove it conducted the election fairly. The Aondoakaa committee, however, insists that the general legal rule remains that the accuser must produce evidence at all times.
And in what was interpreted as a tacit affirmation of last Thursday’s confidence vote passed on the INEC chairman, Prof. Maurice Iwu, by a group of 11 pro-Iwu Senators, the Senate yesterday rejected a move to dissociate itself from the action.
Chairman of the Senate Committee on INEC, Senator Isiaka Adeleke, had, along with Senators Ikechukwu Obiorah, Joy Emordi, Grace Bent, Joel Danlami Ikenya, Tawar Umbi Wada, Ayo Arise, Gyang Dantong, Satty Gogwin, Osita Izunaso and Otaru Ohize, who are not members of his committee, said at a press conference that Iwu performed well in the conduct of the 2007 general elections.
The group had also said against the backdrop of calls for the removal of the INEC boss that it was only by the two-thirds majority of the Senate and not President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua that his removal could be actualised.
But Deputy Minority Leader of the Senate, Senator Olorunnimbe Mamora (Action Congress, Lagos East), had moved a motion in plenary, yesterday, under privilege, asking the Senate, as a body, to dissociate itself from the confidence vote.
The Senate rejected outrightly the motion, which was seconded by the Minority Leader, Senator Maina Ma’aji Lawan (All Nigeria Peoples Party, Borno South). 
The Upper House, which did not debate the nitty-gritty of the motion, defeated the motion by a voice vote and refused to call for division even when Lawan, called for it in line with the provisions of Order 73 of the Senate Standing Rules (2007 as Amended).
Deputy Senate President, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, presided over the session in the absence of the Senate President David Mark, who was said to have travelled to Lokoja, the Kogi State capital, for the 10th anniversary of the death of the wife of his bosom friend, Senator Tunde Ogbeha.
In defeating the motion, the Senate also ensured that Mamora and Lawan were rebuked and warned against future use of language that is not parliamentary.
The stage for the mild drama was set when Mamora raised a point of order (Orders 14 and 16 of the Senate Standing Rules), claiming that his privilege as a senator had been breached by Senator Adeleke and his group.
He specifically said the vote of confidence passed on Iwu was wrong because the Senate never mandated the Committee on INEC which Adeleke chairs to do so.
Mamora said: “The motion I am moving is that the Senate should consider the issue of the vote of confidence passed on the INEC Chairman, Professor Maurice Iwu, by a group of senators, led by the Chairman of the senate committee on INEC, Senator Isiaka Adeleke, and that the Senate should note that the issue was never debated on the floor of the Senate as to give it the message (impression) that the Senate has taken that position.
“My prayer is that the Senate hereby directs Senator Isiaka Adeleke to be more circumspect in his future utterances as Senate Committee Chairman on INEC.
 “Mr. President, I am saying that the purported passage of the vote of confidence can only be determined by a motion properly brought and treated on the floor of this senate.
“It is an issue that can only be determined by this Senate and a situation where a senator, acting in his capacity as Chairman of Committee, now goes out there to commit as it were the senate, because from the screaming headlines and opinions from the media thereafter, I think this is embarrassing, this is abuse of one’s position and, of course, a breach of the privilege of some of us.
“I am saying that the Senate, as an institution, should not be used as a Public Relations outfit.  The Senate should not be used as an outfit for image laundering of any individual or organization. It is properly out of place.  It is overreaching of the mandate given to the Committee.”
Lawan seconded the motion, thus: “I rise to second the motion moved by the Deputy Minority Leader; and, in doing so, I want to state that I as the Vice Chairman of the Senate Committee on INEC, I feel scandalized by that statement; and, therefore, because it is an embarrassment to the Committee, it is an embarrassment to the Senate and I accordingly second the motion.”