*Quick to make amends

First came a general applause, a resounding one, to greet the nomination of Professor Attahiru Jega as INEC chairman.  But by the time a full assessment of some other nominees for INEC appointments were made, it was clear, they came short of expectation. A torrent of condemnation soon follows but President Goodluck Jonathan would not allow that to linger.  There was a mistake, he said. And go the affected persons must.  This report raises the hullabaloo that greeted the INEC appointments.

Good luck appears to have eluded their appointments.  And this is a grand irony.
Until his nomination of Attahiru Jega as chairman of INEC and others as federal commissioners and Resident Electoral Commissioners, RECs, all appeared to be going well for President Goodluck Jonathan.  Between a certain Bukhari Bello and Jega, President Jonathan’s choice of the latter received encomiums from various quarters.

This, after the National Council of State, NCS, members had collectively and variously applauded the appointments.
Then penultimate Saturday, Justice Lawal Muhammed Uwais got disturbed.

According to Uwais, “I am happy for Prof. Jega for being nominated to be INEC chairman. I know him personally since we worked together on the ERC, but the method by which he was appointed is not strictly in accordance with the recommendations of the panel.

“As you know, what the panel recommended is that the National Judicial Council will nominate three persons that it considers suitable for appointment as INEC chairman and that those three names be forwarded to the Council of State. Then the Council will select one name and forward same to the Senate for confirmation”.

And even if the Presidency had ignored Uwais, other Nigerians were also to express worry at not just the appointment procedures employed for Jega’s posting but the persons appointed as federal commissioners of INEC.  And that is the problem today. Sunday Vanguard can now report that one of the nominees from the South-South is known to have sympathies for one of the opposition political parties – and a vociferous one at that.
Then Femi Falana also issued a statement alleging deliberate partisanship in the appointments made.

Falana, former President of the West African Bar Association, WABA said: “Ambassador Mohammed Anka was a PDP governorship aspirant in Zamfara State in the 2007 elections; General A B Mamman is a well known PDP chieftain in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja; Alhaji Nuhu Yakubu was a PDP senatorial candidate in Kaduna State in 2007” Even before Falana’s statement, the Action Congress, AC, had expressed similar sentiments.

But picking the issues one after the other, Sunday Vanguard discovered that the 1999 Constitution is part of the problem. For those accusing President Jonathan of appointing known partisan individuals to the board of INEC, Section 156 of that constitution says no persons shall be qualified to be appointed  as a member of INEC if “he is not qualified or if he is disqualified for an election as a member of the House of Representatives”. (See Box on What The Constitution says).

To be a member of the House of Representatives, an individual must belong to a political party and, by extension and implication, to be a member of any of the executive bodies, the person – and in this case INEC – must belong to a political party. When this issue was first raised in 1999, the whimsical explanation even by lawyers then was that the qualification did not relate to membership of a political party but just qualification sans party membership.

The Presidency came out with a statement responding to Justice Uwais. In the statement by Ima Niboro, Senior Special Assistant, the presidency claimed that Justice Uwais was wrong.  The presidency said the recommendations of the Uwais Committee were what they were, mere recommendations.

“We understand and to a large extent share the frustrations of the eminent jurist”, the Presidency said, adding,“This is even more so if we recall that it was the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, to whom Dr. Jonathan was deputy that set up the Justice Uwais Committee in the first place.

“We must also recall that Dr. Jonathan played a key role in the process, having chaired the committee of all political parties, less the Action Congress, that took a wide ranging look at the defects of our electoral system, and whose report was passed on to, and largely adopted by the Uwais panel.

“However, no matter how we feel about the reforms, the law is the law, and Justice Uwais probably knows this more than the rest of us. For now, the law in place mandates the President to nominate the Chairman and members of the electoral commission, along with state chairmen of INEC, present them to the Council of State, which is advisory, and send to the Senate for screening. This is exactly what the President has done. The recommendations of the Uwais panel, no matter how well meaning, remain recommendations, until they are passed into law by the National Assembly. “We wish to note that with the Acting Chairman of INEC already complaining that time is too short to prepare for the next elections, and all manner of ridiculous tenure elongation scenarios being played in the media, it would have been foolhardy to put off a decision on reconstituting the electoral body, until the National Assembly passes the Uwais panel’s recommendations into law.

“This is why the President moved with dispatch to reconstitute INEC, putting together a team whose credibility has been hailed locally and internationally. I would like to state unequivocally that President Jonathan is fully committed to electoral reform, and is determined to ensure above all things that all votes count in Nigeria from now on.”

The Committee had recommended the following:
“…the National Judicial Commission should:
Advertise all the positions, spelling out requisite  qualifications;
ii.     Receive applications/nominations from the general public.
iii.    Shortlist three persons for each position;
iv.    Send   the nominations to the National Council of State to  select one from the shortlist and forward to the Senate for  confirmation.
b) For 5.5.3.2 (iv – viii) above:
i. Each of the professional bodies should send 3 nominations to the National Judicial Council for screening
ii. The NJC shall screen the nominations and make  appropriate recommendations to the National State which shall further screen and recommend one name for each category to the Senate for confirmation”. (See details in How To

Appoint INEC Chairman and Commissioners, by Uwais Committee)
However, where Jonathan has problems is in the appointment of federal commissioners and RECs who are card carrying members of political parties – and not just PDP.

The opposition Action Congress, AC, and the National Conservative Party as well as the Human Rights Monitor had listed Alhaji Z. Anka, Gen. Bagudu Mamman, Mr. Eddy Watalari and Alhaji Yakubu Shehu as confirmed PDP members who, at one time or the other, sought election on the platform of the party. An apparently embarrassed President Jonathan, addressing the 51st meeting of the PDP National Executive Committee on Thursday in Abuja, said some of those names submitted to the Senate for screening would be withdrawn. He said anybody that will be in INEC should be above board.  People should have confidence in him because perception in the times and reality is common”, he said, adding, “If they perceive that he will do the wrong thing even if he does the right thing and somebody failed election, they will believe that he was manipulated out and for that reason, those people that have been linked to have played key roles in political parties, I am withdrawing them.

How To Appoint INEC Chairman and Commissioners, by Uwais Committee

This is an excerpt from the report of  the Justice Muhammed Lawal Uwais  Committee on Electoral Reforms in Nigeria.

This excerpt relates to the nature and processes expected to be followed in appointing the National Chairman (as well as members of the board) of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC. This excerpt also contains the functions expected of the Commission as envisioned by the Committee.

2.2.4 INDEPENDENT NATIONAL ELECTORAL COMMISSION.
2.2.4.1         Re-organisation of INEC
a)       INEC should be re-organized and re-positioned to ensure its independence and professionalism in the conduct of elections in the country.
b)      The 1999 Constitution should be amended to ensure that INEC becomes truly independent, non-partisan, impartial, professional, transparent, and reliable as an institution and in the performance
of its constitutional functions.
c)       INEC should consist of:
i)        a Board that formulates broad electoral policy and direction for the Commission; and
ii)       a   professional/technical   election   management   team   to handle the actual conduct of elections
2.2.4.2         Composition of INEC Board

The membership of the Board of INEC should consist of the following:
a) Chairman – who must be a person of unquestionable integrity.
b) Deputy Chairman – who must be a person of unquestionable integrity. However, the Chairman and Deputy must not be of the same gender.
c) persons of unquestionable integrity, 2 of whom must be women and 1 of whom must come from each of the six geo-political zones of the Federation.
d) 1 nominee of Civil Society Organizations working in the area of elections and accredited by the proposed Political Parties Etc. Registration and Regulatory Commission.
e) 1 nominee of Labour Organizations.
f)   1 nominee of Nigerian Bar Association.
g) 1 nominee of Women Organizations,
h) 1 nominee of the Media.

Once appointed,  no organisation shall have the power to recall its nominee.
2.2.4.3         Qualifications of Members of INEC’s Board
a)       Members of INEC’s Board mentioned in 5.5.3.2 (i – ii) above should be persons of integrity who are non-partisan, possess vast professional/administrative/academic experience, and are not less than 50 years of age.
b)      Members of INEC’s Board mentioned in 5.5.3.2 (iii – viii) above should possess all the qualities mentioned in 5.5.3.3(a) above and they should not be less than 40 years of age.

2.2.4.4. Nomination  Process
a) For 5.5.3.2 (i – iii) above, the National Judicial Commission should:
Advertise all the positions, spelling out requisite  qualifications;
ii.     Receive applications/nominations from the general public.
iii.    Shortlist three persons for each position;
iv.    Send   the nominations to the National Council of State to  select one from the shortlist and forward to the Senate for  confirmation.
b) For 5.5.3.2 (iv – viii) above:
i. Each of the professional bodies should send 3 nominations to the National Judicial Council for screening
ii. The NJC shall screen the nominations and make  appropriate recommendations to the National State which shall further screen and recommend one name for each category to the Senate for confirmation.

2.2.4.5 Tenure of Office
The tenure of office of the members of INEC’s Board should be five years subject to renewal for another five years.
2.2.4.7         Other Recommendations
a)      Section 153 of the 1999 Constitution which lists INEC as a federal executive body should be amended by deleting Sub-section 1(f) thereof.
b)    As consequential to the recommendation, under paragraph (e) above wherever INEC appears in sections 153 – 158, it should be deleted.

2.2.4.8         Unbundling of INEC
For   INEC   to  function   efficiently,   some   of  the  functions   currently performed by it should be assigned to other agencies as follows:
a).      Political Parties Etc Registration and Regulatory Commission
should be established and empowered to: ….
b)   An autonomous and constitutionally recognized Electoral Offences Commission should be established through a bill of the National Assembly and empowered to perform the following functions:….

What The Constitution says:
Qualifications for Membership of National Assembly and Right of Attendance
These are sections of the constitution which complicate the qualification requirements for appointment as a member of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC
65. (1) Subject to the provisions of section 66 of this Constitution, a person shall be qualified for election as a member of:
(a) the Senate, if he is a citizen of Nigeria and has attained the age of 35 years; and
(b) the House of Representatives, if he is a citizen of Nigeria and has attained the age of 30 years;
(2) A person shall be qualified for election under subsection (1) of this section if:
(a) he has been educated up to at least School Certificate level or its equivalent; and
(b) he is a member of a political party and is sponsored by that party.

154. (1) Except in the case of ex officio members or where other provisions are made in this Constitution, the Chairman and members of any of the bodies so established shall, subject to the provisions of this Constitution, be appointed by the President and the appointment shall be subject to confirmation by the Senate.

(2) In exercising his powers to appoint a person as Chairman or member of the Council of State or the National Defence Council or the National Security Council, the President shall not be required to obtain the confirmation of the Senate.

(3) In exercising his powers to appoint a person as Chairman or member of the Independent National Electoral Commission, National Judicial Council, the Federal Judicial Service Commission or the National Population Commission, the President shall consult the Council of State.

155. (1) A person who is a member of any of the bodies established as aforesaid shall, subject to the provisions of this Part, remain a member thereof –
(a) in the case of an ex officio member, whilst he holds the office by virtue of which he is a member of the body; (b) in the case of a person who is a member by virtue of his having previously held an office, for the duration of his life; and
(c) in the case of a person who is a member otherwise than as ex officio member or otherwise than by virtue of his having previously held an office, for a period of five years from the date of his appointment.

(2) A member of any of the bodies shall cease to be member if any circumstances arise that, if he were not a member of the body, would cause him to be disqualified for appointment as such a member.

156. (1) No person shall be qualified for appointment as a member of any of the bodies aforesaid if –
(a) he is not qualified or if he is disqualified for election as a member of the House of Representatives