Don urges FG to implement recommendations in Uwais report on electoral reforms.

Adele Jinadu, a professor of political science at Babcock University, has urged the Federal Government to implement the recommendations made by the Justice Muhammad Uwais panel in order to improve electioneering throughout the nation.

At the Electoral Institute in Abuja on Monday, Jinadu delivered the Abubakar Momoh Memorial Lecture on the subject of “The 2023 general election: Lessons learned in preparation for Kogi, Bayelsa, and Imo states off-cycle governorship elections.”

On August 28, 2007, the late President Umaru Yar’ Adua established a 22-member Electoral Review Committee, led by Justice Uwais, to examine the electoral process critically and provide advice on any areas that needed reform.

Over 1,000 public memos were submitted to the committee during its more than one-year assignment, and experts from Botswana, Cameroon, Canada, Cote D’Ivoire, France, Ghana, India, Lesotho, Mexico, Niger Republic, and South Africa were also invited to contribute.

After it was finished, the committee gave the late President a copy of its report, but the Federal Government did not follow most of its recommendations.

The operational deployment of officials, materials, and logistics for the elections, according to Jinadu, who is also a member of TEI’s Governing Council, had remained persistently problematic features that reduced the credibility of the nation’s electoral governance.

The deployment of technology, according to the don, “understandably added to concerns among INEC, stakeholders in the electoral governance process, the electorate, and the general public about the transparency of the elections and INEC’s readiness for the country’s 2023 general election.”

In light of this, he counseled the FG to address “the anti-democratic diabolic politics and its facilitative toxic economic, political and socio-cultural environment that continue to undermine the viability of democracy and development in the country.

In order to pursue outstanding electoral reforms suggested by the Uwais Electoral Reform Committee, among other political reforms, the FG should adopt a strategic plan divided into short-to-medium term goals covering the 2023–2027 electoral cycle.

Additionally, the Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC) Director-General, Sa’ad Idris, stated that the off-cycle elections are another chance for INEC to streamline its procedures.

Therefore, the Kogi, Bayelsa, and Imo States Governorship Elections are yet another chance for the Commission to tweak its policies, processes, and procedure in order to achieve a more credible, transparent, and acceptable electoral outcome that aims to strengthen and deepen our democratic culture, according to Idris.