Sunday Onyeagoziri
Keep up with the latest news and be part of our weekly giveaways and airtime sharing; follow our WhatsApp channel for more updates. Click to Follow us
Osita Okechukwu, the former director general of Voice of Nigeria, or VON, lamented on Sunday the 17-year inability of successive administrations to carry out the electoral reform recommendations of the Uwais Electoral Reform Committee.
As a “matter of urgent national importance,” Okechukwu encouraged President Bola Tinubu to gather the political will necessary to alter the constitution in order to relieve the Uwais of their debt load.
He urged Tinubu to mandate that chairman and members of state and national electoral commissions be appointed in public.
According to a statement he signed, Okechukwu stated that the Uwais Report aimed to increase voter turnout, lower electoral fraud, and promote an open election.
Justice Uwais, who passed away at the age of 88, served as Chief Justice of Nigeria from 1995 to 2006 was considered to be one of the most influential judges in the history of the nation.
In response to Uwais’s passing, the founding member of the All Progressives Congress (APC) stated that the only politically sound way to restore democracy and international recognition is to posthumously embrace and put into practice the excellent principles of his report.
He said: “Seventeen years down the line, successive governments have failed to implement the vital sections of the Uwais Electoral Reform Committee recommendations, with attendant collateral damages—multidimensional poverty, gross unemployment, huge debt burden, crass inequality, and general insecurity.”
Okechukwu insisted that the “Uwais Report was meant to enhance a higher percentage of voter participation, reduce electoral malpractices, and engender free, fair, credible, and transparent elections, and most importantly, the public nomination of chairmen and members of electoral commissions at the national and state level.”
He appealed to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, as a matter of urgent national importance, to “muster the political will and clear the Uwais debt burden by amending the constitution, albeit to make public appointments of chairmen and members of both national and state electoral commissions mandatory.”
In addition to consolidating local government financial autonomy, Okechukwu believed that Almighty God had graciously given Mr. President all the tools he needed, including a friendly relationship with the National Assembly, a similar synergy with roughly 30 state governors, and the resounding support of Nigerians.
Please don’t forget to “Allow the notification” so you will be the first to get our gist when we publish it.
Drop your comment in the section below, and don’t forget to share the post.
Jonathan Nwokpor
