The Enugu State Governor, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi has declared that Nigeria has not witnessed a free and fair election in the last couple of years.
Disclosing this in Enugu while receiving the Constitutional and Electoral Reform Committee led by Senator Ken Nnamani, Ugwuanyi said the need for the ongoing reform could be over-emphasised.
He stated that the absence of free and fair election in the country was responsible for the dwindling fortunes of Nigeria’s democratic experiment.
The Governor harped on the need for a robust electoral act to be put in place to engender peace and stability in the polity.
According to him, “It is a well known fact that our inability to conduct free and fair elections had impacted negatively on our efforts to deepen democracy over the years.
“Necessary reforms must, therefore, be carried out to resolve all the issues required to be carried out to promote peace and stability in the country.”
Ugwuanyi commended the committee for giving the South-East zone an opportunity to suggest on how to entrench credible, acceptable, violence and rancor free election in Nigeria.
Speaking earlier, Chairman of the committee said that the exercise was aimed at making elections more efficient, effective and less expensive.
He disclosed that President Muhammadu Buhari had on October 4, 2016 inaugurated the committee in keeping to his promise of strengthening electoral system in Nigeria.
His words, “Most people are asking why another electoral reform panel is being set up when that of Justice Uwais has not been implemented.
“Though Uwais did a fantastic job but some areas of that report require panel beating and dynamic approach to capture some incidents in the system.
“For instance, that report did not take into consideration what happened in Kogi State not too long ago.”
Nnamani said that it had become needful to tinker with some obsolete electoral laws, adding that the committee had been working in clusters and behind the scene.
“There is no constitutional requirement for public hearing but it has become conventional that no group has monopoly of knowledge. That is why we have come to seek the ideas of the public,” he said.
The former Senate President revealed that the South-East zonal public hearing in Enugu was the first of seven of such that would hold across the country.
