The Presidential committee on Constitution and Electoral Reforms, headed by former Senate President, Ken Nnamani submitted its report on Tuesday and recommended the inclusion of independent candidates in the constitution.

However, the Independent candidacy will be applicable to the offices of the President, Governor and Local government chairmen.

The committee submitted its report to the Attorney-General of the Federation, Shehu Malami in Abuja.

The 25-member committee also called for the scrapping of the State Independent Electoral Commissions (SIECs) to allow the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to handle elections at all levels.

Similarly, the committee said any politician who defects to another political party after winning election on a different platform should loose such seats.

NATIONAL ACCORD learnt authoritatively that part of the recommendations made to government is that political parties should hold direct primaries to pick their flag-bearers for elections.

In order to ensure that the Report will not end like several other committee reports, it was gathered that the committee has already drafted a four bills to be presented to the National Assembly by the Executive arm of government, on the recommendations it has made to give it legal backing.

The committee was inaugurated in October 2016 and was given 10 weeks to submit its report. It was however gathered that its assignment was delayed due to lack of funds. Indeed, sources told NATIONAL ACCORD the committee got most of its funds from donor agencies.

https://nationalaccordnewspaper.com/nnamani-committee-submits-report-recommends-independent-candidature-scraping-siec/

Will this have positive effect on d electora process?

Independent candidacy should be allowed.

Abeg if its the 99 constitution they should put bible and christainity inside or better still the remove qoran and grand kandi. Ngeria is a secular state

The heart of Nigeria's political problem in the country's constitution is the unitary government system and skewed political structure in a most pluralistic country, not all these cosmetic amendments.

Nnamani cannot swear that he is not aware of the uglyness and damages the unitary government system and rigged political structure are doing to Nigeria's integrity.

Instead, Nnamani chose to do the cosmetic amendments he was assigned to by the presidency.

Another money down the drain.

Check how much money that has been consumed by various attempts to amend the 1999 constitution, from OBJ's National Political Reforms Conference, to all the NASS Constitution Amendment Committees, to GEJ's CONFAB. Yet nothing tangible done regarding the most contested sectons of the constitution.

The Constitution was progressively supervised by military dictators from northern Nigeria, it had no authority of the people of Nigeria.

Instead of these cosmetics amendments, who is afraid of people of Nigeria electing representatives in a democracy to draft a constitution guarding all of them in Nigeria?

hope they treated the issues of jumbo pay for government officials an make minimum wage same with some great nations of the world, if not it will be null and void.

No groundbreaking recommendations. Just a waste of time and resources. And why is the independent candidacy recommendation applicable only to the president, governors and local government chairmen? Why is it not applicable to state and National assembly members?

The idea that legislators can't cross carpet without losing their seat is also not democratic. Freedom of association is a constitutional right and people should not be forced to remain in an association that no longer meet their aspirations. Even in advanced democracies where party are structured along strong ideological divides, lawmakers still defect without losing their seats.

I'm all for INEC taking over the functions of the SIECs. The SIECs are nothing more than lapdogs of the governors.

But I'm not sure whether independent candidacy is needed at this point in Nigeria.

mandax:
Another money down the drain.

Check how much money that has been consumed by various attempts to amend the 1999 constitution, from OBJ's National Political Reforms Conference, to all the NASS Constitution Amendment Committees, to GEJ's CONFAB. Yet nothing tangible done regarding the most contested sectons of the constitution.

The Constitution was progressively supervised by military dictators from northern Nigeria, it had no authority of the people of Nigeria.

Instead of these cosmetics amendments, who is afraid of people of Nigeria electing representatives in a democracy to draft a constitution guarding all of them in Nigeria?

Even the so called flawed current constitution has not been practiced well not because of the faulty design but because of the elites sabotaging it. It still wont make a difference if there is a newly designed constitution if the basic orientation of the people and the process that will throw up the leaders don't change. I have said it several times, the current system designed now while not perfect, if it is practiced the way it should be will go a long way in resetting things first. Let them start from implementing the Last Confab. All these things just keep gathering dusts. So many things have been suggested over the past decade, none has been implemented and we are looking for a magical sonaco that will throw up a perfect constitution which would finally solve all the ills bedeviling the nation... This is Euthopia

Nice recommendations

This will stop criminal minded politicians from cross carpeting.