Electoral Reform: Utomi Picks Holes With Uwais Report

A former presidential aspirant and political economist, Professor Pat Utomi, has said that the Justice Uwais Electoral Reform Report will not guarantee free and fair election in 2011. Prof. Utomi who said this at a workshop on preparing free and fair elections organised by Lawyers Interested in Free and Fair Election (LIFFE) said that free elections in Nigeria depend on the responsibility of all Nigerians. He said that the country has been backward due to the lackadaisical attitude of Nigerians, noting that leaving power in the hands of those who would not appreciate it would only frustrate the efforts at achieving free and fair elections. According to him, the participation of Nigerians in the 2011 elections would go a long way in shaping the future of Nigeria in the next democratic dispensation. “It is the willingness of ordinary Nigerians to shake off their apathy to the electoral process that would decide if the nation would have new and responsive leadership or if we are to continue with the status quo,” he said. Prof. Utomi said that the Nigerian masses are frustrated in not being able to effect the desired changes in the polity, stressing that Nigerian politicians are no longer accountable to the masses. “Vertical accountability which makes political actors accountable to the electorate has disappeared.” “Politicians are rather doing the bidding of their political godfathers, by whose leave they are holding their positions,” he said.