Mohammed Lawal Uwais (born 12 June 1936) is a

Nigerian Nigerians or the Nigerian people are citizens of Nigeria or people with ancestry from Nigeria. The name Nigeria was taken from the Niger River running through the country. This name was allegedly coined in the late 19th century by British jour ...

Jurist who was the Chief Justice of the

Supreme Court of Nigeria The Supreme Court of Nigeria (SCN) is the highest court in Nigeria, and is located in the Central District, Abuja, in what is known as the Three Arms Zone, so called due to the proximity of the offices of the Presidential Complex, the National Ass ...

from 1995 to 2006. He chaired a commission that published a controversial report on electoral reform. Uwais is the son of the Chief Alkali, and later Waziri of Zaria emirate.

Electoral reform report

After retiring from the Supreme Court, Uwais chaired a panel on electoral reform that submitted a report on 11 December 2008 with recommendations that included establishing commissions to deal with Electoral Offences, Constituency Delimitation and Political Parties Registration and Regulation. Some of the power vested in the

Independent National Electoral Commission The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was established in 1998 and is the electoral body which oversees elections in Nigeria. History Regulation and administration of elections The administration of democratic elections in Nige ...

(INEC) and the State Independent Electoral Commissions would be transferred to the new commissions. The committee recommended proportional representation in elections to the Federal and State legislatures and to the local government councils. The report also recommended that the head of the Independent National Electoral Commission should be appointed by the judiciary rather than the President. This recommendation was rejected by President

Umaru Yar'Adua Umaru Musa Yar'Adua (16 August 19515 May 2010) was a Nigerian politician who, was the President of Nigeria from 2007 to 2010. He was declared the winner of the Nigerian presidential election held on 21 April 2007, and was sworn in on 29 May 20 ...

. Yar'Adua forwarded a modified version of the Uwais report to the legislature in 2009, drawing considerable criticism since many felt that recent elections had been deeply flawed and that basic reforms were required. In March 2010, Acting President

Goodluck Jonathan Goodluck Ebele Azikiwe Jonathan (born 20 November 1957)Lawson Heyford, ''The Source'' (Lagos), 11 December 2006. is a Nigerian politician who served as the President of Nigeria from 2010 to 2015. He lost the 2015 presidential election to fo ...

forwarded an unedited version of the report to the National Assembly for approval, by implication saying that the recommendations should be implemented in their entirety before the 2011 national elections. The issue of power to appoint the INEC head remained controversial. Before Jonathan had resubmitted the report, the Senate Committee on the Review of the Constitution had rejected the recommendation to transfer this power to the judiciary. After the resubmission, deputy chief whip of the Senate,

Mohammed Mana Mohammed Mana (born 7 October 1950) was military Administrator of Plateau State between December 1993 and August 1996 during the military regime of General Sani Abacha. He was elected Senator for Adamawa North in 2007 on the People's Dem ...

, argued that letting judiciary appoint the INEC chairman violated the principle of separation of powers, since the judiciary was responsible for hearing the cases arising from elections.

References

Living people Supreme Court of Nigeria justices Chief justices of Nigeria 1936 births {{nigeria-law-bio-stub