•Femi Falana, SAN
Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Femi Falana, has said that a thorough process for the selection of the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) will go a long way to make the body free from external control.
Falana said that advertising the vacant positions of members of the electoral commission and resident electoral commissioners, as recommended by the Justice Mohammed Lawal Uwais panel in 2008, would justify the independence of INEC.
According to him, such a process was already in place in African countries.
“What other countries in Africa have done — Lesotho, Botswana, and the rest of them — is to put in place a mechanism whereby vacant positions in the electoral bodies are advertised.
“And this was the recommendation of the Uwais Panel as far back as 2008, that in choosing members of the electoral commission and resident electoral commissioners, we should advertise the positions,” the lawyer said on Channels Television last night.
“Right now, such an advert has just been published in Lesotho, an African country, so that those who believe they are credible will conduct good elections, men and women of character and integrity will apply.
“Members of the public will be given the opportunity to object to any of them who are not qualified morally or otherwise. And then the names are shortlisted, and the best three are sent to the National Assembly,” he explained.
“The Uwais Panel had recommended that the National Judicial Council be the body that will scrutinise the candidates and recommend the best three.
“So the president will simply take the names to the National Assembly for the legislators to choose from the list.
“This goes a long way to make the body free from control,” the SAN added.
Falana’s position came amid concerns over the ability of INEC to conduct transparent and fair elections without interference.
Last Thursday, the Senate has confirmed a Law professor, Joash Amupitan, as the new chairman of the INEC after screening him at the upper chamber.
The 58-year-old academic was nominated by President Bola Tinubu earlier and received formal endorsement from the National Council of State.
When sworn in, Amupitan will become the sixth substantive Chairman of INEC, succeeding Mahmood Yakubu, who has officially concluded his tenure.
Diaspora Voting
Meanwhile, Falana has made a case for a Nigerian electoral system that allows citizens in the diaspora to exercise their right to elect their leaders.
“Today, remittances from citizens abroad are higher, sometimes, than the money we make from oil and gas.
“So, if they are remitting millions of dollars, which go a long way to improve the economy, they also have a right to demand that they be allowed to participate in electing the leaders of the country,” the senior lawyer said.
He also called pushed for prosecution of electoral offenders as recommended by the Uwais panel.
Electoral Amendment
Yesterday, the Senate has passed the Electoral Act Amendment Bill, 2025 through second reading, proposing a shift that would place the burden of proof on INEC in election petition cases.
Sponsored by the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Electoral Matters, Simon Lalong (APC, Plateau South), the bill seeks to strengthen the legal framework governing elections in Nigeria.
Lalong, while presenting the bill, acknowledged that the Electoral Act 2022 introduced significant reforms but also revealed certain weaknesses, such as delays in the release of election funds, disputes over voter registers, conflicting interpretations of result transmission, and weak enforcement of electoral offences.
He explained that the new legislation seeks to enhance the independence of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) by insulating it from political interference and government control.
