No less than 30 civil society organizations drawn from the South-West Nigeria gathered on December 13, 2009 at the Adeniyi Jones, Lagos office of the Committee for the Defence of Human Rights (CDHR) to harmonize their various positions on electoral reform for the Senate committee public hearing on review of the 1999 Constitution.

The civil society workshop was put together by an international non-governmental organization, the National Democratic Institute from the United States of America (USA) in collaboration with the Civil Liberties Organization (CLO).

The main kernel of the one-day meeting was to review the Electoral Reform Committee's (ERC) recommendations and their possible implications on the Nigerian electoral process.

All the various speakers at the workshop emphasized the urgent need for Nigeria to do a radical reformation of her present electoral process bearing in mind the much talked about recommendations by the Justice Muhammadu Uwais-headed ERC set up by President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua.

The moderator of the occasion, Mr. Simon Fanto of the National Democratic Institute, Abuja (Elections Team), told the gathering that the civil society groups should come and speak with one voice during the public hearing and to also table before the Senate committee, the critical issues they feel are of paramount importance to the entire nation.

"It is important that civil society members should speak with one voice, avoiding double speak or contradicting views that may portray the civil society as disunited in their contributions to the public hearing of the Senate committee," Fanto cautioned.

However, the executive president of the CLO, Comrade Ibuchukwu Ezeike, said participants at the workshop holistically looked at the recommendations of the Justice Uwais committee, adding that the civil society groups in the South-West, have therefore, adopted the Uwais recommendations as not just "a working document," but also as "a minimum standard for the working document of the civil society organizations in the South-West zone of Nigeria."

Although the CLO president observed that the Uwais report might not be "holistically accepted" as solution to Nigeria's chains of electoral problems, he noted that the nation has to "start from somewhere and the Uwais report is the minimum we have adopted."

Comrade Ezeike expressed worry about the lukewarm attitude of the civil society groups in Nigeria since the inception of civil administration in the country, emphasizing that part of the reasons why politicians appear to be taking Nigerians for a ride was because of absence of opposition, both from political parties and civil society organizations who, he recalled, even battled the military dictatorship in the country.

"If we had continued from where we stopped during the military era, we wouldn't have been having the kind of problems that are inherent in the civil society today," Ezeike told Saturday Champion during a chat shortly after the workshop.

"What the politicians have been doing is sharing money among themselves and not responding to the yearnings of the Nigerian people. There is still mass poverty, total alienation of the masses, general hunger, high rate of diseases, roads are death traps, collapse of infrastructure. So it is the duty of the civil society and labour movement and other rights groups to mobilize themselves and the masses of Nigeria and then effect the desired change like in other countries where things work well," he said.

"No society can change without people rising up to say enough of this evil going on," he added.

But the executive director, Rural Woman Empowerment and Development Network (RUWEDN), Mrs. Mma A. Odi, said Nigerians need those who will tell the Senate committee that the 10 critical areas of the Uwais report should, and must be accepted in the overall interest of the entire country and not necessarily for the selfish benefit of a few.

Mrs. Odi observed that the manner "so-called elected members" of the National Assembly are going about their legislative duties leaves much to be desired.

"They are entrusted with the power to make Nigeria a better society. Unfortunately, they are there for their own selfish interest and make sure they remain in office," she alleged, adding, "The way they are behaving, they are inadvertently asking the military to come back to power, forgetting that some Nigerians paid the supreme price fighting the military to hand over to civilians."

She urged the civil society groups to speak in various voices, but to have a "common front and that common front is that the Uwais report is our minimum agenda," lamenting that "those who rigged themselves to power are holding our nation hostage and the masses of Nigeria need to rise and recapture Nigeria because the nation is at crossroad."

In his contribution, the immediate past convener of the United Action for Democracy, Comrade Abiodun Oremu, reminded the participants that the issue of electoral reform is something that Nigerians need to really "have a clear understanding of what is at stake because we have looked at the social and cultural basis for electoral reform in Nigeria."

For Comrade Oremu, the electoral reform ought to have foundation or root in the country's Constitution since, according to him, the nature of the Constitution will obviously determine the structure of the country.

"When you know that electoral law flows from the Constitution, because you cannot talk of any electoral reform outside the Constitution; it has implication for what constitutional arrangement you have at any particular point in time," Oremu said.

According to him, for the electoral reform to make impact, Nigerians must be prepared for several battles. "To some of us, it is high time we began that agitation to make governance accessible to us. We have to ensure that those in government respect the wishes of Nigerians, that there could be no better wishes than what is in the Uwais recommendations, even with all its limitations," he said, adding, "There is need for a serious political engagement, a political battle in which the forces of the people can balance with the forces of those who find themselves in government as to accede to the genuine demands of Nigerians."

Earlier, one of the guest speakers, Barr. Edwin Anikwem, who spoke on "Review of the Electoral Reform Committee recommendations and their implications on the Nigerian electoral process," said the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) should be truly independent; hence the appointment of the INEC chairman should not be by the President, so that the INEC chief can be really accountable to the masses of Nigeria.

"The funding of INEC should not be by government in power because it could hamper its progress," Anikwem observed.

He also said the purported winner of an election should not be sworn-in until cases in court concerning the election are sorted out by the court. "We notice that once somebody is sworn-in, he has access to state funds and machinery of government with which he can fight and suppress the petitioner," Anikwem said.

Also, another guest speaker, Barr. Olasupo Ojo, who is president of the CDHR, observed that civil society groups are keenly interested in monitoring and mentoring to ensure that the sacrifices made by the civil society groups and human rights organizations in defending civil government would not be wasted. "Civil Society groups are part of the stakeholders in the Senate committee public hearing," he noted, adding that the civil society should insist on the adoption of the Uwais recommendations, "its original, not the one doctored by the attorney general's committee."

He said the federal lawmakers are beneficiaries of the faulty electoral process and therefore, cannot be trusted in doing justice to the electoral reforms.

"We should prepare our minds for the battle ahead, the NASS members will not tell Nigerians the truth, they are only interested in retaining their positions," he said.