The Electoral Reform Committee of 2007–2008, chaired by former Chief Justice of Nigeria Justice Mohammed Lawal Uwais, produced the most comprehensive and technically sophisticated blueprint for electoral reform in Nigeria's democratic history — a document whose central recommendations were selectively disregarded by successive administrations even as they cited it rhetorically as evidence of commitment to change.
The Committee was constituted by President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua by instrument dated 28 August 2007, barely months after his own contested inauguration following the April 2007 elections — widely condemned by domestic and international observers as the most fraudulent since the return to civilian rule in 1999. Justice Uwais, just retired from the Supreme Court bench, was appointed chairman. The committee comprised forty-eight members drawn from civil society, academia, the legal profession, traditional institutions, religious bodies, political parties, and the security sector.
The committee conducted public hearings across all six geopolitical zones and received submissions from hundreds of stakeholders over approximately fourteen months. The four-volume report, submitted in December 2008, made findings of structural deficiency throughout the electoral system. INEC was excessively dependent on the executive: its chairman and commissioners were appointed solely by the President, creating an inherent conflict when INEC was required to adjudicate elections in which the incumbent contested. INEC's funding was controlled by the executive rather than drawn from the Consolidated Revenue Fund as a first-line charge. Judicial resolution of electoral petitions was slow and susceptible to manipulation. Result transmission was opaque, voter registration was unreliable, and security agencies played openly partisan roles.
The report's seventy-eight recommendations included: restructuring INEC as a fully independent body funded from the first-line charge; vesting appointment of INEC commissioners in the National Judicial Council; electronic voting and result transmission; independent candidacy; strict campaign finance regulation; and pre-election dispute resolution mechanisms.
Implementation was partial and politically negotiated. The 2010 Electoral Act incorporated some structural improvements but left presidential control over INEC appointments intact — the committee's most fundamental recommendation. Uwais publicly expressed disappointment. Later administrations referenced the committee to justify incremental reforms, including the eventual introduction of BVAS (Bimodal Voter Accreditation System) and result upload portals under the 2022 Electoral Act — technical measures that partially addressed the report's transparency concerns. The Uwais Report remains the reference document for electoral reform advocacy in Nigeria.