Leadership (Abuja)
Chika Otochikere
16 November 2008
opinion
Abuja — Prof. Maurice Iwu, by now, must have realised that he is a failed election umpire. Before now, he was living under the illusion that the country's electoral system needed much of his expertise. His illusion went berserk and became paranoid when he suggested that the United States' electoral system, which recently conducted one of the freest and farest elections in human history, was faulty and had so much to learn from Nigeria's electoral system. He went short of presenting himself for consultancy on election matters for that country.
Whatever was on his mind when he made that statement, which he thereafter denied, Iwu must have started to doubt himself, his skills, qualifications and experiences. He must have started wondering whether he was out of his mind when he declared Peoples Democratic Party's candidate, Prof. Oserhiemen Osunbor, winner in the Edo State governorship election, knowing that Action Congress candidate Comrade Adams Oshomole was head and shoulder more popular than all the other candidates and their godfathers put together.
Barely one week after that infuriating statement was credited to Iwu and one week after the United States, for the first time, celebrated the emergence of a black president, the Nigerian judiciary it was once again lived up to its expectations as the defender of the defenceless. For the umpteenth time, another nail was rammed into the coffin of Iwu's electoral credentials. The appeal court sitting in Edo, hearing a petition brought by the PDP and the INEC against the ruling of the state's election petition tribunal, upheld the tribunal's ruling and ordered that Comrade Adams Oshiomole be sworn in as governor with an immediate effect.
There is no doubt that given the powers backing Osunbor, including the PDP national secretariat, the Presidency and those Edo State gutless godfathers, if Iwu had his way, he would have rigged the appeal court's ruling and got away with a re-election for the then incumbent governor. What would have been the outcome? Dead men and women's names and pictures would have been smuggled into the voter's register, like it happened in Kogi state. At the end of the day Osunbor would have emerged winner in the election re-run.
Iwu would have held a national broadcast declaring his innocence and reaffirming the need for the USA to invite him for consultation on their electoral system which.
Without gainsaying, Iwu has done the greatest injustice to our democracy. He has given electoral "thieves" the opportunity of becoming their states' number one citizens and by extension, being described as your excellencies. This may have informed Oshiomole turning down the "your excellency" appellation since under serving men have been parading themselves as "Your Excellency," courtesy of Maurice Iwu's INEC.
If Iwu feels he has no explanation to give to Nigerians over his stewardship, which churned out robbers of electoral mandate, he would certainly have to explain to his grand-children how he was able to achieve the unenviable feat. Of course, he would defend himself by saying that he only did the bidding of his paymasters who probably threatened to give him the boot if he did not perform. But even that answer would present him as a most unpatriotic Nigerian and enemy of democracy. This smear on his image would take a lifetime to scrub off. With the Ondo State governorship appeal hearing around the corner, Nigerians are highly expecting another big smear on the INEC boss who has refused to come out of his fools paradise.
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If anybody deserves to apologize to Nigerians it is the corrupt politicians. Who cares what EU and US election observers think about Nigerian election? Perhaps this author’s neo-colonial mentality has forgotten that the same EU that has turned Zimbabweans into paupers via their economic sanctions in order to compel a popularly elected President Mugabe to say "Yessir" to the "Master", just as the same Europeans killed a democratically elected Lumumba in favor of Mobutu thus conferring to the Congolese at its birth a legacy of a failed state we see today due to its un-ending civil wars for most part of its 47-year history. Lest we forget about Slavery and Jim Crow practices in a democratic US until the advent of President-Elect Obama – there is a biblical saying that b4 you criticize the speck in your neighbors eyes, remove the log in yours, first. Please show more pride in your roots. The interest of most Nigerians is how we improve Nigeria's future elections and infrastructure so as to make life better for the common man - even a benevolent dictatorship would be preferred than these Rouge Politicians. The past is gone; even though it may be prologue; let's move forward instead of wasting time rehashing old but dead issues. As far as I am concerned, Iwu and his staff conducted a credible election based on the parameters of election laws allowed INEC, at this point. If there is any deficiency in our electoral laws, let our do-nothing National Assembly pass legislations that will make INEC more effective in conducting better elections in the future. I just read that our national association of Nigerian students govt has elected Mr. Iwu as their Man of the Year - obviously, our youth are more progressive thinking than these old and sour minds like this author. The greatest mistake Nigeria ever made was not approving OBJ's 3rd Term - the same deal that allowed Museveni to deliver an enormous economic growth & political stability for Ugandans. Ditto for Cameroun, Libya, Egypt, Morocco, among other 3rd World countries with benevolent dictators, especially Chile under General Pinochet who was encouraged by the US in the 1970s / 1980s to topple President Allende's democratically elected govt. I guess the EU and US choose foreign leaders they support based in their national interest regardless of democratic principles or dictatorship – I guess might must be right then. Oh well, whatever….