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Leadership (Abuja)

Nigeria: Iwu's Electoral Fools Paradise

Chika Otochikere

16 November 2008

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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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