Anayo Ude
21 November 2008
opinion
In the last one week or thereabout the media in the country have been awash with vituperation on the person of Professor Maurice Iwu, chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.
Reason, his comment on the conduct of the November 4 American presidential, congressional elections and referendum on some burning issues including proposition otherwise called the gay right to marriage.
I have taken time to digest the comment made by Iwu to correspondents at the presidential villa and the strident and outright abuse and condemnation some people who say they are public affairs analysts have taken as their past time since that comment, and I can only but imagine the state of mind of the so called analysts and commentators.
It is disturbing that a public officer in the ranking of the Chairman of INEC can be so easily vilified for making a sidekick academic comments on an issue. Let's take the issues critically one at a time without the confusing influence of hysteria.
According to media reports, Iwu told state house reporters that "why can't the US learn from us, must we always learn from them". Pressed further on specifics he said "keeping a voters' register". For this, he has come under severe attacks from people who clearly represent a section of the political class - losers in the April 2007 general elections - in the country.
First, are these obviously hired armchair critics saying there is nothing good in and about this country? What is truly wrong in America learning a thing or two from Nigeria? I smell a condescending mind set in these people. A feeling of inferiority, a shameful throw up of the hands in defeat even before the real test has begun.
In one breadth these commentators say the American system has been time tested, that is true, but that does not mean there are still no grey sides to their elections. We all know that is not true! The last presidential election (November 4, 2008) was not without its own down sides. But Americans did not call for the cancellation of the exercise as many Nigerian politicians would easily do.
Instead, like patriotic members of a dynamic system, they chose to adopt the elevated path of accepting the results as a true reflection of the wishes of the people despite the anomalies inherent. The flip side of this is that the American system like every human endeavor is dynamic and open to flaws and improvements.
The Florida spectacle of 2004 at which vote recounts were carried out many times over is still fresh in our memories. The head of the vote count in Florida was not vilified in the manner we are seeing people throw decorum to the wind in this country.
I still remember the response of President Bill Clinton on the incident. He told the presidential candidate of the Democratic Party at that election and his former vice Al Gore not to contest the result in court to avoid destroying the integrity of the process.
Comments and debates on the issue remained within the respectable realm of issues rather than on persons. That was for him a patriotic duty he owed the system and country. Not for our politicians of course. They would rather pull down the roof top, collapse the system. One way they think they can do this is by regularly overheating the polity on any flimsy reason.
In case, some people have forgotten, Iwu is a scientist of international recognition, whose training has imbued in him an intrusive mind to strive for improvement always. If this lofty concept is lost on people like Virginus Ugochukwu who wrote (in the Vanguard of Wednesday November 12, 2008,) I can only say 'go hide your head in shame'.
Iwu is entitled to his firm belief in Nigeria and the ability of Nigerians to deliver at the highest levels. His comment on the US presidential election should be seen from that prism and nothing more. Arrant comments suggesting Iwu as indifferent to the beauty of the American elections are therefore unguarded and petty.
If Nigeria can learn from America, then it is only behoves that there are also things that American can learn from Nigeria. Do not tell me that Americans are not already learning from the benefits of bank recapitalization as championed by Nigeria.
However, more shameful has been the recourse by these self styled commentators to sink discussions on issues bothering on elections in the country to the levels of Iwu's nuclear family.
How can anyone say, Iwu connived in the election of Ikedi Ohakim as governor of Imo state, so that his brother can become the Secretary of the government of the state. Just for the records, this is grossly uncharitable to the exploits and achievement of the Cosmas Iwu as a politician in Imo State.
Long before Iwu returned to the country to assume office as a national commissioner in INEC Cosmas had begun his forays into politics in Imo rising to the position of deputy chairman of the PDP in the state.
It is frightening to read some of these unsubstantiated comments in the media about Iwu. It is only in this country that this kind of vile diatribe can go without appropriate sanctions. Especially when the comments are made by people with pedestrian knowledge of the true process and happenings that preceded and happened during the 2007 elections.
I can say without equivocation, that but for the courage and determination exhibited by Iwu prior and during the elections the country will not be experiencing peace and development today. At the risk of his life and family, Iwu insisted on the election going ahead as scheduled. In fact, Senator Osita Izunaso recently described Iwu as the pillar of democracy in present Nigeria.
This must be the reason why it is said that unless a man appreciates the heat that his wife endures in putting before him his meals on the dinning table, he may never fully enjoy the sweet taste of her meals. These arm chair critics sit in the comfort of their homes and contrive insults and baseless venoms on public officers without knowing the other sides, and sometimes risks that go into the final decisions they hear.
I work for an international non-governmental organization in Abuja and witnessed first hand some of the challenges and risks Iwu had to personally overcome to superintend the last general elections, so I know what I mean when I say Nigerians should be praising Iwu for his bravely. In most other countries of the world, Iwu will be greeted with garlands any where he goes.
I am aware also of the well oiled propaganda against his person by a strong cartel in politics in the country. For as long as that cartel remain in operation and for as long as their preferred presidential candidate is not in Aso Rock, the strident campaign against Iwu will not stop. Thank God, Nigerians are beginning to see through the façade of their desperate quest for power at all means.
Reviewing events in the country recently President of the senate, Senator David Mark described Iwu as the most wrongly vilified Nigerian alive. Saluting his gallantry in the face of these attacks, Senator Mark implored Iwu to take solace in the fact that he was receiving the punches on behalf of the country.
The problem of elections in the country is not Iwu but politicians who believe that elections must be won at all times. That it is a do or die contest. That unless they win in an election, it must be condemned as flawed and rigged. It is this "must win" mentality at all times that is at the root of this never ending attack on the person of Iwu by politicians masquerading as public commentators.
Look at what the Republicans in America are already doing. Sure, they are, angry even, but they first and foremost see themselves as part of the larger American family. To them, the nation must come first at all times. Losing an election is not a reason to bring down the roof of progress the nation is entitled to. They are already looking beyond the elections.
Their main focus now is rebuilding their battered party to be able to fight better in four years time. Not crying over a lost election like babies, the way Nigerian politicians do. Battering Iwu for comments he is entitled to will not turn these politicians into winners tomorrow.
This is where I find the comments of respected former Lagos state police commissioner Abubakar Tsav on Iwu very commendable. According to him, Iwu remains one of Nigeria's greatest patriots, who had given to the country his all. I join great minds like Tsav in calling on Iwu to remain focused and resolute in his drive to bequeath to the country an electoral system that is credible and founded on the principle of the rule of law.
Anayo Ude is an Abuja based journalist.
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