Daily Independent (Lagos)
Sunny Igboanugo
12 January 2009
Chairman of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Maurice Iwu, at the weekend took the gauntlet for a verbal battle with Nobel laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, over the literary icon's verbal attack on his person regarding the conduct of the 2007 election.
Iwu, who took umbrage for being called names by Soyinka, in an interview he granted a national newspaper last week, expressed distress that the renowned playwright had continued to fail to check his language as expected from somebody of his status.
INEC boss was particularly piqued that a person of Soyinka's standing could publicly call him "dishonest" and a "criminal" was totally unbecoming of his status and carrying his pastime of abusing others who he defers with too far.
Berating Soyinka for saying that he took the nation on rigmarole over electronic voting, without letting Nigerians know the details of the equipment bought, Iwu said it was a pity that he did not know that the equipment were not used for the 2007 election and therefore there was no basis for expenditure on them, regretting that the laureate had to castigate the Supreme Court, for the simple reason that its verdict did not satisfy his desires.
"The refusal by Soyinka to accept that there is a problem with the mindset of Nigerians on election is rather strange. Anyone who does not know that there is a fundamental problem with the political system in Nigeria and that the environment for elections here is muddy and cannot easily yield such civilised outcome as Nigerians idealise in elections in some other societies, must be lying to himself," Iwu said in a statement, signed by his spokesman, Andy Ezeni.
Arguing that bad elections had nothing to do with Iwu, but a national problem, he said even if Soyinka had been given the INEC job, he could not have changed Nigeria overnight.
His words: "While Soyinka is entitled to play to the gallery and release colourful statements that are essentially designed to achieve prominence in newspapers and nothing more, there must be a limit to the licence a man, especially an old man, takes to abuse others. Soyinka's comment that Prof. Maurice Iwu is 'dishonest' and a criminal is not only baseless lies, they are tasteless and a sad commentary on the temperament of a man of Soyinka's age. It is pathetic that Soyinka has failed woefully through the years to acquire the good habit of disagreeing with people on issues without resorting to abuse and name-calling.
"Soyinka has been called upon to public service in the past. One wonders whether he is proud of the dust that surrounded his outing at the Federal Road Safety Commission. His interpretation of radicalism to mean unrestrained abuse of every public office appointee is not only unfortunate, but sad."
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