YOU CAN’T LOVE YAR’ADUA FOR BEING PRESIDENT AND HATE AN IWU THAT MADE THE TRANSITION POSSIBLE
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By Dr. Tamuno Jonathan
March 09, 2008
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It is funny to
read how some people out there are still laboring very hard to peddle this
bizarre notion that it’s okay to crucify Professor Iwu/INEC for declaring
Yar’Adua president while at the same time appear to ingratiate towards Yar’Adua.
The notion is so bizarre that you can’t help but begin to wonder and search for
possible motives for the vile Iwu-hating that continues to consume these folks
to this day.
There is a Sam Nda-Isaiah of Leadership newspaper who loves to call Iwu an ‘evil
man’ and all sorts of epithets for declaring Yar’Adua winner; yet he invited the
same Yar’Adua to his pet ‘De-Industrialization of Northern Nigeria …. ’
conference held in Abuja back in March this year. Mr. Sam also saw nothing wrong
in inviting and extolling all the 19 Northern Governors to his conference – the
same governors enjoying an election and transition Iwu’s INEC saw through. So,
to this Sam, it is okay to romance and grovel to Yar’Adua and these governors
(and solicit favors from them indirectly) while at the same time calling for the
head of an Iwu that made their election (or the transition) possible. If you
follow his many write-ups in the Leadership, you will see a guy that is at war
with himself. On the eve of the tribunal verdict in favor of Yar’Adua, Sam - the
self-conflicted and logically-challenged, wrote and I quote “The only germane
point is that the election had been rigged beyond what could be called a
democracy and should therefore be annulled”. That was vintage Sam on February
25, and then on March 4 (just eight days later) he invited and extolled Yar’Adua
(an Iwu-declared president) to his pet conference. Then you might want to ask:
what is Sam’s motivation for all these self-contradictions? Well, you don’t need
to look far if you have been following his many rambling essays in his column
called ‘Last Word’ in the Leadership. One sure piece that should provide a
window to what this Sam is all about is the one he did in celebration of Danjuma’s 70th birthday. It was in that piece that our ethnic-baiting, Iwu-hating
Sam revealed himself in his best and worst elements by waxing nostalgic about
the second (anti-Igbo) coup of 1966. He not only celebrated the blood-letting
that was unleashed on the Igbos but he also had a great time rehashing and
applauding the gory details of how Danjuma murdered Ironsi and mutilated his
body. He wasn’t done until he let it be known that he is in full support of what
happened and sounded as if he is looking forward to it happening again. Reading
that piece directed against the Igbos specifically and keeping in mind that
Maurice Iwu is also an Igbo and gutsy to boot, makes it easier to see why a Sam
Nda-Isaiah has been driven raving mad. They wanted to see Iwu fail to transit as
a sequel for an excuse for another blood-letting that he seems to see as long
overdue.
Then you have an Okey Ndibe - a guy who seems embittered by being caught up in
America with too many bills to pay while Dr. Andy Uba he feels is inferior to
him came back to Nigeria and made good in record time. Here again, you need to
go back in time to determine why this Ndibe guy has never seen anything good in
Iwu. It all began with Obasanjo’s hiring of Andy as his domestic advisor and
Andy’s meteoric rise to prominence in Obasanjo’s kitchen cabinet. I wager that
Ndibe is one of those Diasporans who expected to benefit instantly from people
like Andy who someone found their way out of unhappy long sojourns in America to
prominent government positions in Nigeria. Going by his gaunt looks and the
terminal bitterness of his column, Okey Ndibe appears trapped, overworked and
over-billed in America and he doesn’t like it one bit, and someone gotta pay.
Somehow, he blames Andy and any Diasporan that made good through Andy, and
Maurice Iwu is the poster boy for Ndibe’s many frustrations because he continues
to believe that Iwu became INEC Chair on Andy’s recommendations. Ndibe too
wanted to become INEC Chair or something as equal in stature to enable him
extricate himself from what has become a failed quest to make it as a fringe
journalist in America. This was how it all began to the point of no-return for
Ndibe who now sees Maurice Iwu as an alter ego for Andy Uba and all the
rejection he feels he received from Andy, Obasanjo and motherland Nigeria. That
is part of the reason why Ndibe continues to indulge in all kinds of
self-contradictions that include a hero-worship of a Chris Ngige who stole Peter
Obi’s mandate and then after his fall, escaped to America where he partied hard
with Ndibe. All at once, Ndibe is now caught up with rooting for Peter Obi for
prevailing against Andy Uba in court; and he is now poised to accept Yar’Adua as
his president but would rather lynch Maurice Iwu for making that possible. He
even added Justice Ogebe to his ‘enemy list’ just because he seems to have some
bones to pick with Ogebe’s controversial son who lives in America with him.
Then take Atiku, and you begin to see a troubling pattern of misplaced
aggression. Anybody who read the odd 27 interrogatories propounded by Atiku to
Maurice Iwu will surely come to the conclusion that Atiku’s petition against
Yar’Adua’s victory has never been about the irregularities that he is supposed
to prove but has to do with something of a personal war he is determined to levy
on the person and office of Maurice Iwu. And this is symbolic of vintage Atiku
who seems to always pick the wrong targets for his political battles while the
very people who are intent on visiting him with untold political harm are left
unchallenged. Take his many troubles with the system. It is on record, as others
have also said, that El-Rufai, Ribadu, and other young Turks of the Fulani Mafia
in Obasanjo administration were the ones that first began to insist that Atiku
will never succeed Obasanjo. Add a Professor Jibril Aminu that had always wanted
Atiku’s job as vice-president and had seized every opportune moment to haunt
Atiku on that account. Instead of finding ways to checkmate El-Rufai and Ribadu,
Atiku instead decided to pick on OBJ and a PDP leadership that he proved no
match for. Consider these also: It was not Iwu but Ribadu that indicted Atiku
for corruption; it was not Iwu but the National Assembly that reprimanded Atiku
for corruption; it was not Iwu but the PDP that went to court with a petition
that Atiku had seized to be vice president after his defection (real motive was
to strip Atiku of his immunity so Ribadu can cuff him and take him prisoner); it
was not Iwu but El-Rufai that bought or sold Atiku’s house and rained insults on
him for good measure; it was not Iwu but OBJ that did scorched-earth third term
battles with Atiku and questioned his patriotism in the public; it was not Iwu
but Yar’Adua that used ‘blood is thicker than water’ tactics to finally deal
Atiku the death blow by succeeding to the remnants of Shehu Yar’Adua’s PDM; and
it was not Iwu but Yar’Adua that persuaded elements of AC stalwarts to abandon
Atiku and join his government of national unity. If I may ask: Did Atiku expect
Maurice Iwu to turn to something of an almighty - able to surmount all these
system obstacles to make him president or deliver Adamawa to him? And for good
measure, Atiku is still behind scenes trying so hard to broker deals with
Yar’Adua and the PDP while at same time fighting Iwu tooth and nail. Haba.
The saving grace though is that the putrid comments emanating from these guys
have made it a lot easier to see why some folks are ready to cozy up to Yar’Adua
(just for being president) while simultaneously pillorying an Iwu that made the
transition possible. Therefore, it will not surprise many Nigerians if they now
turn their combined gunsights to the direction of Justice Ogebe (as Ndibe
already did in his SUN column of March 4, 2008) and find the guile to still love Yar’Adua. But before uttering the next defamation against Iwu, they should dust
up their dictionaries and check out the definition of ‘vindication’. That is
where they will see that the person most truly vindicated by the tribunal
verdict is Iwu because the judgment confirmed his long-held position that the
election passed muster and therefore should stand. They cannot take it away from
Iwu because vindication is complete and self-evident once a contest is resolved
in favor of one of two opposite propositions. In this instance, the proposition
that carried the day at the tribunal is the one long advanced by Maurice Iwu
that the presidential election was in substantial compliance with statutory
mandates. One last word: If these anti-Iwu people fall over themselves to hail
every verdict of nullification (against PDP), reasonable people will not allow
them the double-standard of defaming the Nigerian judiciary (and Iwu) each time
a tribunal refuses to invalidate an election challenged by Atiku/AC. I mention
PDP and AC only because the people that hate Professor Iwu most and continue to
harass the man have two things in common. One, they are all ‘madly in love’ with
Atiku; two, they don’t care a hoot about petitions involving Kalu’s PPA and
Buhari’s ANPP.
Dr. Jonathan wrote from USA
tamunojonathan@yahoo.com
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