The Iwu Presentation in Washington, DC: Matters Arising
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Buhari With
The Opposition |
By Franklin Otorofani, Esq.
12.23.07
On December 18,
2007, Nigerians in the Diaspora in general, and
Washingtonians in particular, were treated to the
presentation of the Official Report of the 2007
General Elections in Nigeria by the Chairman of the
National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor
Maurice Iwu, under the auspices of the Organization
of Nigerian Lawyers In Diaspora (ONLID).
Before proceeding further, however, I would crave
the indulgence of my esteemed readers to allow me to
place on record my personal gratitude to the
President of the association and Convener-in-Chief,
Mr. Aloy Ejimakor, for putting the event together.
Though I was unable to honor the invitation extended
to me due to earlier commitments, my heart and mind
were in Washington, DC during the presentation. And
that should be no surprise to anyone. Anyone who has
been reading my articles, before and after the
elections, could not have failed to notice and
appreciate my unalloyed support for, and association
with the good works of the INEC Chairman amid the
avalanche of carefully orchestrated personal attacks
and the deliberate attempts by electoral losers to
undermine the credibility of Iwu and INEC. I was
enthralled by the scientific management and
technological infusion into the electoral processes
from the voter registration to the elections proper,
if only our destructive political class given him
the much needed cooperation to put all the bolts and
nuts together without unnecessary attacks and
distractions. Watching Iwu afar from my humble abode
in New York, I could not but marvel at the zeal,
managerial, administrative, and technological
innovations that were being introduced into the
electoral processes for the first time in our
electoral history. At last Nigeria was moving with
the times in tandem with the information age. But
our stone-age political class, especially those
massed in the unprincipled opposition parties,
resisted every move on innovation with bile and
bullets in order remain chained to the past. All
they wanted was business as usual where cows and
goats would cast votes for them and the votes would
be counted in their favor. Iwu wanted to change all
of that and he ended up having his name dragged
through the mud. Thus, the presentation of the
Official Report was set against the backdrop of a
burgeoning but mindless campaign of destruction
directed against the person of Iwu himself.
Opposition Game Plan:
My joy about the presentation, therefore, derives
principally from the opportunity presented for the
world to hear from the horse’s mouth. Quite too
often, public opinion in Nigeria has been allowed to
be shaped by the drumbeat of negativism emanating
from the politically estranged, the disenchanted,
political contractors and other entrenched powerful
interests, that were out to discredit Iwu and the
institution he stands for, in an attempt to rubbish
the elections and their results even before they
were held. Any failed politician who had an axe to
grind with former President Obasanjo poured venom on
Iwu and INEC. In other words, Iwu was taking the
bazookas meant for Obasanjo from his estranged
erstwhile political associates! Discrediting the
elections became a surefire means of discrediting
the Obasanjo administration itself. And all that was
required was a huge war chest utilized not to
campaign for the votes of Nigerians at the
elections, but to mount scurrilous and sustained
attacks on Iwu and INEC. It was patently a case of
transferred aggression. Their sole objective was to
discredit, and not to win the elections. Folks,
please permit me to repeat the above assertion: Atiku and Buhari did not participate in the
presidential elections to win but to score a
political point of discrediting the OBJ
administration and INEC was the weak link they piled
on to achieve their aim with the EU standing by to
finish off INEC. One could readily see how Buhari is
desperately fighting to get the EU Report to tender
in support of his petition at the Tribunal!
How many people remembered Atiku and Buhari
campaigning during the last elections when OBJ and
Yar’Adua were criss-crossing the country? How many
people remember Audu Ogbe and the other PDP
renegades campaigning for their party, the AC,
during the last elections? Rather than campaign to
win the votes of Nigerian electorate they trained
their guns solely at Iwu and INEC as if attacking
Iwu would bring them the votes to win the elections.
Whenever presidential candidate Atiku or Buhari
opened his mouth the words “Iwu” and “INEC” would
jump right out of their mouth followed by
expletives. Nothing is said about their programs and
policies to move Nigeria forward (if they had any).
Nothing is said about their big vision for Nigeria
and Nigerians, either. When the PDP was dreaming
about the Year 2020, Buhari and Atiku (the two major
opposition candidates) were busy plotting on how to
discredit Iwu and the elections. Every little
hiccups encountered by INEC, as was during the
registration exercise with the IDD machines, was
deliberately magnified as an electoral Armageddon,
and every major success recorded by INEC was
down-played or dismissed outright. There were those
who were out to create an atmosphere of instability
sufficient enough to scuttle the elections because
they had nothing to gain in the elections having
foreseen their imminent defeat, and everything to
gain in fomenting crisis that could invite the
military. Folks you have not forgotten the idea of
Interim Government proposed by the desperate
opposition where opposition politicians led by
Professor Utomi trooped to Nnamani’s office to plead
for his headship of the Interim contraption. Have
you? Have you forgotten also how they tried to use
Nnamani to cause a Kangaroo Senate Panel to
re-investigate the PTDF Affair with the sole aim of
indicting Obasanajo and Atiku together in order to
clear the way for the interim government proposition
to be headed by Nnamani that was third in the line
of succession? If you have forgotten all of that,
trust me, I have not and so are many discerning
Nigerians whose views are not in the least
obfuscated by the fog spewed by the opposition
elements in Nigeria in their campaign of dis-information.
Iwu’s Washington presentation captured this
destructive tendency of the anti-Iwu/INEC
politicians. All of these antics were not lost on
discerning Nigerians who saw through these
diabolical plots.
The bottom line, however, is that Iwu is a victim of
a proxy war by the rabid anti-OBJ forces led by the
political generals, including, but not limited to
the following principal characters: Abubakar Atiku,
Audu Ogbe, Solomon Lar, late Sunday Awoniyi, Tom
Ikimi, Abubakar Rimi; Bola Tinubu, Bisi Akande,
Ghali Na’Abba, Afenifere, Arewa, and the hordes of
detractors. These were the forces arrayed against
Iwu and INEC against whom Iwu could not fight back.
The demands of his office prevented him from
fighting back. Even if he wanted to, he still
couldn’t because he would have required the entire
resources available to INEC to prosecute the
elections, to fend off the steady stream of
ballistic missiles headed his way from the huge war
chest of his army of detractors from the opposition
camp that was bent on undoing him and the elections.
Therefore, Iwu and INEC, wisely refrained from
engaging the enemy, and stayed focused on their
duties to deliver on the elections as he had
promised Nigerians. And sure he did to record the
first ever civilian to civilian transition, to his
internal and indelible glory. That history has
already been written. I need to state this in the
starkest of terms in bold types, in case anyone is
in doubt of what that history means: After decades
of failure, Nigeria has successfully transited from
one civilian administration to another! What don’t
they understand?
Politics of Bitterness:
Nigeria is a place where anything goes; where the
electorate is not yet mature enough to distinguish
between political charlatans and the real candidates
who have something to offer other than bile and
venom. As has been demonstrated time and again a
candidate with little or no vision but full of
negativity, would not survive a single presidential
debate in the United States. It’s happening now as
we read this article. Nigerians who live in the
United States can vouch for the veracity of the
above assertion. Negativism by electoral candidates,
notably presidential and/or gubernatorial
candidates, is death sentence for electoral
candidates in the United States. But in Nigeria it’s
the only item on their menu. Nigerian politicians
still wallow in “politics of bitterness” that the
late Alhaji Ibrahim Waziri of the defunct GNPP party
single handedly fought against in the Second
Republic during the general elections that threw up
Alhaji Shehu Shagari. But even while politics of
bitterness can be said to be a Nigerian political
pandemic, it was taken to a whole new level in the
last general elections far and above whatever Alhaji
Waziri himself had seen in the previous epochs.
As pointed out earlier, the principal opposition
candidates, namely Abubakar Atiku and retd. Gen.
Muhammadu Buhari threw caution to the wind and
almost brought the country to the brink of a civil
war with their rhetoric and actions. Witness the
inciting statements made by Atiku to the effect that
the Federal Government was importing huge and
sophisticated arms to attack Niger Delta people.
Witness Buhari’s repeated calls on Nigerians to take
the law into their hand by storming the polling
stations to “protect” and “defend” their votes from
being stolen, that is, literarily to take over the
duties of security officers in order to promote
total anarchy, which all but happened during the
elections. Witness Buhari’s repeated alarms:
Rigging! Rigging!! Everywhere he turned, he saw
nothing but rigging throughout his tired campaign of
bitterness, with no programs to put before the
electorate, even before elections were held. And,
witness Buhari again calling for mass protests
against the results of the elections amongst other
incendiary statements and unprintable expletives
hauled at the government and INEC.
While the First and Second Republics witnessed
robust contests of development ideas between and
among the contending parties, notably the NPN, UPN,
NPP, and GNPP, the Fourth Republic is totally
defined by politics of bitterness with Atiku and
Buhari as the Chief Promoters and Purveyors of the
brand. In the Second Republic, for example, the NPN
was nationally associated with its signature
programs—Housing for All and the Green Revolution;
the UPN had its Five Cardinal Programs with Free
Education and Free Healthcare, standing out in bold
relief nationally. The UPN party brand was
instantaneously associated with free education. What
can we say about the AC and ANPP in the Fourth
Republic other than politics of bitterness? Put
differently, when you hear the name AC or ANPP, what
does it immediately conjure up in your mind in terms
of party programs? Nothing! They offered nothing but
a cocktail of complaints and bitterness against the
government and all its institutions, particularly
INEC and Iwu. Their robust Propaganda Departments
euphemistically styled Publicity Departments, made
sure the political atmosphere was sufficiently
poisoned with bitterness and the sound of their war
drums raised to the highest possible decibels in
order to create crisis of legitimacy.
Principle of Fair Hearing:
Well, the elections have come and gone and it’s time
to do a postmortem. And who is better placed than
Professor Iwu himself to appraise the elections? As
a lawyer, I couldn’t help but draw from the wisdom
embodied in the Latin maxim Audi Alterem Partem
(hear the other party), which is the cardinal
principal of adversarial jurisprudence that is
prevalent in common law countries. No one, I repeat,
no one should be condemned before he/she is given a
chance to the heard. The entire process of legal
adjudication is founded on this single principle
even in purely administrative hearing. And it has
been there since the beginning of time. In fact, the
principle has its genesis in the Garden of Eden
where it was first applied by God in the case of God Vs.Adam & Eve reported in the
Genesis Law Report.
The Almighty God Himself did not pronounce judgment
on Adam and Eve until he made sure they had been
sufficiently heard loud and clear with no
encumbrances whatsoever thrown in their way to
prevent fair hearing. Therefore, the attempt to
summarily crucify Iwu without granting him a fair
hearing is a monumental act of injustice that will
not be allowed to stand in the new Nigeria we are
trying to build for ourselves and our children.
Nigerians are too much in a hurry to point accusing
fingers at others before availing themselves of the
facts in any given situation. Raw emotions and
primordial sentiments are allowed full reign in
matters of national importance. Finger pointing, as
the Americans would put it, has become a national
pastime. Yet, if any fingers needed to be pointed
they should be pointed by Iwu and not at Iwu. And
guess what: some of those fingers should be pointing
directly at the EU by the time you’re done reading
the Iwu presentation.
The EU Connection:
Although I don’t have a copy of the presentation
yet, reports about the presentation from other
sources have justified the confidence I reposed in
Iwu and INEC all along. What is more: the press
release issued by the ONLID has further buoyed my
position on Iwu and INEC. I make bold to declare
that there is, if you like, an incipient
crystallization of a new and informed consensus
about the good works of Maurice Iwu and INEC in the
last general elections. While the elections might
not have been perfect (and there are no perfect
elections anywhere in the world), informed opinion
is beginning to recognize the enormity of the tasks
before Iwu and INEC, and the constraining
environments in which they performed.
Hitherto critical Nigerians who had been misled
and/or influenced by the deliberate campaigns of
misinformation and disinformation spewed by the
entrenched interests alluded to above, are gradually
coming to the realization that much of the public
criticisms against Iwu and INEC, were totally
jaundiced and premeditated, or at least
substantially misplaced, after all. And the
revelations about the monetary offers from the EU,
is an eye popper for me and hopefully to many
Nigerians as well. Twice the EU allegedly offered
INEC financial assistance (?) unsolicited, and twice
INEC rejected their offers.
And, that naturally begs the question as to what
were the offers meant for? If you asked me, I would
outright, characterize these financial inducements
as bribery, pure and simple. Whose interests was the
EU out to protect in the last general elections in
Nigeria. What were the strings attached to the
rejected offers, if any, (and you bet there would be
several strings attached)! Was the EU out to
influence the Nigerian elections in favor of some
candidates under the guise of monitoring our
elections?
If so, is it any wonder then that it cried more than
the bereaved about alleged electoral malpractices
and sought to discredit the presidential elections
in the most unflattering terms? Hey folks, are you
getting my drift? You had better do. How many times
in my previous write-ups on the Nigerian elections,
have I cautioned my fellow country men and women to
be wary of the Trojan Horses with their Greek gifts
from the EU and the Americas? I have lost count,
folks! These guys have vested interests in the
outcomes of our own elections and therefore actively
seek to influence the outcomes through financial
inducements to the agencies conducting the elections
under various guises and pretences. Otherwise, why
would the EU approach INEC with Ghana-Must-Go and
seek to destroy it when it refused to play ball?
Does that not explain why the EU lords were more
vociferous in the condemnation of INEC more than
Nigerians themselves? And you want to ask: what is
their business in our own elections in Nigeria? Do
Nigerians and Africans interfere in their elections
in their own countries as they always do in our
elections? Or is it a continuation of the colonial
master/servant relationship despite our supposed
independence? When will this colonial interference
end? What does independence really mean if our
people still routinely allow our erstwhile colonial
overlords to come in and dictate to us how we should
run our own affairs and seek to impose their favored
candidates on us who would in turn sell our country
to them to continue the colonial relationships?
Fellow Nigerian, as you read this article think hard
and fast about these troubling questions. Even if
you thought that President Obasanjo imposed
candidate Yar’Adua on the PDP and the nation, would
you rather the EU or the Americans, did so? If you
answer yes, to the above question, you should
indeed, begin to question your sense of patriotism
because you would be nothing more than a
neo-colonial agent and a danger to yourself and your
fatherland.
Iwu’s Patriotism:
Therefore, that Iwu and INEC rejected the bribery
offers from EU to influence the elections is an
exemplary conduct and a mark of their integrity and
incorruptible character. And, I wish every Nigerian
public official would be like Iwu. Iwu has in that
disclosure, taught us an indelible lesson in
patriotism when it would have been in his personal
interest to cooperate with the EU Monitors and get
their high approval ratings to splash in the world
media. He didn’t and that was a personal sacrifice
that most Nigerians would not even brook let alone
consummate. The average Nigerian official in the
position of Iwu, would have actively collaborated
with the EU to influence the outcomes of the
elections especially when Ghana-Must-Go was
involved. But Iwu rejected that out of his sense of
patriotism and mission to make history as one who
broke the jinx of the civilian-civilian transition
in Nigeria in a democratic dispensation.
For that singular achievement therefore, I repeat my
earlier call on the President to confer on Iwu
without further delay, the title of the Grand
Commander of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (GCFR)
because one who achieved that feat deserves no less.
May God protect the architect of that transition to
repeat another feat—that of a manifestly free and
fair elections that will make Nigerians proud and
raise their heads high wherever they find
themselves.
God Bless Nigeria.
Franklin Otorofani, Esq. (USA)
mudiagaone@yahoo.com
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