NIGERIA NEEDS IWU FOR 2011
By Elvis Agukwe.
 Published
April 1st, 2009
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This has nothing to do with the rantings of the
opposition who will rather rely on the pages of
newspaper for their campaigns than marching to the
fields to canvass votes. It also has nothing to do
with the wishes of a tiny but vocal cabal
masquerading as human rights activists, but who are
actually failed politicians. It has a lot to do with
the future of democracy in Nigeria. Any patriotic
Nigerian will support the reappointment of Prof
Maurice Iwu as chairman of Independent National
Electoral Commission (INEC) when his current tenure
expires on June 2010. The reasons are not far
fetched. Iwu as the man who successfully transited
Nigeria from one democratic government to another
since independence in 1960, posses the experience,
the courage and the ability to deepen our democracy
by personally conducting the 2011 elections.
It is really unfortunate that some misguided
Nigerians out of sheer mischief and driven by
frustrated ambitions had taken it upon themselves to
purloin Iwu for the conduct of the 2007 elections.
In their myopic and jaundiced opinion, the election
was flawed simply because their favoured candidates
did not win. After falling to stampede Iwu out of
office by calling for his resignation, they resorted
to cheap blackmail by arm-twisting President Umaru
Musa Yar’Adua to sack the INEC helmsman. When that
failed to fly, they tried to instigate the senate by
seeking to obtain a motion condemning the 2007
elections. Of course that back fired with both the
senate and the House of representatives passing an
overwhelming vote of confidence on the erudite
professor.
Beaten in their own game, these desperados now went
and hired some charlatans in the legal and media
professions to propagate the lies that Iwu’s tenure
which constitutionally expires on June 2010, had
elapsed. Their incoherent and illogical postulation
was that Iwu was not screened by the senate as INEC
chairman. But the senate committee chairman in
charge of INEC, senator Isiaka Adeleke has debunked
that lie by providing dates and declared
unequivocally that Iwu’s first tenure expires June
2010. It is heart warning that we have a president
who believes in the rule of law and due process.
Because this president is knowledgeable and will not
be swayed by the judgmental indiscretion of failed
politicians and their collaborators in the media,
their ambition of scuttling Iwus’s tenure has
crashed.
It has to because Nigerians are actually looking
beyond Iwus’ first tenure by seeking ways of
ensuring that the proposed electoral reforms are
strengthened by the re-appointment of Iwu. No matter
the misgivings with the 2007 elections, the INEC
chairman proved to be a dogged fighter who dared the
enemies of Nigeria by going ahead to conduct the
elections and announced the results. That Nigeria
has been stable ever since without experiencing the
horrors of Kenya. And Zimbabwe is attributable to
Iwus’s courage and consistency. As the man who
witnessed first hand what transpired during the
elections, the INEC chairman is in a position to
plug the loopholes and deepen the process of
electron conduct in Nigeria.
Indeed one of the major reasons why our electoral
bodies have been reeling under sever criticisms is
because of lack of continuity. After the conduct of
one electron, the losers will howl and curse the
chief electoral umpire, accusing him of being
responsible for their woes. Before one knows what is
happening, the head of state will buckle under
pressure and fire that umpire. A new person who will
start learning the ropes will be appointed and the
process will start afresh. There will be no time for
the leader to learn from their mistakes and inspire
to enhance their performance,.
Again, many people have made the mistake of thinking
that Iwu is actually the problem of elections in the
country. Such arguments are formed out of ignorance.
Those who were privileged to read the INEC official
report of the 2007 elections will be amazed at the
lenght some of our politicians went to sabotage the
elections and even threatened the lives of Iwu and
his immediate family. Such desperation also drove
many of them to rig the elections with the active
connivance of security agencies. So the question is
how do we curb the monsters that push politicians to
compromise during the elections.
As we all know, most of our political parties, the
ruling PDP inclusive, lack internal democracy. When
people are frustrated from realizing their
legitimate ambition within a system, there is no
limit to what the can do to seek redress.
Unfortunately the slow pace of our judicial system
does little to assist such people. Resort to
violence then comes naturally. This has nothing to
do with the man in charge of conducting the
election.
To make matters worse, some of these political
parties hardily go to the field to campaign and sell
their manifestoes. Because of lack of ideology, on
the part of the parties, voters are even confused on
which to choose. Others become indifferent with such
cynical comments like “ what difference does it
make”, “and they are all the same”. If our parties
could put more efforts in working for the expected
votes, they will have little time in making Iwu the
scapegoat for their laziness. Happily the
recommendation of the Uwais panel On electoral
performs will take care of these indolent parties.
Another area both the parties and indeed all
Nigerians have to work on is the mindset that any
candidate to an election must win and if he falls,
he accuses his opponent of rigging. Instead of
eulogizing America or even Ghana for conducting a
free and fair election, have we paused to ponder on
the attitude of losers of those elections? They take
it in their strides instead of bickering and
pointing accusing fingers on the electoral umpire.
All of us must not win at the same time. We have to
train our psyche to be patient and wait for our
turn.
Finally, we must make our political and public
offices to be less attractive, monetary wise. People
now see public offices as commercial ventures and
they employ all manners of crude methods including
blackmail and murder to capture the treasury. In
such a dangerous contest for power, desperation and
frustration will lead people to rubbish the good
works of the electoral body. These are some of the
areas that Nigerians urgently need to address for us
to have the elections of our dreams, with Prof Iwu
presiding over the conduct of the 2011 elections.
Agukwe wrote in from Abuja
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