ORGANIZATION OF NIGERIAN LAWYERS IN DIASPORA (ONLID)
1110 Canvasback Court, Upper Marlboro, MD 20774 USA +301.256.5927
alloylaw@yahoo.com
| PRESS RELEASE |
Thursday, November 15, 2007 |
ORGANIZATION OF NIGERIAN LAWYERS IN DIASPORA CALLS ON NIGERIAN BAR ASSOCIATION TO BACK OFF ITS CALL FOR MAURICE IWU’S RESIGNATION
The Organization of Nigerian Lawyers
in Diaspora (ONLID) hereby issues this Press Release
in reaction to the recent call for Professor Iwu’s
resignation by the President of Nigerian Bar
Association:
- As a counterpart professional
association comprised of Nigerian
Lawyers in Diaspora, ONLID commends the
abiding interest NBA has demonstrated in
seeing to a new legal order for the
better conduct of future elections in
Nigeria and applauds President
Yar’Adua’s commitment in this regard.
- Just like the NBA, President
Yar’Adua and Professor Iwu have done,
ONLID notes the presence of flaws in the
last general elections but disagrees
with the NBA that Professor Iwu should
resign as INEC Chair on account of the
said flaws.
- ONLID respectfully refers NBA to
similar flaws present in Florida in the
presidential contest between Gore and
Bush and the absence of any calls by
American Bar Association (ABA) for the
resignation of Jeb Bush, President
Bush’s brother who was responsible for
the elections in Florida as governor of
Florida or Kathleen Harris, the
Republican Secretary of State for
Florida who declared the controversial
result in Bush’s favor.
- ONLID believes that NBA should join
others in commending Professor Iwu for
daring to conduct the elections and
seeing to a successful transition
despite a faulty legal order and the
impossible obstacles posed to the
conduct of the elections by forces
outside Iwu’s control.
- NBA’s attempt to blame
Professor Iwu for the nullifications
issuing from the Election Tribunals must
fail because the governorship elections
so far reversed were not as a
consequence of any election misdeed on
the part of Iwu but for other reasons
primarily connected with the internal
politics of political parties and
constitutional questions outside of
Iwu’s jurisdiction and statutory duties.
- The Anambra reversal was as a
result of a constitutional question on
tenure that had nothing to do with
election irregularities. Iwu’s
responsibility was to conduct elections,
thus he has no business with a
constitutional question of first
impression on tenure properly lying
before the Supreme Court.
- In the case of Rivers State, it was
the PDP and not Iwu that made the
substitution at issue. And again, the
dispute presented to the Supreme Court
was a constitutional issue of first
impression that dealt with PDP’s
authority to substitute candidates.
- And in the other two states,
especially Kebbi, Professor Iwu had
absolutely nothing to do with errors
committed by the political parties and
their candidates; and again, it was not
due to any election irregularities
traceable to Iwu as head of INEC. The
issue in that case concerns the process
for properly decamping from one party to
the other – a matter completely outside
Iwu’s control and INEC’s statutory
purview
- ONLID encourages Iwu to stay on
because resignation is never an option
when election petitions are still
ongoing, and the nation needs some
stability represented by an
un-reconstituted INEC leadership on hand
to deal with any fallout from the
elections petitions. That was how the
matter was dealt with in Florida where
it would have been inappropriate for Jeb
Bush to resign as Governor while US
courts were still in the process of
determining the Gore versus Bush
presidential election petition.
- ONLID believes that Nigerian
people, President Yar’Adua and Professor
Iwu are well-meaning in the embrace of
full and well-ordered democratization of
the country and recognizes Nigeria’s
limited experience with elections due to
the stop-time brought by over three
decades of military rule in Nigeria.
- Therefore, as regards the elections
at issue, Iwu carried the weight of an
entire nation’s first and difficult
civilian to civilian transition in the
midst of a nationwide bedlam and a
faulty legal order of proportions
capable of putting paid to Nigeria as we
know. Iwu helped to save the day and it
is time to let him be.
- On the basis of the foregoing,
ONLID calls on the President of the
Nigerian Bar Association to consider
reversing his call for Iwu’s
resignation and join in the present
efforts by President Yar’Adua, citizens
of Nigeria (at home and Diaspora) and
foreign friends of Nigeria at
stabilizing the polity and making it
conducive for good order and prosperity.
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Signed: Aloy Ejimakor, Esquire
Convener/Executive Director
Washington DC, November 15, 2007
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