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Prof. Iwu refereeing Nigeria's 2007 elections,
Obasanjo's party and international community
BY CHIDO NWANGWU in Abuja (Nigeria) and Houston, Texas. See
INTERVIEW, below.
April 2, 2006, USAfrica, Houston, Texas:
Prof. Maurice Mmaduakolam Iwu, born on April 21, 1950 in the
eastern Imo State of Nigeria, has the extraordinary historical
coincidence of refereeing the presidential elections in Nigeria on
the day of his 57th birthday. Evidently,
he
has the most challenging "government work" in Nigeria, today, except
being the president of Nigeria. He undertsands his job is not an easy
one; not by the facts of the controversial history of elections, his
predecessors' ratings and the compelling realities and interests
competing in today's Nigeria. Iwu, Chairman of the Independent
National Electoral Commission (INEC) is, yet another, scholar in
government -- with high expectations to perform.
To have a first-hand look and feel for the preparations for the
all-im
portant
2007 elections in Nigeria, I flew from Houston to Nigeria; spending
some time in Abuja, Owerri, Port Harcourt and Lagos. Listening to him
in his office at the headquarters of Nigeria's elections body, INEC
in Abuja, you can tell the bio-resources and pharmacognosy specialist
is determined to make history on the side of progress despite the
odds. But his focus on the logistics of the elections and litigations
of aspirants in the law courts have kept him in the eye of the
storm.
Some key members of the opposition parties insist he's doing
President 
Obasanjo's
bidding, and in part Anambra's Andy Uba's (who they allege had a hand
in Iwu's appointment). He scoffs at both allegations and dismisses
them as reflecting empty speculation-- citing a previously unreported
story (he told USAfrica and CLASS the story) about the late
application entry of one of the Obasanjo family friends. The fellow's
inability to make the qualification deadline set by INEC
was not overlooked by a friendly discussion
involving Obasanjo, Iwu and the president's daughter, the ruling PDP
senate candidate Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello (see exclusive report below).
This former professor at the Univeristy of
Nigeria Nsukka (where he still fondly recalls we first met in the
early 1980s --with me as a student of political science/public
administration) has to contend with the pre-election assessments and
expectations of Nigerians and the international community.
While he sees himself as a visionary and
strategically-minded public servant, his critics argue that the INEC
which he leads has been unrealistic in planning and not fully
prepared for the mamoth challenges ahead of the 2007 elections. Also,
the Alliance for Democracy whose presidential candidate died in March
2007 has demanded same "based on the laws of Nigeria...." INEC says
no, the elections will go on. The same position is held by Obasanjo's
government. The opposition spearheaded by the Action Congress (led by
Obasanjo's VP Atiku Abubakar) has charged INEC of flagrant disregard
of the law courts and the law.
Amidst some of the court challenges and logistical issues,
there are some traditional rulers, political activists and partisans
and civil rights protagonists who are calling for the April 2007
elections to be postponed. The new Sultan of Sokoto Alhaji Muhammad
Sa'ad Abubakar III is the most visible and powerful Nigerian who
spoke while I was in Nigeria in March 2007 that "We cannot sit down,
fold our arms and say everything is OK." Obasanjo dismissed those
saying the elections will not hold as "speaking from their
nose"!!
But the American and international communities (the dominant
demographics of USAfrica, USAfricaonline.com, The Black Business
Journal and CLASSmagazine's readership) may not need to focus on what
colorful parts of the human anatomy Nigerian leaders speak from as
long as the elections are seen to be fair, free and reflecting the
will of the people. An unstable transition will set Nigeria back,
again! Mainly through 2006 and into 2007, some international
investors have remained wary, watching, hesitant to expand new
investments; they are waiting to see if the emerging
liberalization/privatization of the economy will be matched with
political plurality. Iwu fully understands the connection. The
violence and terror in the Niger Delta have complicated the oil and
gas business as much as it has the voting logistics in the area. I
was in Port Harcourt, the nerve center of daily petroleum commercial
activity in the area. The Niger Delta will be quite intersting to
watch.
At the end of the day, the success of the INEC in running a
free, fair and accurate election will help move Nigeria's democracy
forward. On the other hand, any shenagigans or any facts indicating
that the powerful INEC is siding the president's ruling PDP party
will cast a long shadow on the determination of Iwu, a scholar and
policy thinker to institutionalize voting and electoral ethos in the
largest democracy in Africa.
Prof. Iwu told me that contrary to the charges of lack of full
preparedness, the INEC has marshalled out the logistical support and
electronic platforms to revolutionize and improve the elections
landscape of Nigeria. Only in a few weeks, the rubber will hit the
road , and the final test of INEC's efforts and Iwu's vision will be
seen across ballot boxes and results across the far-flung
geo-political arenas of Nigeria. One fact I can tell him: both the
winners and losers of the elections will mention his name for good or
bad.
•By Chido Nwangwu, in Abuja (Nigeria) and Houston, Texas.The
following are excerpts from our exclusive interview in Abuja.
Chido@USAfricaonline.com. wireless: 832-45-CHIDO (24436)
Chido/USAfrica/CLASS: In terms of the preparations for the
April 2007 Nigerian elections, you've engaged a lot of technological
investments, in seeking, as you stated sometime ago, to minimize
electoral malpractices and accuracy in outcome. How far has that
project gone?
INEC CHAIRMAN, PROF. MAURICE IWU: The project is going very well,
we had earlier wanted it to be all electronic, but we had to deal
with the reality on ground. Namely that the politicians themselves
were not ready for that outright and full immersion (into
technology). So we decided then to allow the process to be by manual
voting; but to have an electronic environment enveloping the system.
What it means is that we would be able to facilitate the process
electronically, whereas the ordinary voter would not see anything
wrong with what his doing. It would be the same ballot paper; the
same method he has always voted. But the difference is that it is
electronically controlled, that we are in an environment that the
voters register is electronic, the transmission of the data is
electronic. The communication platform is improved upon, and over
time we hope we would only have to deal with more technological
platforms for elections in Nigeria, and it would reduce significantly
this time the rigging. And, hopefully in future it would stamp out
completely any possibility of anybody rigging.
There are two ways you can prevent rigging. One is to appeal to
somebody's own moral conscience and tell the person not to do it. The
other way is to prevent the person from doing it even if he wants to,
we do and are doing both.
Chido/USAfrica/CLASS: The other areas of managing the elections
include the related issues of electoral violence, partisan violence,
forgery, and so on. If you will weaken the capacity of people to
compete fairly and squarely, the outcomes are no longer fair. How
does INEC come into this issue?
INEC CHAIRMAN, PROF. MAURICE IWU: INEC directly has no role in the
security setup. But we do try to call the attention of the security
agents on one hand, as to the dangers of electoral violence and on
the other hand we then talk to the Nigerian people ourselves, educate
them as to the dangers of electoral violence. Much more importantly
is the fact that the same people who should benefit more from an
orderly election are the people who are being used, most times, to
create havoc (and violence). So it is a double jeopardy for them, and
we need to point out that to them. Nobody recruits the son or
daughter of a millionaire to get into political party violence; it's
going to be the son or daughter of a poor man. If the economy goes
bad if the election doesn't go well, who suffers more? It's the same
poor man and poor woman. So it's really not good for an ordinary
average Nigerian to get involved in such violence.
Chido/USAfrica/CLASS: The International community and
countries, as you know, remain very interested in what happens in
Nigeria. Share with USAfrica and CLASSmagazine readers the
International implications of the planned April 2007 Nigerian
elections which you are conducting as national elections chairman.
What does it mean for business, the policy environment especially
expanding the legal space for Nigeria's democratization.
INEC CHAIRMAN, PROF. MAURICE IWU: We are happy that the
International community is showing interest in what we are doing, but
we don't really want to miss the point that the election is for
Nigerians. For us it is very important that we have a smooth
transition from one civilian elected government to another. This is
our first time to achieve this feat. And if we or when we
successfully achieve it, I think we would be able to tell the world
that Nigeria has indeed been able to accomplish something that people
believed and thought was a jinx for the country. We hope that at the
end of the day it would help sustain the economical reform that our
country undertook within the last four (4) years, particularly.
Chido/USAfrica/CLASS: So if a politician is evidently and
materially seen as practicing violence and promoting violence, INEC
cannot sanction him or her? Or would you sanction with the
recommendation of the security agencies?
INEC CHAIRMAN, PROF. MAURICE IWU: We can sanction the person
because the person is breaking the law, but most times we don't have
any law enforcement power per se. It would be the law enforcement
agency that ultimately that will still have to apprehend the person.
Even in the election proper it is the presiding officer who will call
the attention of the law enforcement people that something is going
wrong.
Chido/USAfrica/CLASS: Also regarding the powers of the INEC and
the constitution, a major issue that you have had to deal with is
regarding qualifying or as you said yesterday (March 15, 2007, at the
INEC headquarters conference room in Abuja) that the constitution
"precludes" certain persons for "certain reasons" or factors. That
position has become a very controversial issue as you can imagine. On
the pages of all the newspapers (March 16, 2007) they had the picture
of the Vice President in crutches, some reading "INEC removes Atiku",
"Broken", or "INEC disqualifies the Vice President Atiku...." Did you
state, specifically, that the INEC does not have powers to
disqualify.
INEC CHAIRMAN, PROF. MAURICE IWU: Yes. We have never disqualified
anybody, we don't even have such authority and we have never claimed
such authority. All we say is that some people, ab initio, and the
courts agree with us, have been precluded from participating in the
April 2007 elections. Just like no Ghanian can contest for election
in Nigeria. The constitution precluded Ghanians.... I keep saying
Ghanaians because we are neighbors , let us use Sierra Leoneans for a
change. No Sierra Leonian can suddenly come to contest here. It also
said nobody less than a certain age can actually contest. Having said
that, let me make the point that all the political parties that had
candidates that were mentioned in the indictment process they changed
them all. If you had four hundred and something people and they were
all changed except one, then you know that something is wrong
there.
We are talking about systems here not individuals, and we have to
preserve the systems for (the good of all). So, I don't want to go
into the details of that because frankly we are surprised that
anybody is raising issues along those line. But this is Nigeria; this
is politics and the media are only doing what they can to sell their
papers and appeal to people who can listen to them. But frankly this
issue shouldn't even be an issue at all.
Chido/USAfrica/CLASS: It is an issue; and if you permit me to
follow up on it. I also read you know, for lack of better word I will
qualify it as a threat. Atiku's party, Action Congress (AC), says
that the 2007 elections will not hold if their candidate is
disqualified. They cited what happened in Ivory Coast that (should
INEC and the President Olusegun Obasanjo's government continue on
this path), the 2007 elections without Atiku allowed to contest will
only bring in instability, chaos, anarchy and all other emanations of
violence and political breakdown in the country. Does INEC take this
threat seriously?
INEC CHAIRMAN, PROF. MAURICE IWU: Well that is a matter for the
Government and security agents. My job is to manage the electoral
process and that is what we are doing the best we can. If people make
threats it's not my job frankly to respond. I don't even hear them,
because only when you talk about ballot box, ballot paper and votes
that's what interest me most. It has nothing to do with national
security issues, we don't know very much there.
CLICK
here for EXCERPTS from part 2 of our exclusive interview in
Abuja