Before we hang Iwu
By Gbenga Ogunkoya, Lagos
Sunday, February 24, 2008
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•Iwu
Photo: Sun News Publishing |
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As the saying goes, when a people are so wrong for so long
as a result of doing the same thing, the failure is not a
result of lack of intelligence, but lack of will. For such
people, ignorance is a strategy. Their problems lie, not in
finding the truth but in facing it.
Prior to the 2007 April general elections, the country had
been worried by the ghosts of an unbroken jinx of failed beginning
since 1960. It is also a truism that the country’s politicians
have been the ones dictating and messing up the political
field.
Unfortunately however, not much attempts have been made to
correct or stem the tide of these excesses of the political
class from any quarter. Perhaps, we as a people lack the nerve
to question the audacity of these politicians, or because
we all seem to have vested interest and, are in a hurry to
vilify the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC)
chairman, Professor Maurice Iwu.
This endless bug of bungled elections in a way provided Iwu’s
INEC with genuine innovations on how to improve its conduct
by embarking upon thorough, novel and comprehensive preparations
for the last elections. Among these innovations were suggestions
on some defects on the Electoral Act 2006, which INEC pointed
out to the then National Assembly to look into. There were
introductions of permanent voter cards, which incorporated
vital biometric data from the electronic voters register as
well as the novel idea of customised ballot papers to minimised
ballot box stuffing.
Added to these were the intensive voter education/public enlightenment,
and the establishment of an electoral institute, in collaboration
with three Nigerian universities and the International Republican
Institute (IRI). Iwu also brought all major stakeholders in
the electoral process on board, gave a code of conduct to
both the 50 political parties and INEC staff and staked his
reputation and life by insisting that elections must hold
against all odds.
Just recently the INEC boss hinted on the commission’s
plan to embark on constituency delineation across the country
aimed at ensuring equity and justice in the polity. Iwu needs
to be encouraged to strengthen these strategies, which we
should all hope would deliver the kind of elections we desire.
It is needless reiterating the oft-stated position that elections
have not been perfect anywhere in the world, and indeed cannot
be. In the face of this reality however, no one really gave
the Iwu-led INEC a fair chance of conducting the last elections,
let alone getting the appreciable success he recorded.
But he braced the odds and gave what could be described as
the best out of that circumstance. So, much of the brouhaha,
which have trailed the last April polls could, in that sense,
be said to have been a product of naivety, or outright insincerity.
Managing elections in Nigeria would remain for now a challenge,
as it would take quite a while before democracy becomes entrenched
in the country. No thanks to prolonged military rule. Nigeria
is still just emerging from the near strangulation of military
rule coupled with heterogeneous society in which a culture
of impunity still subsists and the electorate yet to appreciate
its powers.
INEC, to be sincere, deserves commendations and not condemnations
given the very unfriendly environment in which it operated.
This is not to say, however, that there is no room for improving
the country’s electoral process and deepening democracy
in Nigeria. Elections no doubt are a necessity for every democratic
country because it is the only fair way for making a clear
choice between two or more competing opponents for public
office.
International community and organisations are also welcomed
to partner in elections provided they come with the purpose
to genuinely collaborate in advancing democracy without threatening
our stability. They should not under any guise attempt to
perpetuate the long-term aims of slavery and economic colonialism
to divide and conquer the people by tribe, creed, ethnicity,
religion and a ‘we-versus-them’ mentality that
have been their tactics. Attempt should also be made to curtail
purvey of wild statements that incite the people against themselves.
It was alleged that the European Union (EU) offerred some
money to Iwu and demanded pride of place at meetings of electoral
umpire. They were also said to have demanded unbridled access
to the biometric data on all registered voters. But a patriotic
Iwu, and a confident INEC refused the EU money and the demands
based on sound nationalistic sentiments and national security
considerations. The EU was said to have after the encounter
with unyielding Iwu begun an international and local campaign
aimed at harming the reputation of the nation’s election
and the INEC leadership. The sustained propaganda sowed discord
not only among politicians but also among the electorate themselves;
the political parties and the contestants for offices were
not left out. Nigeria’s other problems, like the militancy
in the Niger Delta and religious fundamentalism in Kano, were
exploited by unscrupulous politicians to cause disaffection.
In all these Iwu risked his life by refusing to play wimp
to any group. INEC and the concerned authorities did a very
good job in saving Nigeria another sad story in our history.
Iwu and INEC have actually been vindicated against the backdrop
of what is happening to Kenya currently.
There was an allegation that Kenya’s electoral commission
accepted the controversial demands Iwu had rejected and thus
paved the way for a situation that has made the foreign observers
the ultimate electoral umpires for a sovereign and hitherto
stable nation.
For the handling of her national security according to reports,
Kenyans now have to turn against themselves, for the first
time in its post-colonial history. With over 1,000 people
reported to have been killed by mob and the alleged ethnic
cleansing, and more than 300,000 people displaced and turned
to refugees, the same EU is offering a hand to help settle
the problem many believed they fueled. But for Iwu’s
courage and patriotism, Nigeria would have been in the mess
that Kenya is today.
We must begin the search for a truly free and fair election
by weighing the role of foreign election monitors. We must
clearly define where their roles begin and end. Their influence
on local electoral logistics must be curbed in order not to
invite the Kenyan experience in future. These foreign observers/monitors
should not be seen as the final arbiters of our elections
or be made to arrogate the powers and reach of our national
electoral umpires to themselves.
Part of the effort to sanitise the system therefore, should
be to encourage aggressive information management to counter
any negative misinformation that attempts to discredit our
electoral umpires and the institutions we have in place at
any given point in time. Lessons can be learned from India,
Taiwan, South Africa, and other emerging democracies, which
have done well at countering negative press and succeeded
in projecting an acceptable level of electoral purity.
Most importantly, we must understand that electoral tribunals
and judgments issued from them are part of the overall process
of elections, even in advanced democracies.
We must refrain from this infantile tendency to celebrate
yet another nullification of an election as further proof
of how rotten our elections have been. Let us understand our
electoral process; INEC plays the same role with the courts
in the electoral process. The courts only complement the work
of INEC and elections are deemed not to have been concluded
until they have gone through the entire gamut of the judicial
process.
It will be unfair to call for resignation of Iwu merely because
a result he declared had been overturned without also calling
for the mass resignation of all trial judges whose judgments
are overturned on appeal. Let us see the various reports and
tribunal pronouncements as having given Nigerians clear insights
into the pre and post election events with a view to helping
the nation chart the way forward, not a lee-way to hang Iwu.
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