January 21, 2009
In what finally confirms Nigeria as a practical joke, the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Prof. Maurice Iwu has served notice of his preparation to conduct another rounds of flawed elections in 2011.
“We will soon commence a formal opening of the 2011 electoral cycle. That of 2007 has gone a little longer but it has not been too long because in 2003 we had litigations that lasted until 2005. We hope that all the litigations will end soon” said Iwu who in a decent clime should be answering charges for electoral crimes by now.
The tone and confidence of Maurice Iwu leaves no one in doubt that President Umaru Yar'Adua may have decided to keep Iwu for another hatchet job the way he has kept the proceeds of the 2007 manipulated elections which he claimed was flawed.
Afenifere Renewal Group is concerned that it has sadly been proved right that the endorsement of the willful manipulation of the 2007 elections by the Supreme Court would only deepen impunity in our system. And this is why Iwu is only waiting for the rituals at the Tribunals to be over for him to start another vicious “electoral cycle”.
It would be recalled that following the shameful (s)elections conducted by INEC under Maurice Iwu in 2007, condemned by local and international observers as the worst ever in the history of elections worldwide, thousands of petitions were filed across the country. Despite the timidity of the apex court to do the needful at the highest level, some sections of the judiciary did the right thing by canceling the results declared by INEC in some States and indicting it for dereliction of duty and outright connivance with politicians to thwart the will of the electorates.
However as Nigeria is a country without moral finishing post nobody has been prosecuted or sanctioned for these criminal acts. Iwu who headed the nefarious activities has kept his job and is being held to lavish receptions by some of the Governors he rigged into office.
This has encouraged him to be at his loquacious best calling on America to come and learn from Nigeria s(electoral) system and saying that nothing spectacular happened in Ghana where the presidential elections went into two run-offs and there is no petition in court today. The ruling party also lost in that election because the Electoral Commission boss there unlike Iwu did not belong to it.
ARG warns the nation of the dire consequences of allowing Maurice Iwu and INEC as constituted to organize another round of elections. A compromised and integrity-bereft electoral body conducting the 2011 elections is a trip to Kenya instead of Ghana where we should be heading if America is too far a distance.
We must demand the immediate removal of Iwu as INEC boss and the reconstitution of INEC.
The reconstitution should be along the recommendations of the Uwais panel’s report, which may be on its way to the archives if we do not bring pressure to bear on the Yar'Adua Government.
As a starting point, we call on the leadership of the National Assembly to resolve their differences and allow the constitutional review process to start even if it's only the electoral reform that would be dealt with.
This call can only be ignored at the detriment of our democracy, which can only be imperiled if we allow the status quo in terms of electoral supervision to remain for shortsighted calculations by some politicians.
Yinka Odumakin
National Publicity Secretary
Afenifere Renewal Group
www.afenifererenewal.org
“We will soon commence a formal opening of the 2011 electoral cycle. That of 2007 has gone a little longer but it has not been too long because in 2003 we had litigations that lasted until 2005. We hope that all the litigations will end soon” said Iwu who in a decent clime should be answering charges for electoral crimes by now.
The tone and confidence of Maurice Iwu leaves no one in doubt that President Umaru Yar'Adua may have decided to keep Iwu for another hatchet job the way he has kept the proceeds of the 2007 manipulated elections which he claimed was flawed.
Afenifere Renewal Group is concerned that it has sadly been proved right that the endorsement of the willful manipulation of the 2007 elections by the Supreme Court would only deepen impunity in our system. And this is why Iwu is only waiting for the rituals at the Tribunals to be over for him to start another vicious “electoral cycle”.
It would be recalled that following the shameful (s)elections conducted by INEC under Maurice Iwu in 2007, condemned by local and international observers as the worst ever in the history of elections worldwide, thousands of petitions were filed across the country. Despite the timidity of the apex court to do the needful at the highest level, some sections of the judiciary did the right thing by canceling the results declared by INEC in some States and indicting it for dereliction of duty and outright connivance with politicians to thwart the will of the electorates.
However as Nigeria is a country without moral finishing post nobody has been prosecuted or sanctioned for these criminal acts. Iwu who headed the nefarious activities has kept his job and is being held to lavish receptions by some of the Governors he rigged into office.
This has encouraged him to be at his loquacious best calling on America to come and learn from Nigeria s(electoral) system and saying that nothing spectacular happened in Ghana where the presidential elections went into two run-offs and there is no petition in court today. The ruling party also lost in that election because the Electoral Commission boss there unlike Iwu did not belong to it.
ARG warns the nation of the dire consequences of allowing Maurice Iwu and INEC as constituted to organize another round of elections. A compromised and integrity-bereft electoral body conducting the 2011 elections is a trip to Kenya instead of Ghana where we should be heading if America is too far a distance.
We must demand the immediate removal of Iwu as INEC boss and the reconstitution of INEC.
The reconstitution should be along the recommendations of the Uwais panel’s report, which may be on its way to the archives if we do not bring pressure to bear on the Yar'Adua Government.
As a starting point, we call on the leadership of the National Assembly to resolve their differences and allow the constitutional review process to start even if it's only the electoral reform that would be dealt with.
This call can only be ignored at the detriment of our democracy, which can only be imperiled if we allow the status quo in terms of electoral supervision to remain for shortsighted calculations by some politicians.
Yinka Odumakin
National Publicity Secretary
Afenifere Renewal Group
www.afenifererenewal.org
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