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A sacred cow called Maurice iwu

March 4, 2009
Let us start from the beginning; Maurice Iwu was appointed Nigeria’s electoral Czar by the despot Olusegun Obasanjo, on the recommendation of the poseur, Nnamdi ‘Andy’ Uba. And so beholden to ‘Andy’ Uba was the controversial Professor Maurice Iwu that he used to address Nnamdi ‘Andy’ Uba: “YES SIR”! The appointment was specifically for a purpose; Obasanjo held Iwu hostage, given the controversy surrounding his entire public service history, to ensure that the 2007 elections were massively rigged, including the component of awarding the fake “Doctor” Nnamdi ‘Andy’ Uba governorship of Anambra State. The poseur strutted around the stage for a while as “governor”, before the courts mercifully, threw out the joker!


The background above is very important to deconstruct the Maurice Iwu phenomenon. I have written here in the past, that Maurice Iwu needs to be permanently on the offensive. Of course, Iwu realizes the monumental fraud which his electoral body perpetrated against the Nigerian people in 2007, but he must keep defending it. Why? Maurice Iwu cannot allow the demystification of his electoral performance, so as not to risk the breaching of the fortress he carefully constructed to protect a very controversial history in virtually everything that he has done in the past. Maurice Iwu is therefore the past master in the practice of attack as best form of defense!

Last week, Maurice Iwu reminded Nigerians that he is far and above any democratic wish for change. Speaking at the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies, Iwu bragged that nobody can remove him and he won’t give the Nigerian people the pleasure of resigning. But trust Iwu to put a self-serving spin on the story. Clever by a half, the controversial professor tried to rescue a rational kernel of intellectual sophistry from the clamour for him to vacate the INEC position. “Now that 2011 elections are around the corner, politicians are back at their old games”, according to Iwu, “…the idea is to push Iwu out and scheme in their preferred candidates… to help them win elections”. Unfortunately for Iwu, he does not seem to realise that he is also telling us that he is sitting tight, to help his own “preferred candidates... win elections”. And given the scale of the heist that he presided over electorally in 2007, the Nigerian people know where his preferences lie.

Iwu’s delusions are far deeper than most Nigerians suspect. On the issue of the nation-wide call that he should resign or be sacked, one which LEADERSHIP newspaper’s poll of Sunday, March 1, 2009, says reaches 90% of Nigerians, Iwu responded that “when people demand that I resign, I refused because that would have been the most unpatriotic(that old refuge of scoundrels!) thing to do; if I am not able to solve the problem, then I can contemplate resignation, but I am more than equal to solving the problem, I have no doubt about that”. In Iwu’s world of delusions, his problem is not that he has been unashamedly partisan, when he was expected to show independence; or the fact that he presided over the worst elections in Nigerian history, one that revolts the conscience of good people around the world; No. In his peculiar manifestation of a persecution complex, his problem arises from a section of the political elite. Mr. Iwu asks, in pretentious broadness of political wisdom, “How does the society curb the excesses of individuals and ensure that all citizens are subject to the same law… (As if we have all forgotten how he was a willing instrument of Obasanjo’s unlawful efforts to break the law before the 2007 election!)?

Maurice Iwu described Nigeria’s deformed democratic process as “marked by rampaging primitive accumulation of resources and unrestrained deployment of the resources”; very well said, except that he somehow forgets that one of the clearest expressions of that “unrestrained deployment of (primitively accumulated) resources, include his mentor, the nonentity, Nnamdi ‘Andy’ Uba that he assisted to rig into office as Anambra State governor, until the courts liberated the Anambra people. When he talked about the “stubborn persistence of the syndrome of the African big man with its attendant disdain for the laws of the land and sundry manifestations of indiscipline”, was anyone guiltier than Olusegun Obasanjo? Yet Maurice Iwu was a willing accomplice in Obasanjo’s shenanigans! To crown Maurice Iwu’s absurdities, he added that “the process of the elections would have been better if various individuals in positions of authority and influence obeyed the laws of the land and did not operate above the law (REALLY?). Some of them even do not want to obey their party constitution”. Again, a good observation, except that Maurice Iwu was actually describing the process that he willfully participated in foisting on Nigeria’s political process. He was Nnamdi ‘Andy’ Uba’s “preferred candidate” and remained a puppet on a string used to commit horrible electoral crimes against the Nigerian people.

But there are facts known to Maurice Iwu, which Nigerians seem to ignore every time we ask for his sack. Iwu is part of a complex of electoral fraud which holds the present political system in the country together: from the presidency, through gubernatorial quarters and the legislative redoubts of the country. Most of the beneficiaries of the 2007 heist will defend Iwu. That is why the DAILY TRUST of Friday, February 27, 2009, which exclusively reported that Iwu will be sacked in June, as part of Yar’adua’s reform process, also said that Maurice Iwu got the backing of the Senate, through the Chairman of the Committee on INEC, Senator Isiaka Adeleke. Adeleke said that Iwu “has performed well and doesn’t need to be removed”. When the issue returned to Senate this week, Senator Mamora insisted that Adeleke’s earlier vote of confidence did not represent the stance of Senate. DAILY TRUST of Wednesday, March 4, 2009, reported that the situation degenerated into a shouting match as a result of which a division was called and the voting went along party line….PDP senators (main beneficiaries of Iwu’s work) overwhelmingly voted against the motion thereby upholding the position of Senator Adeleke and ten other senators that have expressed confidence in the performance of …Iwu”. So if ever there was a political sacred cow in Nigeria today, that individual is Maurice Iwu. He benefitted those who matter politically and they are in lock steps to ensure he survives; no wonder he brags that nobody can sack him, and has started what he called a “new electoral cycle”. You have, dear reader, an additional reason, why we might never have free elections in this land.

ISA YUGUDA AS CBN GOVERNOR? MR. PRESIDENT, NO PLEASE!
The story first broke on the online journalism site, SAHARA REPORTERS, that President Yar’adua will appoint Bauchi State Governor, and his most recent in-law, Isa Yuguda as the next CBN governor. By last week, it appeared in other national dailies too. Please Mister President, DON’T! With respect to Yuguda, who had a distinguished banking career before entering politics, I do not question his pedigree. But such an appointment will send the wrong signals: a regime locked into a most brazen form of nepotism! That is not a reputation that Yar’adua wants to gain ground in the country. I have long canvassed that Charles Soludo’s tenure should not be renewed, but to appoint Yuguda as his replacement will just be inappropriate.
Even if we argue that it is the turn of a Northerner to become CBN Governor, especially given the controversies which have dogged Soludo’s tenure, I believe that Yar’adua should reflect carefully upon who he appoints to replace Soludo from the North. There have been rumblings about the provincialism at the heart of the Yar’adua presidency, especially the overwhelming influence of a coterie of sidekicks from the president’s days as governor. That is also tied to appointments which people whisper are directly related to the presidential homestead. It will not be proper to deepen the feeling that there is no presidential sensitivity to accusations of nepotism. I have nothing against Isa Yuguda, but it will not be appropriate to name him CBN Governor!


RE: THE PDP COMMITTEE ON THE RE-ELECTION OF ENG. SEGUN ONI
THE PUNCH newspaper of Wednesday, 25th February, 2009 carried a full page advert from the National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, which listed a team “to ensure the return of PDP candidate, Eng. Segun Oni to the Ado Ekiti Government House”. It contained some of the most recurrently controversial figures of recent years in Nigeria: Bode George: a political clown; Jerry “AGIP” Gana, hand maiden of all regimes, from military dictators to a civilian despot; Richard “12 2/3” Akinjide; Ebino “former Awoist” Babatope, just to mention a few. The missing names? Olusegun “Do-or-Die” Obasanjo and Maurice “Best Elections in the world” Iwu! PDP is on the move again- Ekiti people should be vigilant, sleep with an eye open and ready their brooms to sweep scum from their land; otherwise…!
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