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Professor Iwu & The Judgement of History

April 23, 2009

Having read several books on the history of the world, not in one have I come across such a shameless character as Professor Maurice Iwu. Nowadays, I feel really embarrassed being a Nigerian when being a Nigerian means being a citizen of the same country as people like Maurice Iwu.

It is not as though the majority of Nigerians and the world are still shocked by whatever comes out of Iwu’s mouth any more. In any case, Madeleine Albright (one of the International Observers) to our last elections put it succinctly when she stated that “Professor Iwu suffers from delusional mentality”.


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Today, anyone who rightly chastises him is immediately accused of sour grapes. The proper thing is for this frakeinstein monster to be sober and hide away in shame. Instead, he has has taken a leaf out the life of Nazi Joseph Goebbels, Hitler’s Minister of Propaganda who was pulled down every wall of decency imaginable.

Even Wada Nas would stir in his grave at the idiotic statements that Iwu and his press boys daily churn out - statements that lack any logical value and cannot even convince a 7-year old child. At least, at the height of his campaigns and attacks on pro-democracy activists during the Abacha junta, Wada Nasty (as we loved to call him then in the students union movement) would, at times, add some logic to his warped utterances.

Iwu has not been able to do this and I see his retention in that office as a failure of the Nigerian Enterprise - one where virtue has become a vice and vice has become a virtue. This is even made all the more worrying by the high praise recently heaped on Iwu by Vice President Goodluck Jonathan. What a country!!!

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I am calling on democratic forces in Nigeria to keep this in mind - Maurice Iwu must not be allowed to go scotfree for the atrocities he has committed against our common destiny. It does not matter whether the Yar’Adua government canonise him now or for the next eight years, he must still be made to pay someday. I know that someday, for sure, a Pharaoh that does not know Joseph shall come to judgement and the chickens shall come home to roost.

After all, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in his poem on ‘Retribution’ posited that “Though the mills of God grind slowly, yet they grind exceeding small; Though with patience he stands waiting, with exactness grinds he all. In the same way Tafa Balogun was brought to justice, Iwu shall SURELY be brought to justice someday.

By the way, I would not want to close this piece without sharing a beautiful internet article I came across recently on -
http://votersawareness.org/Uba%20sues%20Iwu%20to%20court.htm - with everyone. Below are excerpts:

Maurice Iwu Professor of fraud

“Calls on the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission to quit get louder with damning verdicts on the 2007 polls by Election Petitions Tribunals across the country affirming his unacceptable stewardship. To the Japanese, some acts are deemed too shameful that the only acceptable form of atonement is for the person involved to put an end to his own life. Indeed, the word hara-kiri which can be freely interpreted to mean ‘suicide’ is one the most frequently used Japanese words, even among non-speakers of the language. About five months ago, Toshikatsu Matsuoka, the Asian country’s Farm Minister hung himself with a noose he made in his living room to escape impending opprobrium from investigations into his financial dealings. He reportedly left eight suicide notes in which he apologised to his compatriots for his conduct.

But many high-ranking Nigerian public officials seem not to have shame. And lately, nobody has demonstrated an amazing lack of shame like electoral umpire, Professor Maurice Iwu, whose conduct and utterances have riled his countrymen. As Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, the Chemistry professor presided over the 2007 elections, widely regarded by both local and international observers as the most fraudulent in the nation’s electoral history. The National Democratic Institute, NDI, an observer group led by former United States Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright, which was involved in monitoring the polls across many states, described the exercise as a “step backward in the conduct of elections in Nigeria ”. The Institute in its report noted that in many places and in a number of ways, the process failed, as the election organised by Iwu was marred by supply of inadequate voting materials, underage voting, lack of secrecy among other lapses. ”

In closing, I am convinced that history would be exceedingly unkind to Iwu. I just hope his children and children’s children do not have the opprobrium passed on to them.

 


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