By Adebolu Arowolo
For Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, the Chairman, Board of Trustees of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, Iwu did nothing unusual and there is no point removing him. Speaking at a recent forum held in the US, the civil war hero was so impressed by Iwu‘s performance that he went to the extreme of comparing the despised INEC boss with Jesus Christ. Not even Jesus Christ, according to the former president, could have conducted a more credible election”. With all due respect, if Jesus Christ could come to the world and be the chairman of INEC, any election he would conduct will be disputed,” Baba reportedly said.
That was a vote of confidence on Iwu by Baba. The electoral umpire did a nice job for the ruling party. I know that if the chief priest of amala and gbegiri politics were alive, he would have also described Iwu‘s performance in superlative terms. Chief Lamidi Adedibu it was who, during the bungled voters‘ registration exercise of the time, successfully ‘captured‘ six out of the few Data Capture Machines available in Oyo State, put them in his house and immediately proceeded to load the registration devices with fake and fictitious names. Adedibu and many other corrupt politicians escaped without being tried for the alleged fraud and hooliganism perpetrated during the elections.
Since Adedibu, just like Iwu, was seen as having acted in the interest of the ruling party, he was never brought to justice. Apart from the curious eulogy and praise being showered on Iwu by his admirers, there is this depressing information that the controversial former INEC boss is about to be officially compensated for helping many members of the ruling class to ‘win‘ election and for the ‘juicy‘ contracts awarded to top party stalwarts. For these ”exceptional services,” Iwu may soon become Nigeria‘s ambassador to Brazil or to any other nonwestern nation that is comfortable with the electoral umpire and the flawed elections of 2007. The plan to compensate Iwu clearly demonstrates the bewildering contradiction in the management of our national affairs. Those who should be in jail for committing heinous crimes against the nation are being praised and given higher positions of responsibility.
I have heard the puerile argument that we can not have a credible election unless we are able to change the conduct of politicians and make every Nigerian behave properly during elections. Such thinking is meretricious and fraudulent because we did not have to change anybody‘s behaviour when we conducted a free and credible election in 1993. All we did was to put a transparent and self-monitoring electoral system called the open-secret ballot in place. America did not have to change the behaviour of individuals before producing a credible election that threw up President Barack Obama.
Human progress has always relied heavily on the far-sightedness of a few creative people who are able to drive others in the right direction. Correct leadership is the key to the success of organisations and societies. When you see a firm or nation making progress, go and look at the quality of its leadership. I completely agree with Arthur Lewis‘ statement that the most plausible of explanations for development is the accident of leadership. According to the great economist, if an organisation or nation ”is fortunate to have a good leader, born at a crucial time in its history, who catches all the imaginations of his people and guides them through a formative experience, he will create traditions and legends and standards, which wear themselves into the thinking of the people and govern their behaviour through many centuries.” Remember Singapore and Lee Kwan Yew? What great nations do is to build great institutions from the foresight and standards set by great leaders in order to guide the behaviour and conduct of the people. OBJ must therefore admit that it was bad leadership at the national and INEC levels that led to the electoral fiasco of 2007.
The nation is not making much progress because those who should be led are themselves being rigged into important leadership positions. Jonathan should therefore ignore all those clamouring for Iwu‘s rehabilitation. Otherwise, he is going to spoil the good work he has started on electoral reform. Jonathan must not be seen to be rewarding the incompetence and fraud of 2007 which tarred the country‘s image. Above all, any attempt to give a soft landing to Iwu will immediately send the wrong signal that this administration is also comfortable with impunity.
What Nigerians expect Jonathan to do immediately is to bring Iwu to justice on the electoral heist of 2007 and the various failed contracts awarded by the electoral umpire. I remember for instance how Iwu promised the nation that all results would be electronically transmitted from all parts of the country to INEC headquarters in Abuja. For that purpose, INEC allegedly awarded a N6 billion contract to a firm owned by a senator to install 1,000 VSAT transceivers. Less than 10 per cent of these were installed and they all failed to work because the devices procured were outmoded. There were so many of such failed contracts running into billions of naira. There were also hefty donations by international donor agencies, which INEC has not accounted for. The anti-graft agencies must therefore move in immediately to assist Iwu to set the record straight. There is no hope that things will ever be done rightly if all those who do things wrongly continue to escape justice.
Beyond Iwu, let us reform the electoral system as quickly as possible. A credible and competent person must replace Iwu. Among other changes we require, let the appointment of the new electoral umpire be done by an independent body as recommended by the Uwais panel. Let the nation also go back to the open-secret ballot system of 1993, which allowed close monitoring of votes directly by the people. Iwu and his INEC determined those who voted and those who ‘won‘ the elections in 2007. That is why corrupt politicians are singing his praise. The ballot box must now be empowered to reflect the people‘s will.
The Punch
