Any Nigerian who knows and loves this country will agree that the sack of Prof. Maurice Iwu, the out going chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, is long expected and indeed over due. Many Nigerians and stakeholders in the polity have at least said so. Iwu does not require a referendum for him to know that he is no longer wanted on the seat. What this means is that in June when his tenure will expire, Iwu must embark on a final exit.

It is very unfortunate that some Nigerians had to campaign for the retention of the out going INEC boss. What do those people want? For Iwu to remain and perpetuate electoral fraud? Those persons don’t mean well for the country. I believe that the pro-Iwu campaigners were sponsored. Else how could they support an INEC boss whose tenure was characterised by poor performance and brazen partisanship.

There is no doubt that Prof. Iwu is regarded as the most maligned of all the electoral umpires in the country since independence. He is responsible for the shoddy conduct of the 2007 polls which is considered the worst in the history of the nation. Late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, by that polls, admitted the defectness of the election. He then set up an electoral reform committee to recommend ways acceptable election could be conducted in the country. The recommendations of the committee is yet to see the light of day.

As if the flaws of 2007 polls were not enough, INEC’s handling of re-run elections left much to be desired. Such re-run polls were conducted in favour of the ruling party. No wonder its national chairman, Prince Vincent Ogbulafor, once boasted that the party would rule Nigeria for 60 years. And when the dust raised by such audacious pronouncement was about to settle, Ogbulafor fired more salvoes by comically adding another 40 years to his earlier 60, thus awarding PDP an eternal reign over Nigeria.

There is nowhere INEC demonstrated insensitivity than the Ekiti re-run polls. Before the polls, Iwu boasted that the umpire had learnt its lessons and that Ekiti would be a litmus for INEC. He assured Nigerians of free and fair poll. The actual poll proved Iwu wrong in all counts. The election in Ekiti got to a point where the resident electoral commissioner, REC, Mrs. Ayoka Adebayo, did the unthinkable by resigning mid-way in flawed process. The REC had to resign because according to her, her Christian convictions could not withstand the manipulations that went on in the election which the PDP eventually won.

But Nigerians can no longer be fooled again. The Ekiti saga was an indication that if given the chance to continue in his position, Iwu could not have performed better. What about the Anambra case? Although Iwu prides himself upon the Anambra election, Nigerians know that it was also riddled  with avoidable flaws. The voter’s register was a sham. And two thirds of those who came out to vote had their names missing on the register. In the midst of the flaws noticed in these post-2007 election, how could Iwu claim perfection?

As Iwu vacates office, let whoever may be appointed hereafter know that Nigerians want a departure from the present INEC. They want a more credible INEC chairman that would not be controlled by any political party. They want a non-partisan, detached and disinterested INEC chairman. We do not want an INEC chairman who depends on a retinue of well-rewarded warped journalists and their incoherent and illogical trash, dubbed essays, to remain in power. 

The handwriting on the wall is that Iwu should go. He did what he could do. To him he might have done marvelously well and scored himself high, but Nigerians think otherwise. To Nigerians, Iwu performed below average and should exit.

If a workman did his first job well, there is every  likelihood that he would be invited to  work again. But if the opposite is the case, no amount of campaign would bring him back to the job. The lesson of life is that there is time for everything. For Iwu, this is the time to go.

Arnold Alalibo