The Man!

“Example is not the main thing in influencing others; it is the only thing”
Albert Schweitzer

Maurice Iwu, the Chairman of the infamous Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) needs no extra introduction. He is the chairman. The Head boy. The man, who takes the glory (hardly any) and the knocks (a lot). He is what I call ‘the Man’! All those who cast their votes and those who expect the cast votes to give them a mandate to go serve their people, during those exercises we always conduct to shame ourselves, which we call elections, bye-elections, re-run elections, re-run of re-run elections and delayed (midnight) elections need not be introduced to the man who preside over the counting of the ballots that decide their fate, change their destiny or, give or smash their hopes. He is the hatchet man. The finisher of their fate. The decider of their mandate. And the Lucifer they see. This is a man whose consistent achievement is failure. Yet if you ignore him, you do so at your peril! He is indeed, ‘the Man’. And he is relishing the mish-mash of this great-paying, fame-giving and surely guaranteed job. What more can a man ask for?!

Having read, researched and followed news articles, video clips and conference papers, said and delivered by Maurice Iwu on behalf of himself, his congregation of conspirators (Commission?) and the tax-paying public, I have found it very hard to decipher between: His actions and his comments; His analysis of any electoral procedure or law and it’s final outcome; And mostly his ‘Christian conscience’ and the finishing desires of his heart. These parameters have never been in tandem with each other. Maurice Iwu has never been consistent.

He was ‘the Man’ that told us we needed electronic voting machines to help us achieve credible, free and fair elections; we rejected but he insisted, defended same and even when the National Assembly refused to appropriate fund for that angle of thought, he found a way ‘anyway’ to get us to see his reasons. At the end, ‘the Man’ failed. He was ‘the Man’ that bared all odds to declare Andy Uba as Governor of Anambra State, even when he knew there was no vacant position to fill at that particular time; we protested but he cajoled us, he coerced us and manipulated facts so that we could see to his reasons. At the end, ‘the Man’ failed. He was ‘the Man’ that coerced his Resident Electoral Conspirators in Edo, Rivers, Ondo, Ogun, Enugu, Sokoto, Kogi, Cross River, Oyo and Ekiti States in the 2007 electoral heist to announce results that were false even against the backdrop of widespread rejection, repulsion and resistance. We kicked and screamed ‘blue murder’ but he advised us, he begged us for understanding and even ordered us to go to court where his motive for our own good will is made manifest. He even bragged to us that at the end, we will see his good and reasonable intentions. At the end of it, ‘the Man’ failed. He was still the same ‘Man’ who told us that the Resident Electoral Conspirator for Ekiti State in the April 25th sham, ‘has broken down due to stress’ and had become ill and indisposed, while the double-faced, conscience-lacking Grandma was gathering techniques and perfecting strategies from a secluded Guest house somewhere in town. We were perplexed but he smiled at us, he begged us once again to understand and even asked us to pray for the quick recovery of ‘Grandma’. At the end of it all, he not only lied to the whole nation, he failed yet again. Maurice Iwu is failure personified! He is ever lying. He is ever smiling. He is ever changing his mood to suit any given occasion. He is ever the intellectual from the Academia but always uses that knowledge to plead for the acceptance of evil. Truly, he is ‘the Man’. And to cap it all, he is always failing. Always!

What will it take this man to conduct a free, fair and credible election in Nigeria? If we know and had not done anything to that effect, we would be willing to do so because those simple parameters are the least expected from his commission. But because I know we have done everything possible (and beyond) to support ‘the Man’, yet he chooses the path of dishonor and failure, I advice he save himself from perfidy and this exasperating conundrum: A warped ideological ineptitude and an ever consuming pathological abhorrence for success! We can do better without this man.

On a final note, I urge Maurice Iwu to, as a matter of public interest, define his and the Electoral Commission’s understanding of free and fair elections, collation of cast ballot and the announcement of actual votes cast. Although the 2006 Electoral act is very clear on this but because INEC and its SIEC’s do not follow them, we might actually want to know which statue book(s) is been used to conduct these shameful things we often do in the name of elections. A failure to follow this simple path of honor I have proposed, I will conclude that this man is deliberately deceiving us, using State machinery and outright lies to manipulate the sacred content of his oath of office. I am a Nigerian and feel ashamed when people like Maurice Iwu rubbish our efforts to re-create and re-position our affairs in the comity of Nations. I want to be proud of my country once again!

As J. Pierpont Morgan once said, “A man always has two reasons for everything he does: A good reason, and the real reason”, Maurice Iwu should also tell Nigerians including me, why Mrs. Ayoka Adebayo, the Resident Electoral Commissioner for Ekiti State in the April 25, 2009 re-run election, had to announce the results of Ido-Osi Local Government Area which she had earlier rejected. At this point, Sir, either of the two reasons will do because “Nothing that is morally wrong can be politically right” (William Gladstone).

After all, example is the only thing you can use in influencing others.