The Sack of Maurice Iwu! NOT YET UHURU FOR NIGERIA'S FREE AND FAIRELECTION STRUGGLE

By Edo Benin

Much as i recall with nostalgia the immeasurable damage Prof. Maurice Iwu led Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has done to our body polity and psyche and my gratitude to God for his eventual removal as chairman of Nigeria's electoral umpire, i will beg Nigerians not to be hasty in wearing their dancing shoes, the reality is that it is only a MEANS and not an END of our struggle because it provides a vacancy for an appointment, but who will be eventually appointed and how much credibility he or she has should be our next round of struggle. As a social cultural activist, i sees this medium to task my fellow compatriots in the civil society and political parties to sustain the campaign for electoral reform and refrain from basking in the euphoria of Iwu's sack as though it amounts or immediately translate to free and fair election. I have read with patriotic concern the views expressed by prominent opinion leaders over the sack of Iwu and i cant reconcile the velocity of joy with the task ahead of us as a people and a nation. If it means organizing Town-Hall meetings to set credibility agenda for the Ag. President in terms of what the bio-data and pedigree of the person to be appointed should be, we should go ahead and starts now because time is of great essence. Above all, it is not entirely about Maurice Iwu, there are many Iwu's in the commission who deserves to be flushed out of the electoral institution if we are truly desirous of moving out of the web of laughing stock in the comity of nations.

The Ag. president must be commended for demonstrating very rare courage in taking the decision given the crudity of our elites and politics. The Ag. President must see to the holistic adoption of the Justice Uwaise Electoral reforms and ensures that credible Nigerians are saddled with the leaderships of the various sub-units of INEC which have been unbundled by the reform's report. I am not a pessimist, but sharing such inclinations are founded given historical antecedents of euphemism which lasted for a while. Some of us are ready to join the race for election in our local constituencies if the credibility of the UMPIRE is not watery, suspect and shady. In the new order of One man, one Vote which the Comrade Governor of Edo State seeks to entrench into our body polity and psyche, Nigerians must be willing to police all election activities from the process of voter's registration to election day and the declaration of results. The resilience of Edo people is cardinal in the assimilation of the new political order- one man, one vote. It is indeed shameful that after eighteen years of organizing the freest and fairest election under Prof. Nwosu led election umpire, we are yet to get our election right save for the Etsako House of Assembly re-run of January 2010, which was adjudged free and fair. Pointedly, Comrade Oshiomhole is not the initiator of the One Man One Vote doctrine of democracy, as this concept or doctrine is as old as man, the resort to this social-political campaign at this stage of our national life is a symptomatic expression of the decadence our political values evidenced by the years of bastardization of our value-system by our very crude and naive ruling elites. This campaign is not different from the YES WE CAN slogan of Barrack Obama during his presidential election campaign. I humbly call on Nigerians to support this clarion call to redefine and resuscitate our values and deliver our nation from the laughing-stock segment of the comity of nations. Hon. Aiyamenkhue Edokpolo, Senior Special Assistant to Edo State Governor- Politics and Strategy.