By Tony Edike
Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Maurice Iwu, admitted yesterday that the 2007 election was disrupted by the battle between then president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo and his deputy, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar.
The INEC helmsman recalled that few weeks to the election, the Economic and Financial Commission (EFCC), conducted an investigation, on the basis of which
some people were disqualified and sent the list of those disqualified to him, which he rejected.
He added that he subsequently got a white paper on the investigation, based on which the Attorney-General of the Federation wrote to him and insisted that
he must accept the government white paper.
He then queried: “Tell me the chairman of any government agency who will not accept or obey a white paper from government.
“When we interpreted the white paper, a lot of people were disqualified. But the Supreme Court interpreted it and said that nobody could be disqualified
except by the court of law. And the judgment of the Supreme Court was given on April 16, 2007. It was only few days to the election.”
“The logical thing to do was to postpone the election. We had printed the ballot papers. We made a contingency arrangement and it failed us. The AD candidate
died. We could have postponed the election but we insisted because there are people who will use it as sinister, people who don’t want the election to hold.
That was why we insisted that the election must hold. We were happy that it produced the will of Nigerians” Iwu stated.
The INEC boss who delivered a paper: ‘Whose Democracy Is It?’ at the Pre-Delegate Conference of the Nigerian Civil service Union in Enugu, said that even
before the election, he was convinced that only the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Umaru Musa Yar’Adua could have won the election.
Who is asking Iwu questions. Or have his sins started haunting him? Not just yet Ok?
If you are the head of the electoral commision and you have no allegiance to any Politician you call the shot. It is no point crying over spilled milk when elections should have been called off if you feel you are not ready.
In the UK the Electoral commision are not affiliated to any Politician or Political Party. There are lots of Educated people in Nigeria but the problem is not Education but how you apply that to common sense. Being Educated is not sufficient until you use the tool of Education in a real Life occurence. Due to inept Leader of the INEC the country is drifting into a failed state as People with no conscience use the mechanism of government to loot the treasury. The other madness is they get away with it. I think what can resolve all these mess is a revolution as enough is enough.