By Cohereome Nnanna
THERE was no way that Professor Maurice Iwu would have been a credible electoral umpire. His naked political adventurisms before, during and even now after his sojourn as the Chairman of the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) suggest that he could not have been an unbiased umpire.

Maurice Iwu must stand out as the only former chairman of the nation’s electoral body that has now become some kind of political kingmaker. Before him came Chief Michael Ani, closely followed by retired Justice Victor Ovie-Whiskey (of the “I will faint if I see one million naira” fame).

When General Ibrahim Babangida came to power and started the electoral phase of his transition programme he appointed Professor Eme Awa, who later resigned to be replaced by his former student, my teacher and the most successful electoral chief so far, Professor Humphrey Nwosu.

When General Abacha took over, he appointed Professor Okon Uya to dismantle Nwosu’s National Electoral Commission and instead set up the National Electoral Commission of Nigeria (NECON), which Chief Sumina Dagogo-Jack headed, to conduct Abacha’s aborted transitional elections.

Since the dawn of the renascent democracy in 1998, we have seen Justice Ephraim Akpata, Dr Abel Guobadia, Professor Iwu and now Professor Attahiru Jega mount the hot seat of the INEC. What stood Iwu apart from the rest was that he was the only electoral chief seen to have been sponsored by a vested political interest, such as the Uba political clan of Anambra State, which wielded enormous influence during the President Olusegun Obasanjo political era. From the moment his sponsors were known, Iwu never had a moment of peace.

But he had the necessary thick skin to shrug off the challenges of being portrayed as a misfit for the job. He conducted elections the whole world came here and scored abysmally low, some of which the courts overturned and awarded victories to those sidelined by Iwu’s umpireship.

The late President, Umaru Yar’Adua, even owned up that his election was flawed and promised to give the nation better polls in the future and hence the Justice Uwais Panel. Not the least bothered, Iwu awarded himself over 80 per cent pass mark.

Towards the end of his tenure he embarked on subtle and open campaigns for a second term in office, also an unprecedented political footwork. While President Yar’Adua was still in power, Iwu had almost concluded plans for a second term. He had already brought majority of the National Assembly members and the high command of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) behind him.

In fact, Iwu had already published the time table for the transitional activities leading up to the 2011 elections full of hope that he would be on seat to carry them out. But the demise of Yar’Adua and the pressure of both local and international stakeholders aborted his dreams as he had to be booted out by President Goodluck Jonathan.

Among the personal political gains that Iwu scored for himself was the appointment of his younger brother, Cosmas Iwu, and daughter, Ijeoma Iwu, into the cabinet of Governor Ikedi Ohakim. Apparently, Ohakim saw Iwu as one of those who gave him the chance to emerge as governor and decided to return the favour. The circumstances of the Imo governorship election were beyond anyone’s political calculations as the auguries changed rapidly, thus ending in an unforeseen outcome.

Senator Ifeanyi Araraume had emerged as the winner of the PDP governorship primaries. Instead, the Party, at the instance of President Obasanjo, gave the ticket to Charles Ugwu. While Araraume went to court to reclaim his mandate, Sir Ikedi Ohakim left the PDP to continue his quest for a ticket under the banner of the Progressive Peoples Alliance (PPA).

When the courts entered judgement in Araraume’s favour, the PDP decided, rather sensationally, to opt out of the governorship race. A decision was initially made to support the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) candidate, Chief Martin Agbaso, for the December 14, 2007 governorship poll.

On polling day, trouble broke out all over Imo State , forcing the Maurice Iwu-led INEC to discontinue the governorship election, which was postponed to April 28. By then, water had passed under the bridge and the PDP changed its mind and decided to deploy its machinery in favour of PPA’s Ohakim who emerged winner.

Whether or not Iwu played a script in stopping the April 14 poll is not within the scope of this article. Some, however, argue that it must have helped in Ohakim opting to elevate Cosmas Iwu from a PDP official in the state to the Secretary to the State Government, while Miss Ijeoma Iwu became the Governor’s Special Adviser.

The Governor and the Iwu “political family” cohabited very well until the just concluded election primaries when Maurice Iwu decided to draft Cosmas to the Senate and Ijeoma to the House of Reps. Both failed at the primaries. This infuriated Iwu who felt that the Governor, in not influencing the primaries in their favour, was responsible for their failure.

The consequence is that the Iwu political family has now joined and is financing the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) which is now the political gathering point of all former PDP leaders who disagreed with Ohakim or lost their political contests.

It will be interesting to see how Maurice Iwu would appear in a party that contains the likes of Governors Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State, Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State and Rauf Aregbesola of Osun against whom Iwu’s INEC awarded election victories. Well, if the former Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) Nuhu Ribadu, could emerge the presidential candidate of an ACN led by former Governor Bola Tinubu, whom he once described as one of the most corrupt governors, anything is possible in Nigerian politics.

It was one of the great tragedies of the Obasanjo political era that a person as morally unfit as Maurice Iwu would be given the assignment of an electoral umpire.