maurice Iwu National Reception: An Eyewitness Account

By: Ibrahim Danlami

When Dwight Eisenhower, the 34^th President of the United States of America wrote that ‘the qualities of a great man are "vision, integrity, courage, understanding, the power of articulation, and profundity of character”. He did not have Professor Maurice Maduakolam Iwu in mind. But the saying aptly captures the essence of Iwu, the gutsy professor and umpire extraordinaire of our generation.

There is no arguing even amongst his most ardent critics that Prof. Iwu, during the period leading to the 2007 elections and after, has demonstrated vision of what to do to take Nigeria a notch up the democratic ladder. He put his integrity to bear; exhibited sheer courage in the face of obvious risks of the grander kind and danger to his person and family to deliver on a crucial national assignment. All these combined marked Iwu out as someone who possessed a deep understanding of the peculiarity of the Nigerian situation when it mattered most, besides his power of articulation and profundity of character.

Iwu’s place in the annals of Nigeria’s history is assured given that in the Nigeria’s near 48 years existence as an independent nation, it is the first time that the country has witnessed a successful transition from one civilian government to the other. A fact even his critics cannot deny. As Americans would say: Like him or not, you gotta respect the man. Back in the United States where I live, the man Iwu is seen as a rare phenomenon in America’s desires to see to the success of electoral democracies in Africa and there is yet a whispering campaign to have Iwu honoured by democracy watchdogs in North America.

As a man of vision and understanding of the times, Iwu had strenuously canvassed for an electronics voting system in tandem with modern electoral practices. His argument was and remains that the system would reduce electoral fraud especially in the areas of ballot snatching and stuffing and multiple voting, but it was apparent that the country or rather those who had profited from the manual procedure would have nothing to do with this and they rather preferred business as usual. Two years down the line, those who had repudiated the introduction of modern voter system are now seeking to introduce the same system they had previously opposed.

While it cannot be taken away that the 2007 elections had some lapses, attributable mostly to logistics and entrenched perception by politicians that elections are to be won at all cost, credit should be given to Iwu and his team at INEC, for their courage to deliver on that crucial election and proceed to declare a result that gave Nigeria a transition. One cannot but agree with Vice President Goodluck Jonathan when he observed that, "Nigerians should not expect 100 percent in the conduct of elections in the country, but to support the electoral processes in order to achieve a maximum level of success”.

The Vice president was speaking at a reception in honour of the INEC Chairman, Professor Maurice Iwu. I was there from my location in the United States and I saw it all first hand and I felt proud of my country, Nigeria. The Vice President urged Nigerians to support the Justice Mohammed Uwais-led Electoral Reform panel, saying that it is the only way to appreciate Professor Iwu's good work in the 2007 elections. He added, "Nigerians must appreciate Maurice Iwu, the National and State Commissioners, and other staff of INEC for what they have done. They would say, well, I am a PDP Vice President, I must commend INEC. "Let people go and examine elections that are being conducted by the various state electoral bodies (SIECs), the states that are controlled by PDP, ANPP, and other parties, most of them have conducted elections, if you now compare the elections and that conducted by INEC, I believe you will still put INEC over any other electoral commission."

The Vice president could not have been more poignant in his observation given that long before Iwu, there have been no less than eight past chairmen of the commission and it can not be said that they all did any better than what Iwu has done for the country. The problem of understanding the Iwu matrix perhaps stems from the fact that after over a decade of military dictatorship, Nigerians are in dire need of the redeemer without blemish or wrinkles. They expect that things, elections inclusive, should be like that obtainable in the mythic Eldorado, forgetting that perfection belongs to the heavenly.

So, despite some lapses here and there, Nigerians should still be thankful that the 2007 election, against the expectation of some skeptics and no-do-gooders, did not lead to serious political crisis that would have derailed the entire process of nation building. It is in this light that the December 1, 2008 National Reception and Thanksgiving in Honour of Prof. Maurice Iwu is instructive. The ceremony which held at the Immaculate Conception Dioceses in Okigwe is a testimony of the gratitude Nigerians should have shown for a man who defied personal family tragedy and danger to his personal safety to give service to fatherland.

Considering the obstacles placed before Prof. Iwu, men of lesser courage would have chickened out and resorted to either postponing the election or even resigning from office. Either of these options would have denied Nigeria a golden opportunity to make history. But Maurice Iwu would have none of that. Thus, with a profound sense of history and character, he put aside his personal worries and tragedy to undertake an assignment he knew held the key to Nigeria’s place in the comity of nations.

Today we are all beneficiaries of that epochal transition. Therefore, when eminent and other well-meaning Nigerians from all ethnic groups joined with his home diocese to gather and say ‘thank you’, it was hailed by many as something long overdue. A few months ago, what Iwu gave to Nigeria in 2007 was called a ‘landmark transition’ by Bruce Fein, former assistant attorney general of United States, writing for the famed Washington Times.

By the sheer crowd of people that gathered-big and small; the great and the not-so great; the governed and the governors; clergy and traditional institutions; the influential and the commoner; home-based and Diasporan, there was no mistaking that at last the nation was beginning to realize the enormous contributions Maurice Iwu has made to a country he loves no less than those who find all fault and no good in what INEC achieved in 2007. 

Therefore, considering everything else and Maurice Iwu’s never-say-die attitude in the face of the difficulties he and INEC overcame, it is time for other Nigerians to join those who honoured him in celebrating the man’s contributions to our democracy (and to society as a whole). And we can even go beyond that to take the public discourse to the man’s long history of stellar achievements. From a humble background, Maurice Iwu dared many odds to become a world-acclaimed scientist, with many patents to his name. This and the many other achievements he attained should form the next discourse. It is only when we do this that we can also begin to see the true Maurice Iwu, a man who, at his age, still has a lot to offer Nigeria at a higher calling. My Nigeria, our Nigeria needs to reap from this man’s great talents.

Danlami writes from the United States                 ibrahimdanlami@yahoo.com