BETWEEN IWU AND INEC

EMMA OKWUAHABA

Nigerians have not heard the last from controversial former chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Professor Maurice Iwu, who bluntly refused yesterday to handover the commission’s affairs to another officer despite his sudden sack by Acting President Goodluck Jonathan on Wednesday evening. Later in the day, Iwu was also snubbed by Jonathan, who refused to see him when he appeared at the Acting President’s office to protest the order for him to disengage from INEC five weeks before his tenure expired.
There was noticeable apprehension at INEC’s headquarters yesterday as staffers wore anxious faces over the silent power struggle going on over its headship. Sources at the commission said Iwu complained about some “ambiguities” in the letter asking him to immediately proceed on leave.
Dr. Goodluck Jonathan had directed that Iwu hand over to the most senior INEC National Commissioner, who will take charge until a substantive chairman is appointed. Daily Trust however learnt that the most senior commissioner that could have taken over, Barrister Victor Chukwuani from Enugu State, also received a letter on Wednesday evening directing him to proceed on pre-disengagement leave with immediate effect. Chukwuani’s five-year tenure elapses in June.
However, there were indications that INEC’s National Commissioner in charge of Information and Publicity, Barrister Phillip Etomike Umeadi (Jnr.) had assumed the headship of INEC, because six mobile policemen and three other plain cloth security agents were seen guarding his once easily-accessible office at INEC headquarters.
Several INEC management staffers who spoke to our reporters yesterday also said they were not favourably disposed to Umeadi’s taking over of the leadership of INEC. They described Umeadi as “arrogant and someone who does not tolerate dissenting opinion.”
Professor Iwu had arrived at INEC headquarters in the morning yesterday and summoned a close-door meeting with its top management staff, including Umeadi and the third national commissioner, Mr Solomon Adedeji Soyebi.
A senior INEC officer familiar with yesterday’s events told our reporter that Iwu refused to hand over because there were some grey areas to be clarified.
He said, “Prof. Iwu cannot hand over. The statutes of the commission are not like that of the ministries. There is no seniority among the national commissioners, so the chairman (Iwu) went to see the Acting President on who to actually hand over to. Also Chukwuani’s letter was not copied to Iwu as expected.”
Professor Iwu’s spokesman Andy Ezeani refused to speak to our reporter yesterday, saying he had nothing to say on any issue, but INEC’s Director of Public Affairs Emmanuel Umenger told reporters that Iwu told them at the meeting that he was leaving the commission and that he was preparing his hand over notes.
“We met with Prof. Iwu; he appreciated and commended us for working with him. He told us he is leaving and preparing his handing over notes,” Umenger said.
However, soon after that meeting, Iwu locked up his office, pocketed the keys and drove straight to the Aso Rock Villa. Asked to explain why Iwu locked up his office, the senior INEC official said “asking Iwu to go on leave is different from dismissing him. Iwu still has the constitutional mandate of his tenure till June.”
Iwu’s position was supported yesterday by the Rights Monitoring Group (RMG), which faulted the directive for Iwu to depart and said Acting President Goodluck Jonathan’s order was an abuse of the 1999 constitution.
RMG’s National Coordinator Olufemi Aduwo told our reporter that “Prof. Iwu’s appointment is guaranteed by the constitution like the governors and even the president. Why ask him to go on leave? We hope the Acting President will also proceed on terminal leave in April 2010.”
Iwu arrived at the Presidential Villa at about 2pm yesterday, hoping to see with the acting president, but he was told to see the Principal Secretary to the acting president, Mike Ogiadomhe. Daily Trust gathered that Iwu presented a letter to Ogiadomhe for onward transmission to Jonathan. Though neither Iwu nor the Presidency revealed the contents of the letter he submitted to Ogiadomhe, a competent source said it protested the order for him to leave INEC before his tenure ends in early June. The former chairman argued that his tenure was guaranteed by the constitution and that the Acting President’s order was illegal.
Iwu, who looked unruffled in his well tailored suit, refused to speak to newsmen who ambushed him on his way out of the Presidential Villa. He entered his car and zoomed off. Reports had it that his travelling documents had been seized by security agencies with an instruction that he must not travel out of the country.
Professor Iwu was appointed to a five-year term by the Obasanjo regime in 2005. Under him, INEC conducted the 2007 general and presidential elections, unanimously condemned by local and foreign observers as the worst in the world’s history. Last month, some youths alleged to be hired staged a demonstration in Abuja urging the government to reappoint Iwu, who they said is the best person to deliver credible polls in Nigeria. However, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) together with several human rights and civil society groups staged a large counter demonstration urging the government to quickly sack him.