
•‘They are gangsters who should be investigated by the police’TRADE unionists stormed the Maitama headquarters of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the National Assembly yesterday to demand urgent and genuine electoral reform and the removal of the INEC Chairman, Prof. Maurice Iwu, at the end of his tenure in June.
The organised labour, including the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), the Trade Union Congress (TUC) and the Labour and Civil Society Coalition (LASCO), threatened that Nigerian workers would immediately embark on a nationwide strike if the INEC boss is reappointed in June.
But, in a swift reaction, the electoral umpire called on the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Mr. Ogbonna Onovo, to investigate the sponsors of the rally, insisting that the protesters were “gangsters”.
It said that it was unfortunate that labour had abandoned its responsibility and had now become a tool in the hands of “faceless politicians determined to cause crisis in the polity”. NLC President, Comrade Abdulwaheed Omar, said while addressing the crowd and the workers at the INEC headquarters: “Prof. Iwu must go and this is the best place to say this. The Nigerian workers have sent us and the message is very clear enough, Mr. Iwu must not remain the INEC chairman after June.
“If Nigerian people will count, the government will listen to us and remove Iwu. But if Nigerian people did not count, the government can go ahead to reappoint Iwu. “Every worker in Nigeria will stop work the day the government reappoints Iwu, until he is removed. Every worker, including you here (at INEC office) will not work until he is removed. “Nigerian people and the workers will only be ready for elections if and when the electoral reform is properly done.”
The procession took off at the Labour House, Abuja, at exactly 9.45a.m. Comrade Omar, the President General of TUC, Comrade Peter Esele; the LASCO co- Chairperson, Dr. Dipo Fasina; the Academic Staff Union of Universities President, Prof. Ukachukwu Awuzie and other leaders of the NLC, TUC, and the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) led the protest rally. Carrying anti-Iwu placards, the peaceful protesters were against all expectations allowed into the inner premises of the INEC headquarters, where all the leaders made speeches.
Comrade Omar, in his speech, said the workers were at the INEC office which should be described as the headquarters of the National Electoral Commission, but “which unfortunately has been turned to National Electoral Conner Conner just because somebody is there”. However, he pointed out that what they were doing was far beyond Prof. Iwu, but about the electoral reform that would bring about free and fair election in the country.
He argued that it was to ensure that an electoral process where peoples vote would count is given to Nigeria. Comrade Omar added: “In 2003 and 2007, they said there were elections but people’s votes were not counted.”
In his statement, Comrade Esele, the TUC President General, said: “We have been saying that Iwu must go, but INEC was telling us the reason why Iwu must not go. But how can INEC be using our money, and spending it to campaign against us.”
At the National Assembly, the protesters were received by the Chairman Senate Committee on Labour, Senator Wilson Ake; the Minority Leader, House of Representatives, Hon. Ali Ndume; the Chairman, House Committee on Labour, Hon. Ado Dogo, and the Chairman, House Committee on Climate Change, Hon. Ubani Eze Uche.
The NLC President presented the workers position in a letter addressed to the Senate President, Senator David Mark and the Speaker, House of Representatives, Hon. Dimeji Bankole. The petition titled: ‘Ongoing Debate on Electoral Reforms/Constitutional Amendment and Chairmanship of INEC’, and signed by Comrades Omar, Esele and Fasina says the workers embarked on the protest against the backdrop of the ongoing debate and amendment of critical sections of the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria in the National Assembly.
The letter reads in part: “As we indicated in our earlier contestation on the matter, popular expectations of Nigerians from the process of electoral reforms must include the following three cardinal issues, namely: The need to make the peoples vote count, by providing for an electoral arbiter in the INEC that would be truly independent, fair, efficient and which would not do the bidding of the President or political party in control of state power at each of the levels of governance; the need to ensure that those who engage in massive rigging of elections do not get sworn into office until election results had been validly challenged in the courts, and; the need to create a level playing field for all political interests, a scenario that is not cluttered by big money, godfathers, gender identities, regionalism, ethnicity and other primordial concerns. “We have followed the amendment debate on the floor of the National Assembly and are worried that a number of the key concerns of Nigerians are being sidelined.
“We consider some of the proposed amendments to the 1999 Constitution as not being reflective of the wishes and will of Nigerians. Additionally, we strongly believe that the amendments to these key sections will not augur well for entrenching democratic ethos and issue-based politics in Nigeria. “For example, for a public official elected on the platform of one political party to cross over to another party, with a different manifesto and programme and still maintain that office, in the light of our experience in this country does violent damage to our desire to consolidate democratic norms in the country.
“Secondly, to continue to vest the powers to appoint the INEC chair in the Presidency, despite our very unsavoury experience of high level of partisanship witnessed in this respect is indeed an affront on the wishes of Nigerians.”
On the tenure of Prof. Iwu and his reappointment, the letter says: “As the tenure of Prof Maurice Iwu as INEC Chairman comes to an end this June, we urge the national Assembly to bring to an end this inglorious blight on the electoral processes in the country.
“His disastrous era and conduct which has brought shame on the nation as well as monumental costs in unprecedented re-run elections should not be allowed a day more. Hence his dreams of presiding over the 2011 general elections must remain just that – DREAMS! We hope that the National Assembly will side with the people in rejecting his re-confirmation...
“On our part, we give our solemn commitment to work with other well-meaning Nigerians and organisations to ensure that in the unlikely event of Prof Maurice Iwu’s name ever surfacing again to conduct the next general elections, we will mobilise Nigerians to ensure that this does not happen.” They urged the Senate President, the Speaker and the National Assembly to be genuinely guided by the well received and well considered recommendations of the Justice Mohammed Uwais Committee Report in the electoral reforms and the constitutional amendments, necessarily to sustain the reforms.
But INEC yesterday condemned the unionists action, which he described as lawlessness. A statement released by the commission in Abuja yesterday reads in part: “The commission appreciates the legitimate yearnings of Nigerians for electoral reforms. It is in appreciation of this that it embarked on a number of reforms to make our elections more transparent and acceptable as has been exemplified by the recent Anambra governorship election.
“We however wish to distance ourselves from the reckless manner the Abdulwahab Omar-led mob trespassed on its premises for reasons which are at best suspect. Whatever their grievances, the mob ought to have taken them to the National Assembly for redress and not to picket the commission. This is what other serious-minded groups are doing. We therefore deplore the decision of these misguided souls to cause pandemonium in our premises, an act which is not only reprehensible but condemnable.”
In the statement signed by Umenger Emmanuel, Director, Public Affairs, INEC lamented what it described as “the lawlessness of a mob led by Abdulwahab Omar, who trespassed on the premises of the commission, causing damage to property and disrupting the routine activities of the commission”.
The statement also says: “The commission is dismayed that the police whose duty is to protect sanctity of its precincts, management and staff, wilfully allowed this mob into its premises thereby holding its workforce hostage for a period of not less than three hours.
“As the custodian of our electoral democracy and a law-abiding institution, INEC appreciates the inalienable rights of Nigerians to freely assemble and to peacefully express their views on issues of national importance. We are appalled at the way and manner in which the police deliberately led two lorry loads of aggressive demonstrators into our premises, there instilling fear into the staff and disrupting our normal activities.
“The commission also takes serious exception to this deliberate break into its premises by these gangsters operating under the auspices of some misguided members of the police force. And painfully, this coming at a time we are working in earnest to conduct the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) council elections scheduled for April 10, 2010.
“We are however consoled that the mob was scanty and ineffectual, lending credence to the fact that the demonstration did not receive the blessing of credible civil society groups who have made useful contributions to ongoing reform agenda.”
Also, one time Commissioner for Finance in Imo State and former two-term chairman of Osu Local Government, Prince Obinna Okwuaka, has berated those calling for Iwu’s sack, saying that “they are motivated by political interest rather love for Nigeria.”
Speaking in Abuja, Okwuaka, who served as Special Adviser to former Senate President, Chief Adolphus Wabara, said that calling for a new INEC chairman to replace Iwu “when the 2011 general elections are a few months away shows that those behind the Iwu- Must- Go campaign want the elections to be doomed from beginning.”
“Iwu has garnered so much experience on the job and as evidenced by the outcome of recent elections, the commission under his leadership is progressively marching towards getting it completely right. There is every reason to believe that if Iwu is allowed to conduct the 2011 elections, Nigeria will be the better for it.
“On the call to sack the INEC boss, I say that it is unpatriotic, reprehensible and uncharitable. It is not altruistic at all unless there are no plans to hold elections in 2011 at all. Prof. Iwu has the experience, the capacity and all that is needed to conduct quality elections in 2011.
“Apart from that, it is obvious that nobody will do better given the limited timeframe. You cannot just bring in a new chairman to come and learn on the job when we know that the 2011 elections are crucial to the development and progress of our country. It would therefore be suicidal for Nigeria as a nation to begin to contemplate replacing Iwu with a new person,” Okwuaka said.
While commending INEC for its aggressive efforts at voter education, especially as it concerns apathy, violence, ballot snatching and other electoral vices, Okwuaka, who was the candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) during the 2007 governorship election in Imo State, praised Iwu for coming out in the past to acknowledge that some of the elections he conducted had flaws, saying that his determination to improve on subsequent election has paid off as can be seen from the positive ratings the INEC boss has been receiving in recent time from even some of his worst critics like the governors of Edo, Ondo and from other quarters.
The organised labour, including the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), the Trade Union Congress (TUC) and the Labour and Civil Society Coalition (LASCO), threatened that Nigerian workers would immediately embark on a nationwide strike if the INEC boss is reappointed in June.
But, in a swift reaction, the electoral umpire called on the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Mr. Ogbonna Onovo, to investigate the sponsors of the rally, insisting that the protesters were “gangsters”.
It said that it was unfortunate that labour had abandoned its responsibility and had now become a tool in the hands of “faceless politicians determined to cause crisis in the polity”. NLC President, Comrade Abdulwaheed Omar, said while addressing the crowd and the workers at the INEC headquarters: “Prof. Iwu must go and this is the best place to say this. The Nigerian workers have sent us and the message is very clear enough, Mr. Iwu must not remain the INEC chairman after June.
“If Nigerian people will count, the government will listen to us and remove Iwu. But if Nigerian people did not count, the government can go ahead to reappoint Iwu. “Every worker in Nigeria will stop work the day the government reappoints Iwu, until he is removed. Every worker, including you here (at INEC office) will not work until he is removed. “Nigerian people and the workers will only be ready for elections if and when the electoral reform is properly done.”
The procession took off at the Labour House, Abuja, at exactly 9.45a.m. Comrade Omar, the President General of TUC, Comrade Peter Esele; the LASCO co- Chairperson, Dr. Dipo Fasina; the Academic Staff Union of Universities President, Prof. Ukachukwu Awuzie and other leaders of the NLC, TUC, and the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) led the protest rally. Carrying anti-Iwu placards, the peaceful protesters were against all expectations allowed into the inner premises of the INEC headquarters, where all the leaders made speeches.
Comrade Omar, in his speech, said the workers were at the INEC office which should be described as the headquarters of the National Electoral Commission, but “which unfortunately has been turned to National Electoral Conner Conner just because somebody is there”. However, he pointed out that what they were doing was far beyond Prof. Iwu, but about the electoral reform that would bring about free and fair election in the country.
He argued that it was to ensure that an electoral process where peoples vote would count is given to Nigeria. Comrade Omar added: “In 2003 and 2007, they said there were elections but people’s votes were not counted.”
In his statement, Comrade Esele, the TUC President General, said: “We have been saying that Iwu must go, but INEC was telling us the reason why Iwu must not go. But how can INEC be using our money, and spending it to campaign against us.”
At the National Assembly, the protesters were received by the Chairman Senate Committee on Labour, Senator Wilson Ake; the Minority Leader, House of Representatives, Hon. Ali Ndume; the Chairman, House Committee on Labour, Hon. Ado Dogo, and the Chairman, House Committee on Climate Change, Hon. Ubani Eze Uche.
The NLC President presented the workers position in a letter addressed to the Senate President, Senator David Mark and the Speaker, House of Representatives, Hon. Dimeji Bankole. The petition titled: ‘Ongoing Debate on Electoral Reforms/Constitutional Amendment and Chairmanship of INEC’, and signed by Comrades Omar, Esele and Fasina says the workers embarked on the protest against the backdrop of the ongoing debate and amendment of critical sections of the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria in the National Assembly.
The letter reads in part: “As we indicated in our earlier contestation on the matter, popular expectations of Nigerians from the process of electoral reforms must include the following three cardinal issues, namely: The need to make the peoples vote count, by providing for an electoral arbiter in the INEC that would be truly independent, fair, efficient and which would not do the bidding of the President or political party in control of state power at each of the levels of governance; the need to ensure that those who engage in massive rigging of elections do not get sworn into office until election results had been validly challenged in the courts, and; the need to create a level playing field for all political interests, a scenario that is not cluttered by big money, godfathers, gender identities, regionalism, ethnicity and other primordial concerns. “We have followed the amendment debate on the floor of the National Assembly and are worried that a number of the key concerns of Nigerians are being sidelined.
“We consider some of the proposed amendments to the 1999 Constitution as not being reflective of the wishes and will of Nigerians. Additionally, we strongly believe that the amendments to these key sections will not augur well for entrenching democratic ethos and issue-based politics in Nigeria. “For example, for a public official elected on the platform of one political party to cross over to another party, with a different manifesto and programme and still maintain that office, in the light of our experience in this country does violent damage to our desire to consolidate democratic norms in the country.
“Secondly, to continue to vest the powers to appoint the INEC chair in the Presidency, despite our very unsavoury experience of high level of partisanship witnessed in this respect is indeed an affront on the wishes of Nigerians.”
On the tenure of Prof. Iwu and his reappointment, the letter says: “As the tenure of Prof Maurice Iwu as INEC Chairman comes to an end this June, we urge the national Assembly to bring to an end this inglorious blight on the electoral processes in the country.
“His disastrous era and conduct which has brought shame on the nation as well as monumental costs in unprecedented re-run elections should not be allowed a day more. Hence his dreams of presiding over the 2011 general elections must remain just that – DREAMS! We hope that the National Assembly will side with the people in rejecting his re-confirmation...
“On our part, we give our solemn commitment to work with other well-meaning Nigerians and organisations to ensure that in the unlikely event of Prof Maurice Iwu’s name ever surfacing again to conduct the next general elections, we will mobilise Nigerians to ensure that this does not happen.” They urged the Senate President, the Speaker and the National Assembly to be genuinely guided by the well received and well considered recommendations of the Justice Mohammed Uwais Committee Report in the electoral reforms and the constitutional amendments, necessarily to sustain the reforms.
But INEC yesterday condemned the unionists action, which he described as lawlessness. A statement released by the commission in Abuja yesterday reads in part: “The commission appreciates the legitimate yearnings of Nigerians for electoral reforms. It is in appreciation of this that it embarked on a number of reforms to make our elections more transparent and acceptable as has been exemplified by the recent Anambra governorship election.
“We however wish to distance ourselves from the reckless manner the Abdulwahab Omar-led mob trespassed on its premises for reasons which are at best suspect. Whatever their grievances, the mob ought to have taken them to the National Assembly for redress and not to picket the commission. This is what other serious-minded groups are doing. We therefore deplore the decision of these misguided souls to cause pandemonium in our premises, an act which is not only reprehensible but condemnable.”
In the statement signed by Umenger Emmanuel, Director, Public Affairs, INEC lamented what it described as “the lawlessness of a mob led by Abdulwahab Omar, who trespassed on the premises of the commission, causing damage to property and disrupting the routine activities of the commission”.
The statement also says: “The commission is dismayed that the police whose duty is to protect sanctity of its precincts, management and staff, wilfully allowed this mob into its premises thereby holding its workforce hostage for a period of not less than three hours.
“As the custodian of our electoral democracy and a law-abiding institution, INEC appreciates the inalienable rights of Nigerians to freely assemble and to peacefully express their views on issues of national importance. We are appalled at the way and manner in which the police deliberately led two lorry loads of aggressive demonstrators into our premises, there instilling fear into the staff and disrupting our normal activities.
“The commission also takes serious exception to this deliberate break into its premises by these gangsters operating under the auspices of some misguided members of the police force. And painfully, this coming at a time we are working in earnest to conduct the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) council elections scheduled for April 10, 2010.
“We are however consoled that the mob was scanty and ineffectual, lending credence to the fact that the demonstration did not receive the blessing of credible civil society groups who have made useful contributions to ongoing reform agenda.”
Also, one time Commissioner for Finance in Imo State and former two-term chairman of Osu Local Government, Prince Obinna Okwuaka, has berated those calling for Iwu’s sack, saying that “they are motivated by political interest rather love for Nigeria.”
Speaking in Abuja, Okwuaka, who served as Special Adviser to former Senate President, Chief Adolphus Wabara, said that calling for a new INEC chairman to replace Iwu “when the 2011 general elections are a few months away shows that those behind the Iwu- Must- Go campaign want the elections to be doomed from beginning.”
“Iwu has garnered so much experience on the job and as evidenced by the outcome of recent elections, the commission under his leadership is progressively marching towards getting it completely right. There is every reason to believe that if Iwu is allowed to conduct the 2011 elections, Nigeria will be the better for it.
“On the call to sack the INEC boss, I say that it is unpatriotic, reprehensible and uncharitable. It is not altruistic at all unless there are no plans to hold elections in 2011 at all. Prof. Iwu has the experience, the capacity and all that is needed to conduct quality elections in 2011.
“Apart from that, it is obvious that nobody will do better given the limited timeframe. You cannot just bring in a new chairman to come and learn on the job when we know that the 2011 elections are crucial to the development and progress of our country. It would therefore be suicidal for Nigeria as a nation to begin to contemplate replacing Iwu with a new person,” Okwuaka said.
While commending INEC for its aggressive efforts at voter education, especially as it concerns apathy, violence, ballot snatching and other electoral vices, Okwuaka, who was the candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) during the 2007 governorship election in Imo State, praised Iwu for coming out in the past to acknowledge that some of the elections he conducted had flaws, saying that his determination to improve on subsequent election has paid off as can be seen from the positive ratings the INEC boss has been receiving in recent time from even some of his worst critics like the governors of Edo, Ondo and from other quarters.
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