The story of Obasanjo, PDP, Lagos, by Iwu
From Mohammed Abubakar (Abuja)

FROM the Chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Maurice Iwu, has come a revelation about the roles of key participants in the 2007 general elections.




In far away Ghana, Iwu was quoted to have confessed that former president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo and his Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) wanted to win Lagos State at all costs.

The INEC boss warned that democracy in Nigeria and most African countries is still young and fragile, must therefore be handled with care.

A statement by Iwu's Chief Press Secretary, Mr. Andy Ezeani in Abuja, said the INEC boss spoke at a reception held for him at the Nigerian High Commission in Accra, where Nigerian High Commissioner to that country, Senator Musiliu Obanikoro was present. Coincidentally, Obanikoro was the governorship candidate of the PDP in the election.

According to Iwu, it is uncharitable of critics who doubt the independence of INEC and alleged that Obasanjo and the ruling party meddled with the affairs of the electoral commission but conveniently leave out the fact that the ruling party did not win the major states of Lagos and Kano and that it also lost key elections in 2007.

Iwu spoke as a guest speaker in the third Daily Graphic Governance Dialogue held at the International Conference Centre in Accra. The INEC Chairman commended Ghana for having made "remarkable strides in democratic governance". He noted that Nigeria was doing quite well too, "but the fact that democracy is still fragile in the region should never be lost sight of."

Iwu called the attention of African countries to what he called the "pervasive mindset of the Western world," which he said only judges the credibility of elections "largely on the basis of the outcome, in which an election can only be adjudged to be free and fair when an opposition party wins, even when there is clearly one dominant political party as the case in Nigeria and South Africa"

According to the INEC chairman whose presentation was titled: Reflections and Lessons from the 2007 Nigerian Elections, one of the questions that managing external influences in local elections in Africa poses presently was highlighted in Nigeria's 2007 polls.

The issue, he said, "is what the role of election observers in Africa should be. "How much power and influence should they be allowed to ascribe to themselves in determining what is in the best interest of a society that is not theirs?

"If the concept of foreign election observers is noble, why is it that some of the most established and prominent democracies in the world do not encourage them for their elections? "The whole concept and practice of foreign election observation needs to be properly re-examined and situated if emerging democracies are to avoid a veritable landmine during elections".

For Iwu, therefore, "Reflections on the 2007 General Elections in Nigeria are, to a substantial extent, reflections on the state and nature of politics and elections in most part of Africa".

He noted that one of the major developments in the Obasanjo era in Nigeria was the reduction of the effect of ethnicity and regionalism in Nigerian politics.

"In the campaigns and preparations for the 2007 elections, however, there was an unfortunate re-emergence of some of such ugly tendencies, he said. Iwu called on African countries to watch it and step away from such parochial tendencies that not only stunt the development of politics, but undermine the growth of the nations.

The INEC chairman assured Nigerians in Ghana that the country is making progress. He asked them to work hard to help change the present mindset of Nigerians about elections, which indicates that anytime anyone loses, the electoral commission must be castigated as having something against the person, but if someone wins he shouts to the roof top that the people have spoken.

http://odili.net/news/source/2008/aug/11/24.html