[alloylaw]

To this Prof and his misguided diaribes against Professor Maurice Iwu, I respond with an excerpt from an Essay by Ibrahim Danlami on Nigerianmuse, titled "It's Time For Foreign Election Monitors To Back Off Iwu And Nigeria". Here is the quote:

"And to think that both sides of the aisle did not want the elections to hold for different reasons makes me want to give Iwu a national award for defying all the grand conspiracies. Those rooting for declaration of state of emergency wanted Iwu to back off the elections so they can continue in a new government of martial law headed by an Obasanjo that they pigeonholed into believing that the game was not yet up. Those who wanted Ken Nnamani to head an interim government hated Iwu for frustrating them by forging ahead to conduct the elections. They forget that some other powerful cabals had a plot in place to upstage Nnamani for daring to think that he can put the South East at the helm. Those that sold the dummy to Atiku that he would win if only Obasanjo was not in place to conduct the elections wanted Iwu’s head by all means for conducting the elections under OBJ’s watch. And some young Turks who wanted Buhari to cross over to PDP as a consensus candidate found some ways to blame Iwu for Obasanjo’s determination to have his way by drafting a Yar’Adua they were not familiar with. So, looking at all that criticism against Iwu and the deck stacked against the man, I did not have to be a NASA rocket scientist to surmise that much of the motivation for harassing him has to do with Iwu daring to conduct elections that most frontline Nigerian politicians did not want for their own different selfish reasons. So, besides the common folks, Iwu was the only man in the country amongst the titans who truly intended to have the elections to hold on schedule. Next is President Yar’Adua, maybe". Ibrahim Danlami, Nigerianmuse

And regarding the Nullifications by Tribunals (and the Supreme Court) he pointed to as grounds for calling for Iwu's head, I say these:

In Amaechi versus Omehia, the Supreme Court did not sack Omehia because voting irregularities but because of PDP's violation of its rules on internal party democracy. Major gubernatorial contenders have since withdrawn their petitions in Rivers, thereby lending credence to Iwu's claims that the pollig itself which he conducted was free and fair. Thus, the issues in Rivers are too complex to be lent to such simplistic rehash of hackneyed Iwu-bashing like this Author so pitifully tried to do.

In Anambra, the issue-in-chief before the courts did not concern election malpractices but a complex issue of first impression bordering on interpretation of a section of Nigerian Constitution on tenure. This issue was beyond Iwu's INEC and their limited jurisdiction, and recall that as of the date the gubernatorial elections were held in Anambra, Iwu and INEC were armed with a Court of Appeals judgment that Peter Obi's tenure had expired and therefore authorizing Iwu and INEC to press ahead with the elections. If this Author wishes to lay blames, he should seek out Abel Guabadia from his restful retirement and blame him for declaring Ngige winner. Iwu was not Chair of INEC then and thus had absolutely nothing to do with denying Peter Obi the governnorship.

In the Kebbi and Kogi nullifications, the Tribunals held the actual polling to be free and fair but went ahead with a ruling for nullification based on issues ouside Iwu and INEC control and doing. The main issue had to do with failure of political parties to observe their own rules; and remember that until five days to the presidential election (which was way after the governorshp elections), Professor Iwu and INEC were still armed with a Court of Appeals ruling that gave them the power to disqualify.

Finally, I will advise this Author to do his research next time he decides to write on anything, otherwise he runs the risk of embarassing himself and his organization by seeming pedestrian and rehashing half-truths motivated by bigotry and personal hatred of Professor Maurice Iwu. Thank you