NIGERIAN FROM MY OWN EYE AND MORE: Professor Maurice Iwu: About Time to Call it a Day

Friday, September 3, 2010

Professor Maurice Iwu: About Time to Call it a Day

A lot has been said about the 2007 elections. Majority of Nigerians have given it a thumbs down. There has not been much support. With Baba out of the equation, the PDP has been silent and the Presidency has stated in so many words that the elections had credibility problems. For the first time in Nigeria's history, a sitting President is contemplating a possibility of a re-run, and has stated upfront that he will not contest the ruling of the tribunal. The only supporters of the 2007 elections seem to be INEC and the Senate President.

The subject matter of this piece is not whether the election was credible, or if INEC's self assessment of 80% is credible. The issue is the sorry situation that Nigeria has found itself, due to the conduct of the 2007 elections.

Real or imagined, the 2007 "elections" has been dubbed the worst in Nigeria's history. Results from the election tribunals are damning. In a lot of cases, the "winners" are begging their challengers to please withdraw their cases from the tribunals, and please let's settle among ourselves as brothers. What this means is an acknowledgement that if the case is allowed to run its full course, they may loose. If you are so sure of your victory, why beg? This is a damning indictment on INEC.

International observers have stated that by sub-Saharan African standards, the elections were sub standard. Sierra Leon did a much better job. In effect, they are saying that the standard of the 2007 elections does not belong to this planet.

There seems to be a grand conspiracy against INEC and Maurice Iwu. Nigerians have conspired against him, the press is party to the conspiracy, ditto the Presidency, which has set up an electoral reform panel. All election monitors are part of this grand conspiracy, including Ohaneze Ndigbo, Afenifere, Arewa Consultative Forum, Civil Society, market women, NBA, NLC, TUC, students, you name it, they are all co-conspirators. The judiciary is part of this conspiracy, overturning election results like domino. Majority of legislators are part of this conspiracy (except of course the senate president, whose case in still pending at the tribunal). The conspiracy is to truncate our democracy and return the military to power.

Patricia Etteh held this nation to ransom for weeks because she could not discern when to call it a day. Resigning is not a de facto admission of guilt. It is a sacrifice for national interest, so that one ceases being an issue so that the nation can move forward.

Nigeria, as a nation needs to move forward, and Maurice Iwu is an issue when it comes to elections. Many elections have been cancelled, and many more are on the way. How can the person that got us into this mess preside over a re-run to correct it? Nigerians have lost confidence in the leadership of INEC, big time. The 2007 elections has brought shame to Nigeria, a large dose of it. There is no way Nigerians will believe that any subsequent election conducted by Iwu's INEC will be credible.

The 2007 elections is a nightmare Nigerians want to wake up from. Maurice Iwu is the face of that election. As at December 2007, we don't know if Yar'Adua will still be president in 2008. It is that bad.

The least that Prof Iwu can do to help us recover from this nightmare is to quietly call it a day. His continued defense of the indefensible is an assault on the sensibilities of Nigerians, effectively rubbing pepper into a festering wound.

Maurice Iwu may need to give Patricia Etteh a call for an appointment to share notes.

President Yar'Adua seems to be a gentleman who lets events resolve themselves. Maybe he is waiting for commonsense to prevail on Maurice Iwu to throw in the towel, rather than show him the door. However, this INEC should not be allowed to conduct repeat elections ordered by the tribunals.

The 2007 elections is mired beyond redemption. Hanging on will simply make a bad situation worse. In the height of the Vietnam fiasco, an American Senator passionately pleaded with the house that America should declare victory in Vietnam and go home.

Nigeria needs a fresh start. We are pleading with Maurice to declare victory and go home. He gave his best, and for that, we are grateful.

It is about time to call it a day...

By NigeriaGalleria Editorial Team
December 2007

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This is good

LAGOS—INDICATIONS emerged, early in the week, that some top officials of the Nigerian Stock Exchange may have used their position to acquire
the exchange’s land at Temple Road, Ikoyi, for a meagre N495 million.

The land was said to have been paid for in four tranches with the following
First Bank’s draft numbers: 029128, 090755 and 818905. The payment was
alleged to have been made as follows: N 49 million in 2005; N 74.3
million; N100 million in 2006 and the final payment made on April 24,
2006.

Sources in the NSE said the land originally belonged to the Exchange.
This fact is one of the revelations of the ongoing audit of the accounts of
the exchange which auditors and forensic experts are said to have
described as misleading and meaningless according to comments made by
some of the auditors who are looking at the books.

Vanguard gathered that the auditors and forensic experts currently looking into the books
of the Exchange said the account contains some inconsistencies and
inaccuracies.

A source said: “What has so far been revealed is alarming and you will be surprised to see the extent of undercurrent in
the accounts. The figures are not very factual and there are so many
inconsistencies in what has been put together.”

But in defence of the allegations of wrong doings in the Exchange, former
Director-General and Chief Executive, Dr. Ndi Okereke-Onyiuke told
members of the Capital Market Committee recently that the Exchange
never exceeded budgetary approval nor falsify its account in anyway.

She said: “I wish to emphasise that the management of the Exchange never
exceeded budgetary approval by Council and if there is need for any
explanation on the published accounts of an organisation, the Board,
led by the Chairman, has the primary duty of offering insight, working
with the Chief Financial Officer of the organisation. In this instance,
I was neither the Chairman of the Council nor the Chief Financial
Officer of the organisation.”

Figures gathered from the NSE Management Account for the year ended December 2009 yet to be published showed that the
Exchange spent N 7 billion between 2007 and 2009 in market development
and N 1.230 billion in public enlightenment.

In 2007 alone, at the peak of the Exchange boom, market development gulped N 4.13 billion;
while it took N2.24 billion in 2008 and N 0.68 billion in 2009. In
three years, air travels swallowed up to N 2.52 billion, while N645
million was spent in 2007, N1.5 billion in 2008 and N 437 million in
2009.

In 2008, salaries and allowances of the staff hit N3.33 billion as against N1.58 billion budgeted, more than 100 per cent
increase.

The Exchange claimed that “the drastic staff cost was due to top level recruitment made during the period. Curiously in 2009, the
salary also came down to N 1.62 billion, raising question as regards
whatever happened to the top level staff hired in less than nine
months; either retrenched or disengaged.

In 2009, NSE made a deficit of N 2.752 billion. This apparently explained the NSE former
President, Aliko Dangote’s alleged insolvency of the Exchange.

Furthermore in 2009, NSE incurred interest expenses and similar charges of N37.9
million. In 2010, it budgeted increase in interest charges of N 45
million, implying continued borrowing or subsisting debts. Sources
further revealed that N1.6 billion was borrowed from CSCS account to
support the deficit cash flow of the Exchange.