Nigerians welcome sacking of election team boss

Nigerians have praised acting President Goodluck Jonathan’s decision to remove the much criticised election chief Maurice Iwu. Opposition Senator Olorunnimbe Mamora told the BBC that his removal was “the beginning of electoral reform”.

Mr Iwu presided over the last election in 2007, which was widely seen as chaotic and fraudulent. The US recently doubted whether Mr Iwu could organise a credible election next year and called for him to be replaced.

Nigerian activists have long called for him to go. Mr Jonathan has committed himself to pursuing electoral reform. “Elections in Nigeria from now onwards will be free and fair,” he said recently in a BBC interview.

Mr Iwu’s term as chairman of Independent National Elections Commission (Inec) was due to end in June 2010. His premature departure could be a symbolic move by Mr Jonathan to make him appear serious about electoral reform.

Mr Jonathan recently visited the US and his decision to remove Mr Iwu will also be popular with the Obama administration. However, the real indication of whether or not Mr Jonathan is serious about electoral reform will come when Mr Iwu’s replacement is chosen, the BBC Correspondent said.

The selection of Mr Iwu’s replacement would not be made by the acting president alone, Mr Mamora said. The National Judicial Council would draw up a shortlist of three names, which would then be discussed by Mr Jonathan together with the National Council of State, he said.

Mr Jonathan has said a civil servant would run the Inec until a permanent replacement was found. Mr Iwu has had a colourful career. He once announced at a medical conference in the US that he had discovered the cure for the Ebola virus - a claim which later proved to be untrue.

Mr Jonathan is standing in for President Umaru Yar’Adua, who is sick and has not been seen in public since November 2009. Mr Yar’Adua was elected in 2007, although legal challenges to the result lasted for months afterwards. Mr Iwu had been facing increasing pressure to quit his position by civil society groups, the international community and election monitors.

The Conference of Nigerian Political Parties (CNPP) welcomed the move and asked the government to fully implement reforms as recommended by a panel led by Mr Mohammed Uwais. “We demand for the full implementation of the core recommendations of the Uwais Report and the submission of the three bills therein as executive bills by the acting president,’’ Mr Osita Okechukwu, CNPP’s national publicity secretary said.

The party said the post of Inec chairman and key officers of the Electoral Commission should be publicly advertised. Mr Asu Beks, co-ordinator, Ijaw Media Forum, said: “Jonathan has again proven to Nigerians that he has what it takes to take us to the promised land. My demand is that Iwu should be investigated, that way Nigerians would have an insight into his regime of fraud.”

The Imo State chairman of All Nigerian People’s Party, Vitalis Orikaeze Ajumbe, said Mr Jonathan’s decision was not a surprise. “If Jonathan feels that not renewing Iwu’s tenure will make him conduct free and fair election, so be it”, he said. However, he defended Mr Iwu over the bungled election saying under the circumstance in which the 2007 poll was conducted, it could not have made any difference who was in charge at Inec.