MAURICE IWU INEC chairman, is a former professor at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka.

Maurice Iwu, the man in charge of policing last year’s general elections, argues that the polls were thoroughly prepared for and that the outcome reflected the intent of the electorate

How do you view the criticism of the elections by international monitors and media?

I feel that there was an already fixed opinion and mindset on the part of the international community. The media reported what they expected to happen rather than what happened. Some of the observer missions used the exact same language as they used in 2003, and the only thing they changed was the date. What they failed to realize was that the importance of the election was in being able to determine the intent of the voters—not to determine the electoral elegance of the system.

The elections were criticized for not meeting international standards, as if there are some standards that are cast in stone. My job was to determine the intent of the Nigerian voters, and I believe that it was determined.

The election of 2007 marked a major milestone for Nigerians. Never before had we been able to transit from one civilian elected government to another. I have had the singular privilege of taking my country to a place it has never been before, and if you are going to a place where you have never been there are naturally apprehensions and anxieties. We were able to overcome all that and conduct a successful election.

The day after the election, the Nigerian papers and media were awash with people congratulating us, telling us that this was the fairest election ever. Soon after that the criticisms started, but we didn’t think it necessary to take issue with people whose minds had already been made up that it wasn’t a free election.

Were you surprised at the outcome of the election?

Anywhere in the world, unless the opposition wins, election results could be suspect, but in our own case there was hardly any serious opposition. In the presidential election, the second and third candidates came a distant second and a distant third. The candidate for the All Nigeria People’s Party, General Buhari, was more or less disowned by his own party before the election. Frankly, there was no way that he could have won. The former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, was only sure that he was going to enter the election five days before it was held. So how could anybody ever doubt the outcome?

’What observers failed to realize was that the importance of the election lay not in the elegance of the electoral system but in the intent of the voters’

As for the governorship elections, there were states where I was shocked by the result. In Bauchi, for example, a sitting governor was routed by the opposition. Nobody was expecting that. Lagos state is the capital of the area where the then-president comes from, yet the PDP were thoroughly defeated in Lagos. Kano was another case where the opposition also won.

Can you give a sense of the magnitude of the challenge faced by the INEC?

It was by no means an easy task. Even if we had had a fully established democratic culture, you are talking about holding an election in what is equivalent in size to the whole of the EU. You are also talking about the election management board dealing with the largest constituency in the world. In the United States, each state conducts its own election, but here we conduct it across the country.
You have to look at the election in context. Firstly, we were faced with a very unusual situation where most of the players did not want the election. Many obstacles were placed in our way. Why? Well, because a lot of people benefited from the anarchy that preceded 1999 under military rule, and they were uncomfortable that Nigeria has had eight years of civilian regime. They wanted to throw the country back to before 1999.

Secondly, we had to organize 200,000 main polling stations, as well as additional satellite units wherever we had more than a thousand voters at one polling station. We ended up with about 210,000 units.

The third key issue was that we embarked on reform. We were able to introduce a comprehensive institutional electoral reform in Nigeria, but changing the mindset of the Nigerian people was more difficult. Our job was to set the standard, and then to ask ourselves if the rules had been observed.
When we had the Supreme Court judgment on the presidential election, we were forced to print ballot papers [to include Vice President Atiku Abubakar as a candidate]. We had made contingency plans on how to accommodate the Vice President, but they fell through. We had to print 65 million ballot papers in three days—and they were not printed in Nigeria.

Bringing them into the country became a problem. One of the airlines we hired got to South Africa and refused to come in. We brought the ballot papers back into the country by 10 p.m. the night before the election. The President ordered the air force to assist us, and they were flying all through the night. In the early hours of the next morning, a naval plane crashed and there were fatalities.

There was an attack in Kano by armed militants a few days prior to the election; a cleric was shot in a mosque in an attempt to stir up problems. There was also an attack in Port Harcourt.

We took all this on, and we were able to give birth to a new Nigeria. We were able to prove that with enough determination, Africa can still overcome. In other countries this kind of situation may have resulted in a civil war.

Do you feel vindicated?

It really was a heroic effort. It is not possible to give birth to anything without some pain and complications. The democratic process was thorough—we did our preparation. This is the first time in our history that we have had an Electoral Institute, which is totally dedicated and geared towards consolidating democracy in Nigeria. We have a state-of-the-art storage facility for securing electoral materials. Anything that goes in there can never be taken out without access protocols.

’The elections were no easy task. Even if we had had a fully established democracy, you are talking about holding an election in what is equivalent in size to the whole of the EU’

We went through a lot of difficulties. Frankly, I feel humbled by the way that people came out to vote, and will continue to say that the intent of the voters was captured.

What do you feel is most important for people outside Nigeria to understand about the elections?

That the Nigerian voters, against all the odds, were able to elect their leaders, and that President Umaru Yar’Adua reflects the intent of Nigerian voters. There is no other person who would have won, given the facts on the ground.

Nigeria has now passed the point of no return in terms of stability. We are now in the democratic order; there is a new system we have not experienced before. This is the birth of modern Nigeria.
Few countries in the world have been able to be where we are after three decades of nearly uninterrupted dictatorship. We are one of the lucky ones, and this is a very welcome development.