TIME TO PURGE JOHN ODAH FROM THE ELECTORAL REFORM COMMITTEE
By: Aloy Ejimakor, Washington, DC
Vanguard of January 28, 2008 reported a certain Comrade John Odah of the Nigerian Labour Congress as calling for the resignation of Maurice Iwu as the Chair of INEC. Fine, Mr. Odah is a Nigerian and therefore entitled to public airing of his opinion on any national issue. But when such national issue involves the ongoing debate on the reform of Nigeria’s electoral systems and institutions, Mr Odah is no longer entitled to an unfettered expression of his opinion, and even so publicly. He is however free to hold such opinion privately and to express it to the hilt but only within the boundaries of the privileged deliberations of the Electoral Reform Committee (ERC).
The ERC is still working on the important task of giving the nation a new electoral regime that will improve on the gains of the very difficult 2007 general elections and strengthen the institutions and laws for conducting future elections in the country. Under the universal rules governing public conduct and utterances of those who serve on such committees, members are seen as quasi-public officers even though of an ad-hoc tenure, and thus barred from making public utterances that might have the appearance of pre-empting the work of the committee or jumping the gun to go beyond the letters of reference establishing the committee. Anybody who read the letters of reference for the committee will agree that Professor Maurice Iwu’s tenure as INEC Chair is not one of them. Therefore, Mr. Odah went beyond the express scope of the ERC when he took words out of the mouths of the NLC and called for Maurice Iwu’s resignation or sack. The NLC can push for such if it so wishes, but Mr. Odah, regardless of his position as General Secretary of NLC must not be part of such call for as long as he continues to serve in the ERC. Other than calling for Iwu’s resignation which carries a veiled threat to President Yar’Adua’s tenure as well, Mr. Odah should himself resign forthwith from the ERC; otherwise other members of the committee which have been embarrassed by his irresponsible behavior and inflammatory public remarks might demand and compel his resignation or it might even get to a point where President Yar’Adua will have no other choice than to fire Mr. Odah to pave way for a more responsible labor leader to be appointed to the ERC to represent the Nigerian Labor Congress.
To be sure, Mr Odah was appointed by President Yar’Adua, who is in office on an election and result declared by Professor Maurice Iwu. That means that by calling for Iwu’s sack, Mr. Odah is also questioning the legitimacy of the very President Yar’Adua who appointed him to the ERC. And taken further, Mr. Odah should know that instigating the NLC to push for Iwu’s sack will not look credible unless he also simultaneously pushes for President Yar’Adua’s resignation. So, one must assume that the real and ultimate target of this latest attack from Mr. Odah is President Yar’Adua because it is conceivable that once Mr. Odah is finished with his threat to lead a charge to hound Iwu out of office, his attention will then be directed to President Yar’Adua whose tenure was established by an election and result declared by the same Maurice Iwu and the conduct of which Mr. Odah wants Iwu’s head to roll. Whether Mr. Odah will then be patient enough to push for President Yar’Adua’s sack by peaceful means or resort to suggesting some other extra-constitutional means to accomplish his task remains to be seen. But while Mr. Odah is at it, he should be told in clear terms by all who mean Nigeria well that the reckless and veiled threats he loves to make are matters that border on the national security of Nigeria. Maurice Iwu is just one factor, but President Yar’Adua’s tenure as a consequence of the crucial 2007 general elections is central to the national security and stability of the Federation of Nigeria.
The ERC exists solely for the broad and national purpose of making recommendations to reform the electoral systems and institutions of the whole of Nigeria, and not that of Edo State alone where the AC’s loss of the governorship still makes Mr. Odah as mad as hell. So, for as long as Mr. Odah continues to dwell on the singular politics of Edo state and what he may have lost there, he will be failing in his important and broader national assignment as a member of ERC. No meaningful contribution can be expected from a man who is so embittered and partisan to the point of continually occupying his committee down-time with some desperate efforts to hold brief for the AC and entertains himself with the same old wives’ tales of fantasying on Maurice Iwu’s sack. It must be noted that Mr. Odah’s efforts are merely futile because the AC can hold its own and properly press its case at the tribunal or the courts of public opinion. The AC has its own capable partisans and apparatchiks and so does not need a busy and desperate labor leader-for-sale like Mr. Odah to make a public case against Iwu. The ERC should not be converted to a forum for partisan brinkmanship or Iwu/Yar’Adua-bashing by those who continue to engage in the crazy notion that Maurice Iwu alone should bear all the blames for all the electoral woes that have betide Nigeria since its founding.
The primary duty of a labor leader in the caliber of Mr. Odah is to occupy his time with finding lasting solutions to the myriad issues confronting the Nigerian working man if he is reluctant to take his present assignment seriously and hanker down to quietly working out a fine boilerplate for conducting the nation’s future elections. He should not lend himself as a tool for politicians with all sorts of dubious intentions because doing so will be to the larger detriment of the non-partisan labor he represents. Thus, if Mr. Odah has had it and he no longer wishes to represent labor in the ERC because he now wishes to be a revenge-seeking politician, he should do the honorable thing by resigning his leadership of the Nigerian Labor Congress and dive into the murky waters of partisan politics to his heart’s content. Nigerians will not allow him free reign to use the Nigerian Labor Congress as sword to threaten those he regards as his political opponents or a shield to protect himself when he engages in unwarranted and malicious aggression against Nigeria’s institutions and those charged with the difficult task of overseeing them.
It is pertinent to note that this is not the first time Mr. Odah has allowed himself to be swayed by naked partisanship. It was reported then that no sooner was he appointed to the ERC than he canvassed the bizarre idea that INEC be disbanded and replaced by the ERC as the new body that will conduct future elections in the country. He was then laughed off as merely lacking in proper knowledge of Nigeria’s constitutional system. It is now clear that Mr. Odah still does not understand that INEC and its chairmanship is a creation of the constitution and the ERC in which he serves is not but was created merely at the pleasure of a President that means Nigeria well, if not with Professor Iwu’s blessing as well. Thus, for entertaining such fancy ideas of hounding people out of office, Mr. Odah immediately comes across as someone who is limited in his understanding of the ad-hoc nature of the ERC or the role he has so graciously been invited to play in it. In other words, Mr. Odah has shown that he lacks the requisite character, fitness and temperament to serve as a member of such an important committee. Thus, if he does not resign, President Yar’Adua should see fit to fire him with immediate effect if the committee proves unwilling to demand his purge from its ranks. The least that Mr. Odah can expect out of his recent outbursts is an official query to show cause why he should not be removed from the ranks of the ERC forthwith.
Mr. Odah cannot defend himself by any wild claim that he was merely restating the position of NLC. Eve if it can be argued that NLC is free to take a stand either for or against Maurice Iwu or President Yar’Adua or the 2007 presidential election, Mr. Odah is supposed to recuse himself from any proceeding where such resolution is carried because not doing so will clearly mark him out as partisan, irresponsible and dangerously pre-emptive of an issue that is still receiving attention in a committee he serves as a member. It is much like the law courts where a pending matter admits of no public opinionating because it is subjudice. Anything contrary is immediately deemed pre-emptive of ongoing proceedings and is therefore sanctionable. As a former Chief Justice, an experienced Justice Uwais, who chairs the ERC can be trusted to know what to do to protect the sanctity and integrity of the proceedings of the ERC from any member who believes he can get away with such unbridled contemptuous conduct. That Mr. Odah went as far as interjecting scathing statements of his own means that he is no longer interested in serving the overall interests of Nigerians as a member of the ERC but is now engaged in a mindless political campaign and mean-spirited personality attacks of his own.
Analogies can be drawn to so many others from the civil society, labor or judiciary who serve in this government either as members of some committee or as ministers or the like. Let us take AGF Andoakaa for instance. If for any reason, the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) of which Andoakaa is a member wishes to rise against Chairman Iwu or President Yar’Adua, AGF Andoakaa, though a member of the NBA will not be the one reading the resolution, not to talk of adding additional remarks of his own. As a member of the ERC, Mr. Odah is a quasi-public officer for as long as the ERC sits, and thus should exercise restraint or do what all conscientious persons do by resigning if he disagrees with those under whom he serves instead of staying put to continue to embarrass himself and the Nigerian labor which he purports to represent.
Attorney Ejimakor is the Convener of Organization of Nigerian Lawyers in Diaspora. alloylaw@yahoo.com
By: Aloy Ejimakor, Washington, DC
Vanguard of January 28, 2008 reported a certain Comrade John Odah of the Nigerian Labour Congress as calling for the resignation of Maurice Iwu as the Chair of INEC. Fine, Mr. Odah is a Nigerian and therefore entitled to public airing of his opinion on any national issue. But when such national issue involves the ongoing debate on the reform of Nigeria’s electoral systems and institutions, Mr Odah is no longer entitled to an unfettered expression of his opinion, and even so publicly. He is however free to hold such opinion privately and to express it to the hilt but only within the boundaries of the privileged deliberations of the Electoral Reform Committee (ERC).
The ERC is still working on the important task of giving the nation a new electoral regime that will improve on the gains of the very difficult 2007 general elections and strengthen the institutions and laws for conducting future elections in the country. Under the universal rules governing public conduct and utterances of those who serve on such committees, members are seen as quasi-public officers even though of an ad-hoc tenure, and thus barred from making public utterances that might have the appearance of pre-empting the work of the committee or jumping the gun to go beyond the letters of reference establishing the committee. Anybody who read the letters of reference for the committee will agree that Professor Maurice Iwu’s tenure as INEC Chair is not one of them. Therefore, Mr. Odah went beyond the express scope of the ERC when he took words out of the mouths of the NLC and called for Maurice Iwu’s resignation or sack. The NLC can push for such if it so wishes, but Mr. Odah, regardless of his position as General Secretary of NLC must not be part of such call for as long as he continues to serve in the ERC. Other than calling for Iwu’s resignation which carries a veiled threat to President Yar’Adua’s tenure as well, Mr. Odah should himself resign forthwith from the ERC; otherwise other members of the committee which have been embarrassed by his irresponsible behavior and inflammatory public remarks might demand and compel his resignation or it might even get to a point where President Yar’Adua will have no other choice than to fire Mr. Odah to pave way for a more responsible labor leader to be appointed to the ERC to represent the Nigerian Labor Congress.
To be sure, Mr Odah was appointed by President Yar’Adua, who is in office on an election and result declared by Professor Maurice Iwu. That means that by calling for Iwu’s sack, Mr. Odah is also questioning the legitimacy of the very President Yar’Adua who appointed him to the ERC. And taken further, Mr. Odah should know that instigating the NLC to push for Iwu’s sack will not look credible unless he also simultaneously pushes for President Yar’Adua’s resignation. So, one must assume that the real and ultimate target of this latest attack from Mr. Odah is President Yar’Adua because it is conceivable that once Mr. Odah is finished with his threat to lead a charge to hound Iwu out of office, his attention will then be directed to President Yar’Adua whose tenure was established by an election and result declared by the same Maurice Iwu and the conduct of which Mr. Odah wants Iwu’s head to roll. Whether Mr. Odah will then be patient enough to push for President Yar’Adua’s sack by peaceful means or resort to suggesting some other extra-constitutional means to accomplish his task remains to be seen. But while Mr. Odah is at it, he should be told in clear terms by all who mean Nigeria well that the reckless and veiled threats he loves to make are matters that border on the national security of Nigeria. Maurice Iwu is just one factor, but President Yar’Adua’s tenure as a consequence of the crucial 2007 general elections is central to the national security and stability of the Federation of Nigeria.
The ERC exists solely for the broad and national purpose of making recommendations to reform the electoral systems and institutions of the whole of Nigeria, and not that of Edo State alone where the AC’s loss of the governorship still makes Mr. Odah as mad as hell. So, for as long as Mr. Odah continues to dwell on the singular politics of Edo state and what he may have lost there, he will be failing in his important and broader national assignment as a member of ERC. No meaningful contribution can be expected from a man who is so embittered and partisan to the point of continually occupying his committee down-time with some desperate efforts to hold brief for the AC and entertains himself with the same old wives’ tales of fantasying on Maurice Iwu’s sack. It must be noted that Mr. Odah’s efforts are merely futile because the AC can hold its own and properly press its case at the tribunal or the courts of public opinion. The AC has its own capable partisans and apparatchiks and so does not need a busy and desperate labor leader-for-sale like Mr. Odah to make a public case against Iwu. The ERC should not be converted to a forum for partisan brinkmanship or Iwu/Yar’Adua-bashing by those who continue to engage in the crazy notion that Maurice Iwu alone should bear all the blames for all the electoral woes that have betide Nigeria since its founding.
The primary duty of a labor leader in the caliber of Mr. Odah is to occupy his time with finding lasting solutions to the myriad issues confronting the Nigerian working man if he is reluctant to take his present assignment seriously and hanker down to quietly working out a fine boilerplate for conducting the nation’s future elections. He should not lend himself as a tool for politicians with all sorts of dubious intentions because doing so will be to the larger detriment of the non-partisan labor he represents. Thus, if Mr. Odah has had it and he no longer wishes to represent labor in the ERC because he now wishes to be a revenge-seeking politician, he should do the honorable thing by resigning his leadership of the Nigerian Labor Congress and dive into the murky waters of partisan politics to his heart’s content. Nigerians will not allow him free reign to use the Nigerian Labor Congress as sword to threaten those he regards as his political opponents or a shield to protect himself when he engages in unwarranted and malicious aggression against Nigeria’s institutions and those charged with the difficult task of overseeing them.
It is pertinent to note that this is not the first time Mr. Odah has allowed himself to be swayed by naked partisanship. It was reported then that no sooner was he appointed to the ERC than he canvassed the bizarre idea that INEC be disbanded and replaced by the ERC as the new body that will conduct future elections in the country. He was then laughed off as merely lacking in proper knowledge of Nigeria’s constitutional system. It is now clear that Mr. Odah still does not understand that INEC and its chairmanship is a creation of the constitution and the ERC in which he serves is not but was created merely at the pleasure of a President that means Nigeria well, if not with Professor Iwu’s blessing as well. Thus, for entertaining such fancy ideas of hounding people out of office, Mr. Odah immediately comes across as someone who is limited in his understanding of the ad-hoc nature of the ERC or the role he has so graciously been invited to play in it. In other words, Mr. Odah has shown that he lacks the requisite character, fitness and temperament to serve as a member of such an important committee. Thus, if he does not resign, President Yar’Adua should see fit to fire him with immediate effect if the committee proves unwilling to demand his purge from its ranks. The least that Mr. Odah can expect out of his recent outbursts is an official query to show cause why he should not be removed from the ranks of the ERC forthwith.
Mr. Odah cannot defend himself by any wild claim that he was merely restating the position of NLC. Eve if it can be argued that NLC is free to take a stand either for or against Maurice Iwu or President Yar’Adua or the 2007 presidential election, Mr. Odah is supposed to recuse himself from any proceeding where such resolution is carried because not doing so will clearly mark him out as partisan, irresponsible and dangerously pre-emptive of an issue that is still receiving attention in a committee he serves as a member. It is much like the law courts where a pending matter admits of no public opinionating because it is subjudice. Anything contrary is immediately deemed pre-emptive of ongoing proceedings and is therefore sanctionable. As a former Chief Justice, an experienced Justice Uwais, who chairs the ERC can be trusted to know what to do to protect the sanctity and integrity of the proceedings of the ERC from any member who believes he can get away with such unbridled contemptuous conduct. That Mr. Odah went as far as interjecting scathing statements of his own means that he is no longer interested in serving the overall interests of Nigerians as a member of the ERC but is now engaged in a mindless political campaign and mean-spirited personality attacks of his own.
Analogies can be drawn to so many others from the civil society, labor or judiciary who serve in this government either as members of some committee or as ministers or the like. Let us take AGF Andoakaa for instance. If for any reason, the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) of which Andoakaa is a member wishes to rise against Chairman Iwu or President Yar’Adua, AGF Andoakaa, though a member of the NBA will not be the one reading the resolution, not to talk of adding additional remarks of his own. As a member of the ERC, Mr. Odah is a quasi-public officer for as long as the ERC sits, and thus should exercise restraint or do what all conscientious persons do by resigning if he disagrees with those under whom he serves instead of staying put to continue to embarrass himself and the Nigerian labor which he purports to represent.
Attorney Ejimakor is the Convener of Organization of Nigerian Lawyers in Diaspora. alloylaw@yahoo.com
