Action Congress (AC), yesterday said the continued stay in office of INEC Chairman, Maurice Iwu, had become an embarrassment to the administration of President Umaru Yar'Adua, and emboldened Iwu to insult national icons.
The party was reacting to the vituperation poured on some Nigerians by Iwu, explaining that his continued stay in office was a waste of public funds.
In a statement signed by AC's National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, AC said to continue keeping Iwu in office was to doubt the sincerity of Yar'Adua to genuinely reform the electoral system.
"Iwu, after the disgrace he brought to himself, his family and Nigeria with the mess he made of the 2007 general elections, should not be allowed to continue to use the power of his office to further ridicule the country and make disparaging comments about highly-respected Nigerians.
"But his continued stay in office could well be construed - or misconstrued? - as a reward for rigging many of those in authority now into office, AC said.
The party wondered "why anyone in his right senses would attempt to ridicule a man like Prof. Wole Soyinka, whose level of achievements Iwu could not even dream of reaching until he dies, just because he (Soyinka) dares to criticise a public office holder.
"For the avoidance of doubt, let's remind Iwu that Soyinka remains Nigeria's greatest gift to the world, the most recognisable personality from these parts, whose trade mark white hair stands for intelligence, integrity, talent and wisdom - none of which Iwu possesses. While every nation can boast of a president or whatever title its leader is known by, not everyone can boast of a Nobel Laureate."
"To use insulting words against such a man - who is perhaps more believable around the world than even the government that Iwu is serving -is a joke carried too far! The danger in Iwu's behaviour is that his position may even be seen as representing that of the government he serves, further dealing a credibility blow to the wobbly Yar'Adua administration," AC said.
The party said equally astonishing were comments credited to Iwu that former Senate President Ken Nnamani lobbied him to stall the 2007 elections, so that he (Nnamani) could become interim President.
"This statement, which no one believes, provides no greater evidence of Iwu's continuous descent into irreversible infamy. Coming over 18 months later, it is nothing short of a figment of Iwu's imagination.
"This is because the Iwu we know would not have waited this long to make his 'revelation' if indeed it were true. Is this not the same Iwu who concocted the story of a truck bomb aimed at the INEC offices in Abuja by those allegedly seeking to stop the 2007 elections? And just as it came, the obviously conjured truck disappeared into thin air," AC said.
It said "Nnamani's best legacy -and the memory that Nigerians have of his tenure as Senate President - is that he helped to thwart the illegal third term ambition of then President and maximum ruler, Olusegun Obasanjo.
"It is inconceivable that a man who, at a great risk, did all he could to prevent an illegality in the name of an unconstitutional third term, whose display of rare integrity helped to save Nigeria's young democracy, will then turn around to lobby for an unconstitutional interim presidency," AC said.
The party said it was even more laughable that Iwu is threatening Nnamani with prosecution, when those who willfully rigged elections in Edo State and across Nigeria have not been prosecuted.
"In any case, if anyone deserves to be prosecuted over the 2007 general elections, the worst in the history of our nation and perhaps anywhere else around the world, it is Iwu! His day of reckoning may yet come," it said.

How can that Mad Man ever behave Sane?
Iwu should be now in jail or psychiatric hospital.
But, the dummy president is so docile that he can not even decide anything good.
Actually, he benefitted from Iwu's dance of shame.

We Nigerian must start again the 1993 to 1998 struggles against the Military dictators.
PDP is more rotten, corrupt and wicked than the military regime.
They will continue to hide under Iwu to rob Nigerian.

If we don't fight the greatest corruption ever (Electoral Riging), all other corruptions are chase of shadows.
We need Electoral free fraud Commission(EFCC) to arrest and prosecute Obasanjo and Iwu.
Then, we can talk of Money Laundering and other economic offences.
How can someone we did not vote be responsible to us?
Nigerians answer me if you know the HOW.

@Post,God save this country.Iwu and his INEC are birds of the same feather.If Iwu must go,all his other officials in INEC must also take a shamefull bow and scram.

God save this country

can we stop this nonsense, which GOD, the indians, malaysians, europeans and other developed nations say this all the time, plssssss.

How can AC say that Soyinka is the greatest gift that the world and not even Nigeria has been bestowed with?

Can someone ask AC to justify this claim? Why cant harsh words be used agains Soyinka? Hasnt he himself used very harsh words agains our President and many others in time past? Why cant Soyinka, a public personality, also be critisized and spoken against? Why cant he? AC should go and sit down inside a dung of shit and let our country move on, we have had enough of them so called activists.

Well,because we did not vote him in and he was Obasanjo's protege, he will continue the sham of leadership by stealing more oil money. Unfortunately, the oil price has fallen and instead of them accepting the truth the easy way, they have chosen the hard way by devaluing the Naira against the dollar in an import based economy. O ma se oh!

@topic,

What exactly did Iwu say about Wole Soyinka because the AC statement was focusing on Iwu's accusation against Nnamani rather than Soyinka that the title refered to?