By Comrade Echezona Asuzu and Abdulwahab Ekhekide
The Alliance for Credible Elections (ACE-Nigeria), founded in August 8, 2006, became a radical departure from the prevailing pacifist engagement for electoral reform. At the helms of the vision and leadership for this novel approach to the struggle for electoral clean up in Nigeria was Comrade Emma Ezeazu. Given his experience in the student union movement where he served the longest term as the President of National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), Ezeazu, beyond routine media releases, deployed a more robust engagement with managers of Nigeria’s electoral space.
The Nigerian people were at the heart of Ezeazu’s push for electoral reform. In its early days, ACE-Nigeria released media adverts calling for free subscription by Nigerians to the movement for electoral sanctity. Ezeazu’s desire for popular ownership of the struggle for electoral reform was echoed by the quality of mass based groups that provided the core partnership for the recovery of electoral rectitude.
In the aftermath of the rape of Nigeria’s democratic process during the 2007 general elections by criminal minded politicians and with the active cooperation of INEC under the leadership of Professor Maurice Iwu, a new agenda was needed for engagement with the electoral space. Comrade Emma Ezeazu in collaboration with the then General Secretary of the Nigeria Labour Congress, Comrade John Odah, Innocent Chukwuma, Y.Z. Yau, Emma Ugboaja and a few other activists spearheaded the persuasion for a more active role by citizen groups in the campaign for electoral reform.
A major fruit of that collaboration was the Nigeria Labour Congress – Civil Society Summit on Reform of Nigeria’s Electoral Process held on 4-5 April, 2008 in Bauchi. The summit, first of its kind, was a follow up to the public disowning of the 2007 elections by its biggest beneficiary; late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, and his call for very fundamental reform of Nigeria’s electoral process. The public disclaimer on the elections that produced his presidency was not a cherry pick for late President Yar’Adua.
It was as a result of consistent pressure by mass based organizations especially NLC and civil society groups like ACE-Nigeria.
It was unfortunate that the federal cabinet of late President Yar’Adua reneged on its promise to fully commit itself to the reform of the electoral space based on the wishes of the Nigerian people as most of the fundamental recommendations contained in the Justice Uwais ERC report were thrown out.
The high point of the struggle for the reclamation of the electoral space in Nigeria was the push by Comrade Emma Ezeazu and the then General Secretary of the Nigeria Labour Congress, Comrade John Odah for the removal of Professor Maurice Iwu as the Chairman of INEC. The move was highly significant given the moves being made by the anti-democratic forces that designed the 2007 general elections charade to retain Maurice Iwu at the helms of INEC. ACE-Nigeria was the rallying point for popular penalizing of Iwu.
Leading a mammoth crowd of Nigerian labour and civil society, Comrade Emma Ezeazu and other leaders in Nigeria’s citizen’s sector stormed the INEC headquarters. In his speech at the premises of INEC, then President of the Nigeria Labour Congress, Comrade Abdulwaheed Omar warned that any attempt by former President Goodluck Jonathan to renew Professor Iwu’s term of office would lead to a total shut down of the country.
That was the level of momentum that the quest for electoral reform had garnered. Like they say, the rest is now history as Professor Maurice Iwu did not last up to one week in office after that epochal protest by the Nigerian people.
The demise of Comrade Emma Ezeazu in the early evening of May 18, 2015 was to a lot of people a heart breaking dusk on a phase of electoral activism in Nigeria. Comrade Emma Ezeazu was an activist’s activist par excellence. He was among the best of his generation. He devoted all his life to the advancement of the common good and betterment of the standard of living of the downtrodden masses of Nigeria. Ezeazu’s unrepentant commitment to the struggle for a better Nigeria saw him in and out of military cum police detentions severally. His academic and personal life took a lot of hit on this account. Ezeazu was a true patriot.
Emma viewed the ballot box as the beginning of the rescue mission to emancipate the long suffering people of Nigeria from the slave manacles of misruling elite. When it became clear that the ruling elite would rather hijack the ballot box than allow the sovereignty of the Nigerian people to prevail, the crusade for electoral reform became not only the prime vocation of Comrade Ezeazu but a life cause for which he was ready to pay the supreme price. Comrade Ezeazu’s stand for good governance was unmatched. This was proved by his willingness to help build a virile opposition to then ruling People’s Democratic Party.
The civil society community in Nigeria cannot afford to wail Ezeazu as people without hope. This is the best time to seize the moment and push for a comprehensive reform of the electoral space through a diligent implementation of the Justice Uwais Electoral Reform Committee’s Report. There is no better way to immortalise Ezeazu. Emma Ezeazu’s struggle for Electoral Reform has become the footprints that he has left behind as a worthy legacy. Those have become the burden of the successor generation!
Asuzu is the Deputy General Secretary and Ekhekide is the Programme Officer for ACE-Nigeria. They wrote from Abuja
