•    As highlighted in my May Day Address, we commend Mr President for his
courage in sacking Professor Maurice Iwu despite the obvious diabolical
backing by former President Obasanjo.  But we want to make it clear that
Iwu’s removal is merely the beginning of the journey to credible election.

•    We insist that for our electoral process to be credible, the Uwais
recommendations must be fully implemented.

•    Recent media reports which tend to suggest that Mr President is
considering the appointment of personalities that are clearly partisan and
known card carrying members of political parties or who had served or are
still serving the PDP government is disturbing. We will not, and Nigerian
people will never accept such characters to head our electoral body. We
will mobilise to resist any such appointment.

•    We are equally not comfortable with a scenario where a former INEC
commissioner, Mr Solomon Soyebi, is holding forth at the commission as
Acting Chairman. Mr Soyebi, we must note, was one of the leprous fingers
of INEC under Maurice Iwu who superintended over the conduct of the very
fraudulent 2007 general elections and the subsequent by-elections,
particularly that of Ekiti State. We therefore urge Mr President to
quickly fill all vacancies at the Commission with men of impeccable
integrity to begin to lay the foundation for the 2011 general elections to
hold in a few months.

•    While the labour movement will not dictate to Mr President whom to
relate with or whom to consult on matters of national interest, we wish to
also categorically state, like many concerned patriots, that we are very
uncomfortable with Mr President’s seeming romance with former President
Obasanjo. Our feeling derives from the fact that former President Obasanjo
had done more harm to the current democratic process than good and stands
to cause further damage if given unfettered access to influence opinions
of those in power. His recent blasphemous comments in the US that
Nigeria’s electoral process is irredeemable goes to show that Obasanjo
does not believe in a true democratic electoral process. If President
Jonathan desires the trust and confidence of Nigerians, he must stop
hobnobbing with Obasanjo for he represents the most visibly formidable
danger to the future of our democracy.

•    Though Congress may not wish to also dictate to Mr President the
direction he should take in terms of his personal political ambition, we
would state unequivocally that it would be in his greater personal
interest and integrity to prioritise the conduct of a free, fair, just and
credible election. History and indeed, generations yet unborn will
remember him more if he chooses the path of honour to engage his energy
and focus attention towards instituting an electoral system that is
trustworthy and which will attract the confidence and respect of all
civilised and democratic nations.

Thank you.

Abdulwahed Omar

NLC President