NEC boss, Nwosu, richly deserves national honour

For two days, bile and mean-spiritedness rippled through the chambers of Nigeria’s Senate over a motion for the immortalisation of Humphrey Nwosu, a former chairman of the National Electoral Commission (NEC), in recognition of his public service to the country. This is hinged on the exceptional conduct of the June 12, 1993 presidential election, won by the MKO Abiola. That election has been adjudged by all and sundry as the freest, fairest and most credible in our annals till date.

Mr Nwosu died in October 2024, aged 83 years. His illustrious role saw him defy a kangaroo court order, covertly masterminded by the highest military echelon of the time, which had sought to stop the conduct of the poll. And at the behest of the junta, the result of the June 12 election was not formally announced, despite the collation of results from all the states, with the exception of one – that of Taraba State. The chain of events this subsequently sparked reached its lowest point with the death of Mr Abiola in the custody of the federal government.

The Senate’s recent misguided action coincided with the time that Mr Nwosu’s remains were laid to rest in his home state of Anambra. Senators across party and regional lines backed the motion, whose chief sponsor was Enyinnaya Abaribe of All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA). According to the senator, Mr Nwosu’s “courageous defence of (the) democratic electoral process during the 1993 presidential election led to the famous June 12, which ultimately confirmed MKO Abiola as the winner of the election.” This is beyond any debate.

As the NEC boss, Mr Nwosu introduced the ingenious and transparent Option A4 voting system in the conduct of political party primaries and the open balloting system, to national and global acclamation. This sharply contrasts with the procedures adopted in subsequent elections in the country, which have been defined – rather shamefully – by manipulations, glitches and, above all, the unabashed buying of votes by politicians, without consequences. He also laid the foundation for the building of the headquarters of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

The senators who shot down the motion, argued that Mr Nwosu would have been deserving of posthumous national honour if he had gone ahead to announce the result of the June 12 election, while damning the consequences of that act. Seemingly, they appear to have considered Mr Nwosu as the one who betrayed Nigeria, rather than the manipulative dictator, President Ibrahim Babangida, who had fabricated all manners of ruses to refrain from handing over power, even as he rode roughshod over the country. Such view of Mr Nwosu is most unfair and uncharitable.

These dissenting legislators totally missed the point. Prominent among them were senators Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State and Solomon Olamilekan of Ogun State. In clear terms, these senators wished the former NEC boss had stood before a moving train in a period of military dictatorship. We reject the Senate’s stance and find it ridiculous that lawmakers, who are afraid to drive on the country’s highways due to the activities of kidnappers, wanted Mr Nwosu to have embarked on a kamikaze – an undertaking which none of them would have performed.

Yet, Mr Nwosu had tried his best to finish the job, following the legal route. But he was literally stopped at gun point by the Armed Forces Military Council, headed by Mr Babangida, of which General Sani Abacha was the defacto second in command. At a military council meeting, Mr Babangida reportedly sought Mr Nwosu’s view on how the political logjam that arose from the proscribed election could be resolved. In a poetic cadence, he is said to have responded, “Sir, allow us to announce the result.” Rather than listen to him, Mr Babangida set up a committee headed by the wily Mr Abacha, to find a solution to the crisis. This was sheer deceit!

In an interview with Sahara TV online, Mr Nwosu gave a detailed account of the meeting of the committee, held in Mr Abacha’s guest house, which he attended alongside some military top brass then, who are still alive, that he mentioned as being among the dramatis personae involved in that perfidious mission presided over by Mr Abacha. Mr Nwosu claimed to have restated his earlier position to the gathering, that there was really nothing for them to meet over, as an election had been conducted, whose results were already collated, and that what remained was the announcement of the full results.

Mr Abacha, whose eyes were already on the presidential seat then was said to have got livid. Mr Nwosu recounted that, “Abacha shouted at me: Who are you to tell us what to do? Are you a member of the National Security Council? The court said you should not conduct the election, you went ahead to do it.” At the last military council meeting on the electoral deadlock, Mr Babangida reportedly told Mr Nwosu that, “You people are on your own,” as he remained adamant on the need for a conclusion of the electoral process.

In an attempt to announce the result, the NEC headed for the Court of Appeal in Kaduna, presided over by Okey Achike, to challenge the order served on it by the Commissioner of Police, Abuja, stopping the announcement of the results. The court had asked NEC to submit the result, which the Director, Legal Services of NEC, Buhari Bello, did, thus making it a public document.

Instructively, 25 June 1993 was the date for the court hearing and possible pronouncement on the debacle. But the military junta dissolved NEC and all democratic structures on 23 June 1993 – two days earlier. These bold and patriotic steps in the face of apparent personal danger, were not the conducts of a man who compromised his duty. In fact, if any, the charge or blight best fits the Senate in the face of the perfunctory discharge of its legislative functions, the obscene allowances totalling N21 million collected monthly by each senator, as revealed by Senator Sumaila Kawu, and the procurement of Toyota SUVs at N160 million apiece for each senator, amid massive poverty and hunger that’s killing Nigerians by the day. Categorically, the senators are like Nero, who fiddled while Rome burnt.

Is it not irrational and illogical for the Senate to applaud the June 12 election as the fairest and most credible in the country, laud the Grand Commander Federal Republic (GCFR) honour bestowed on Mr Abiola by President Muhammadu Buhari, and commemorate 12 June as the nation’s Democracy Day, but fail to honour the very man – Nwosu – who was central to etching the date in history and national memory? With President Muhammadu Buhari’s bestowal of a GCFR award on Mr Abiola, which is an honour exclusively reserved for heads of state, President Bola Tinubu is being urged to pay all the emoluments due to Mr Abiola as a former leader, to his family.

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It is a no-brainer that if Mr Nwosu had failed to conduct the election on the grounds of Justice Bassey Ikpeme’s treacherous court ruling, there would not have been any winner to acknowledge, or June 12 to celebrate. PREMIUM TIMES believes that Mr Nwosu richly deserves a national honour, more than the senators who have been garlanded with it, without any distinction of service to Nigeria. We, therefore, call on President Bola Tinubu, whose political activism and prominence was forged in the furnace of the June 12 struggle, to ignore the Senate and honour the late NEC chairman posthumously.

The Senate needs some introspection over its ill-considered showing on Mr Nwosu, given that many senators had last month trooped to honour the man who annulled the election – Mr Babangida, when he launched his autobiography – A journey in Service. They did not just attend, but donated handsomely. One of the senators donated a huge sum of N250 million. The Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, ably represented by Senator Aliyu Wadada, donated N10 million.

Besides the NEC job, Mr Nwosu, a University of California, Berkeley PhD holder, was a distinguished professor of political science at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, his alma mater, where he retired. He had also presented a 60-page document to the Justice Muhammed Uwais Electoral Reform Panel, which the President Musa Yar’Adua set up to deepen our democratic process in Nigeria. Our over-paid legislators are yet to fully embrace that widely acclaimed Uwais report, 15 years after, to the peril of Nigeria’s electoral integrity and democratic consolidation.