Honour for Humphrey Nwosu

By Kayode Komolafe

It is beyond debate that Professor Humphrey Nwosu, whose remains will be buried on Friday, was an eminently unsung hero in the June 12 story.

Nwosu’s funeral will take place at his residence,  Ogbili Otti Palace, Ajalli in the Orumba North Local Government Area of Anambra State.

Amidst  the preparations for the  funeral of the political scientist, there have been reasoned  voices in favour of  a national recognition of  the historical role played by Nwosu in making  the June 12, 1993 presidential election possible, in the first place.

The election was expected to be the culmination of the circuitous transition programme of the regime of President Ibrahim Babangida. It was an epic contest between Bashorun Moshood Abiola of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and Alhaji Bashir Tofa of  the National Republican Convention (NRC).

As President Ibrahim Babangida, the author of the elaborate  transtion programe, now states unequivocally in his memoirs, Abiola resoundinly won the election.

As an accomplished theorist of politics, Nwosu found a veritable laboratory to test his hypothesis when Babangida appointed the scholar to the post of the  chairman  of the National Electoral Commission (NEC), the body regulating elections in Nigeria in those days. Nwosu performed that national assignment creditably from 1989 to 1993, the year the debacle began. 

Incidentally, Nwosu took over from his former teacher, another icon of the political science disciplne, Professor Eme Awa. Nwosu accepted to do the job with all his energy and commitment to a national purpose. Such was Nwosu’s enthusiasm as the umpire  that his characteristic gesticulation on television while explaining the process were dismissed  as a spectacle by skeptics of the transition programme.  Indeed, with courage and clarity of purpose,  the political scientist performed not a few experiments, the result of which might be of great interest to  future historians  and psephologists (experts in the study  of elections).

It is hardly mentioned in many versions of the June 12 story that the electoral body headed by Nwosu had successfully conducted elections for councillors, local government chairmen,  state governors and members of the National Assembly (NASS) as a substantial part of the transition programme.

So, local governments, state governments and the federal legislature were funtioning well  as at  the time the June 12 election took place. The elected men and women were looking forward to the election of the president for the Third Republic to be fully proclaimed.

But the annulment of the election on June 23, 1993  truncated the process.

The call for a posthumous honour of Nwosu’s memory is squarely predicated on the fact that he led the commission that managed what is now referred  to as the freest and fairest  election in history.

One conspicous voice in favour of honour for the memory of Nwosu came two days ago  in a session of tributes at the headquarters of the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) in Abuja. It was the voice of the INEC chairman, Professor Mahmood  Yakubu. Yakubu’s important tribute encapsulates  the case for a posthumous honour in memory of Nwosu. The INEC chairman made the point so persuasively that  his statement is  considered worthy of reproduction here for the record:

“Like all his six predecessors and seven successors to date, he (Nwosu)  had the arduous task of managing elections in an extremely challenging context.

“He also introduced a number of reforms to election management. His tenure is synonymous with the Open Ballot System, popularly referred to as Option A4 in which voters queued up behind the symbol of the party of their choice to vote and to be physically counted.

“Professor Nwosu did his best, which was not always appreciated by many, including those who appointed him under an infinite transition from military rule to democracy, which ended in the annulment of the presidential election held in 1993, resulting in the dissolution of the electoral commission and the emergence of an interim government.

“However, with the passage of time, the outcome of his effort is now widely appreciated. The election is now celebrated as one of the best in Nigeria. Even those who annulled it have expressed regret.”

 “A quarter of a century (25 years) later in June 2018, the presumed winner of the 1993 Presidential election, Chief M. K. O. Abiola, received the highest national honour, the Grand Commander of the Federal Republic, posthumously. His running mate, Ambassador Baba Gana Kingibe, was conferred with the second highest national honour, the Grand Commander of the Order of the Niger. The date of the election (June 12th, 1993) has been gazetted as a national holiday and appropriately named Democracy Day.

“Sadly, the electoral commission that conducted the election which was personified by Professor Nwosu received only a muffled commendation as if no one conducted the election. Surely, the election did not conduct itself. It was organised by a Commission made up of Commissioners and a Chairman. If it was an oversight that Professor Nwosu was not honoured in his lifetime, it is never late for the appropriate authority to do so posthumously.

“For us in INEC, we will continue to appreciate Professor Nwosu and the dedicated service he rendered to the nation.”

Yakubu’s call is representative of those who like to take a wholistic view of the June 12 phenomenon with all its contradictions. 

Nwosu’s name should not be missing in the June 12  roll of honour. That is the summary of the calls from diverse quarters.

After all, in several months preceeding the election there was hardly any  day that the name Humphrey Nwosu  would not be mentioned in the print and electronic media. There was no social media in that period!  By the way, the professor was one of those public figures often identified with their two names pronounced together  unlike others better known with their first or last name. Any reference to him must be pronounced  as  Humphrey Nwosu!

In the mixed responses to the recent  launch of Bababngida’s memoirs entitled “Journey in Service: An Autobiography,”   some readers of  the book have said  that the former president has only confirmed  in his account the position stated by  Nwosu in his own book, “Laying the Foundation for Democracy in Nigeria: My Account of the June 12, 1993 Presidential Election and its Annulment.”

In the  book which should be read by those seeking a deeper understanding of the June 12 story, Nwosu puts the matter clearly as follows:  “…the result of the June 12, 1993 presidential election would have conferred on  President Babangida’s administration the greatest reservoir of legitimacy no regime had ever enjoyed in Nigeria. Undoubtedly, its annulment on June 23, 1993 created the greatest legitimacy problem toward the end of  his admistration and the problem so created still lingers till date. The critical questios to answer include the following: why was the presidential election which Alhaji MKO Abiola won decisively and which the two political parties affirmed at each level of collation annulled? Was the election flawed in any way? Was it rigged in any manner?  Was it free and fair? Were the peparations put in place by NEC for its condct shoddy?”

In telling his own June 12 story, Nwosu applies a lot of rigour as a scholar and provides immense  insights.

Take a sample from the book: “… some civilian and senior military colleagues of the President that were present at the critical meeting  of NDSC (National Defence and Security Council) on June 11, 1993 opposed the conduct of June 12 election. The President and Vice President and us were on one side of the divide.  Some of his colleagues were on the other side of the divide. The most visible and outspoken military officer who was on the side of the President and actualisation of the June 12 election throughout was Col. Abubakar Umar, but unfortunately he was not a member of the NDSC.”

Now, compare Nwosu’s version with Babangida’s on the visible polarisation within  the regime in those critical days. For instance, Nwosu confirms in his own book that both President Babangida and Vice President Augustus Aikhomu were on the opposite side  of the forces of annulment. Ironically, some members  of  the military and civilian forces of annulment have been beneficiaries of conclusive executive and legislative elections in the  26 years of the Fourth Republic.

However, it will remain  part of  the history of June 12  that Nwosu struggled (albeit in vain) against  the annulment.

Just imagine this:  if Nwosu had succumbed to the bullying  of the infamous  anti-June 12 powerful men to say that Abiola didn’t win the election  the story might have been different today. Such a moral collapse could have provided another justification for the grievous act of those who invariably  put the Nigerian polity in a suspended animation for five years after the momentous election.

If for nothing else,  Humphrey Nwosu’s memory deserves to be honoured because of  the professor’s courage of conviction.

For instance, some advocates of honour for Nwosu have suggested for the consideration of the federal government  naming the headquarters of INEC as Humphrey Nwosu House (HNH).