Three days hence, on Friday, March 28, 2025, the remains of Professor Humphrey Nwobu Nwosu, former chairman of National Electoral Commission, the precursor of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), will be interred in his hometown, Ajali, in Anambra State. That will bring to an end the illustriously earthly sojourn of a cerebral man who gave of himself to a country that has found it difficult to requit his diligence and loyalty.
Prof. Nwosu lived a full life, bowing out at 83 years. It is, of course, neither the length of his years, nor his material wealth that define him. He has been defined by what he did, especially at a juncture when history beckoned on him for a critical assignment in raising the foundational blocks of democracy in Nigeria.
The former chief electoral officer of the country is taking his exit, interestingly, at a point when democracy in Nigeria is taking all manner of hits, pummelled and undermined by those expected, from their lofty stations, to defend the soul and structures of principled governance.
The outstanding 18-karat quality of Humphrey Nwosu as a man of integrity and administrator of elections, seems to shine increasingly brighter by the year, as other persons have taken turns to do the same job he did. Instructively, no other head of the election management body in Nigeria has conducted a general election under more pressure and perilous circumstances than the man from Ajali. He neither buckled nor compromised.
It will not be surprising if the federal government fails to send an appropriate representation to Professor Nwosu’s burial. Yet, his ought to be a national burial, not just for what he did in national service, but for the message such honour would transmit, that virtues of patriotism and dedicated service to country will always be extoled and rewarded.
Against the backdrop of recent upheavals in the Nigerian public space, first, with the gushing out of tales of disputations of lewd forms at the hallowed chambers, from whence focus on matters of national survival ought to prevail, followed in quick succession by a sudden strike of audacious assault on the overarching structure of governance in the land, Nigerians may be too thrown off balance at the moment to mourn even for a worthy patriot.
Yet, Humphrey Nwosu served Nigeria so well that it must be put on record that a man of uncommon perseverance and dedication passed this way. Nigeria’s official attitude to Prof. Nwosu, so far, reflects the ugliness and injustice that the political leadership has foisted as values on the country. Very appalling.
The record, as it concerns Prof. Humphrey Nwosu and Nigeria, deserves to be ever held aloft. There was a June 12, 1993, general election, which many argue, with justifiable reasons, to be the best democratic election in the country, in modern times. The conduct of that election and its outcome have assiduously been waved as being of gold standard. Fair enough.
In 2018, President Muhammed Buhari finally embraced the unrelenting pitch for the June 12, 1993, election to be acknowledged as the hallmark of electoral distinction in Nigeria. An elaborate ceremony was held by the government, dubbed the first commemoration and investiture marking the formal official Federal Government recognition of June 12 as National Democracy Day.
Waxing animatedly lyrical on that event, Buhari declared that the official celebration of June 12 by his government was designed, essentially, “to put right a national wrong”. He had much more to say, thus: “Nigerians of their own free will voted for late Chief MKO Abiola and Ambassador Baba Gana Kingibe, the presidential flag bearer and running mate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in the 1993 elections. The Government of the day inexplicably cancelled the elections when it was clear who were going to be winners”
“Our action today is to bury the negative side of June 12…What we are doing is celebrating the positive side of June 12. The June 12, which restate democracy and freedom…”
Consequently, President Buhari conferred the highest national honour on the late Chief Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola and the next highest honour on his running mate, Ambassador Baba Gana Kingibe. The third award was for the late indefatigable lawyer, Gani Fawehinmi, who characteristically challenged the annulment of the June 12 election, using the legal tools available to him.
A list of other national recognitions and awards were announced by the Buhari government, honouring those who worked for and refused to allow the June 12, 1993, election to die, not even with the winner of the election. Among those honoured were the leadership of the National Assembly in the diarchy that Ibrahim Babangida had instituted in the course of his rigmarole experimentation. Other awardees included political party agents, party stalwarts, activists and not a few rabble rousers and hubbub generators of diverse orientation. Everybody, except the very man who made June 12 happen.
Buhari did not consider it appropriate that Prof. Humphrey Nwosu, the man who conducted the election that was being celebrated, needed to be honoured. In other words, in his proclaimed effort “to put right a national wrong”, Buhari and his government found the delicacy of June 12 very palatable, but did not think that the cook of the delicacy mattered.
Secretary to the Government of the Federation then, Boss Mustapha, later explained further that “these awards serve as a public acknowledgement of their (honourees’) pivotal contribution to nationhood and a further demonstration of this adminstration’s commitment to upholding the ethos of democratic governance”. What a country!
The fabric of the June 12 success was put together and held together, by a steady, honest hand. Someone refused to compromise. If Humphrey Nwosu had declared a glitch in either the process of accreditation, or in collation of the election of June 12, the very ground on which claims of Abiola’s victory was made in the first place would easily have caved in. Had that happened, Humphrey Nwosu’s name would have been on many lips today. Of course, that is not who he was.
As many as have continued to hold up June 12 as the best election Nigeria has ever had, but without according due honour to the architect of the success, are worse than Buhari on this score.
The records speak of the exceptional courage that Prof. Nwosu exhibited, standing up to the machinations and intimidating directives of Generals Babangida and Sani Abacha. He deployed intelligence and subtlety to secure the result of the presidential election of 1993. He did all that firmly, with finesse. As of today, in 2025, the returns of the 1993 presidential election are intact, uncompromised. Thirty years down the line, there is hardly any result of any such election that does not have multiple versions.
Why should it be difficult for Nigeria to honour and celebrate Humphrey Nwosu, if not that scoundrels and charlatans have seized the land and happily celebrate their own kind, even as they make light of profound work of true heroes and genuine patriots? Such now has become the character of the Nigerian state.
Professor Humphrey Nwosu won his place of honour by his principles, wisdom, brilliance and doggedness. And he did all that smiling, lest it is forgotten. He did a rather tedious, dangerous job with a calm mien, that belied his steely determination to do what was right. He delivered.
When recently, Gen. Babangida confirmed in his memoirs, that indeed, Chief Abiola won the 1993 presidential election, what he was saying in other words, was that Professor Humphrey Nwosu delivered, that he never wavered in the result he collated and held, all along. And because of him, the case for June 12 was valid. Prof. Humphrey Nwosu is of the stuff patriots and heroes are made of , in societies where substance counts, that is..