I don’t know if what I have as title qualifies for that, whether or not it won’t matter when juxtaposed with the very weighty matter it conveys. I don’t know whether to say we encountered June 12, the political tsunami that hit our country. Whichever is the case, the issue remains that in the journey to true nationhood we encountered rough weather and our plane came under severe turbulence.
Remove the two dramatic personalities, Chief MKO Abiola and Bashir Tofa who contested elections on different platforms for the country’s highest office, Preside the presidency, the next man of importance ofcentrally involved in the development was Professor Humphrey Nwosu, who was the county’s chief electoral officer. By March 28, 2025 the case of this erudite scholar would be purely historical because he would be buried in his village in Ajali somewhere in Anambra State and that would bring closure to his interface with the physical realm.
I know the professor of Politics because I took several courses under him at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka and I can tell of his desire to properly locate the Black race in world affairs. I recall one of his many refrains while teaching us class. He used to say, “Learn the theory and when you go into the larger society, critically examine what you find that is in, ascertain suitability for efficiency and where it doesn’t fit, crack your head and come up with something appropriate for our peculiar experience.”
He kept telling us that it was almost like a routine assignment and that at a time the contest for supremacy reigned large between capitalism and socialism. He didn’t bother us much with these ideologies, one would rather he was more of a nationalist, another branding allocated by western bureaucrats. He wore very simple clothes in those days, but by knowledge brought home the message that “the hood doesn’t make the monk.”
Many of us who had the privilege turned out very efficiently, wherever nature has allowed our feet to touch. We are visionary, principled, dogged fighters, brimming with conviction and courage. There was nothing some of us foresaw that could suggest Professor Nwosu would leave the precincts of the academic world and take a plunge into the very murky environment of our country’s public service but he did, becoming the county’s electoral chief.
He came at the most inauspicious time, a period when the military in power had ruined the political system in the country and had come to their wits end. It wasn’t a good time at all for a scholar to take up the role he was to play but he lived up to what he taught his students in class at the university. He approached the task with clarity of vision. For him, the electoral process wasn’t that if there was no sanctity about the people’s choices. To him the people are the sovereignty and their votes must count.
What to do? Infuse creativity into the process. He believed in the ability of the brain to create alternatives, new ways of doing old things, and so created what became popularly known as “Option A4.” Under this system voters would be accredited after which they line out behind their preferred candidates. This system produced instant positive results. It dealt fatal blows to hypocrisy, especially on the part of the electorate who had this penchant to commercialize their votes for little monetary and other gains.
It dealt with deception, lies and haughtiness which has remained the hallmark of the so-called high and mighty. The system raised and buried nearly all malfeasances often associated with final electoral processes like results collation and changes in figures and all others. The counting was done openly and results known to all right there on the spot, nothing like wait and take. People rejoiced at electoral outcomes and the courts had nothing, absolute nothing to do with the election of persons into public offices.
The poll ran into huge challenges when military officers, many of them class from junior schools mostly from the northern part pandered to group and hegemonic interests, none wanted to give truth its name and colour rather named it from the perspective that suited them. The consequences were many, beginning from the order to halt final collation and official announcement of overall results which would have had a conclusive end with the proclamation of a winner in the person of MKO Abiola. Everything ended in a fiasco from which the country hasn’t recovered even till today.
From this point Professor Nwosu lived a sad life, a very disappointed man. A very brilliant man was forced to disappear from the radar. He lived a near recluse life. He couldn’t understand Nigeria and unfortunately the Nigeria he gave his all refused to give him a lifting hand. He refused to put the election process on hold for which stories say he took physical maltreatments but he had none to plead his case in high places till he passed on.
What could have been more worse, traumatizing and humiliating than seeing the authors rewarded with higher public offices, national awards and branding as “symbols of democracy” while the real symbol of democracy and great nationalist turned out the villain. MKO Abiola has been certified winner and given awards. June 12 has become a national holiday. Northern military officers who pushed for the annulment of the electoral process went ahead to become heads of state and senators, with one or two making it the upper level of national leadership. For Prof Nwosu nothing at all, not even a most rewarding mention.
It baffles me. No one knows the reason. Has it to do with being Igbo, the most hated tribe in Nigeria since independence? Or could it have been because our system deals badly with the knowledgeable and efficient while rewarding crooks and mediocres. Really, I don’t know. President Bola Tinubu was on the right June 12. Good enough he is the president currently. There are many things he can do to right the wrongs. One of them is recognition and national honours for Prof Nwosu and a befitting monument named after him.