Rafiu contributes commentary to USAfrica
Special to USAfrica magazine (Houston) and USAfricaonline.com, first Africa-owned, US-based newspaper published on the Internet
(The Ram Column)
The last may not have been heard about the imperativeness of holding up Professor Humphrey Nwosu as a national hero and line him up in the Hall of Fame among the nation’s true men of honour. The Senators fell short in not recognising him as such and imprinting his imperishable legacy in national memory by immortalising him. Can our memory be so short we cannot recall how he bravely fought a good fight and would not allow himself to be dragged into our accustomed Hall of Shame. Before his emergence and since he moved away from the scene, no election has been so widely accepted as credible as the one he conducted in 1993. Within and without Nigerian frontiers, the election conducted by Professor Humphrey Nwosu has been regarded as the freest and the best election ever held in Nigeria. And so, the acronym June 12 came into being, into national consciousness and periodic use, especially come June, to reawaken memories.
Mention June 12, therefore, and the pictures that automatically form before the mind’s eye are those of Moshood Abiola, Humphery Nwosu and Ibrahim Babangida and the struggle to revalidate the mandate Nigerians gave to Abiola to govern them. The mind races to the chaos and confusion and the uncertainties of that era.
If the 1993 election had not been what it was, meeting the yearnings for credible polls since 1959, on what basis and with what cudgel did most Nigerians go into the trenches to reclaim what they described as the mandate they gave to M.K.O. Abiola to lead their nation? In the First Republic elections, candidates could not register. Electoral officers made themselves unavailable paving the way for ruling party candidates to be declared winners, unopposed. There was ballot box snatching and voters dispersed by candidates with upper hands blatantly brandishing flags of impunity. In subsequent years the situation was not that much different, there was ballot box stuffing and results were declared where elections did not even take place. There was twelve two-thirds imbroglio of 1979 that severely undermined the credibility of that year’s election leading to the aura of the supposed winners being wiped off and the judiciary’s hallowed chambers dealt blows bordering on contempt. President Umar Yar’Adua who was declared winner in 2007 doubted the integrity of the polls that ushered him into office. Embarrassed, he consequently set up Justice Mohammed Uwais Commission on electoral reforms.
This was even several years after Humphery Nwosu organised what election observers and the citizens in general have been holding up as the freest, most transparent and the best in Nigeria. His pronouncements and posture and pronouncements did not lend themselves to any suggestion that he had a price. He handled with courage, tact and wisdom, those Babangida was later to call, indeed, only recently at the launching of his autobiography, enemies of June 12.
Professor Tonnie Iredia who was director of Public Affairs and spokesman for the Electoral Commission at the time wrote during the week blasting the Senate: “Unlike our current Senators who recently refused to obey a court order stopping them from investigating a subject, it was only superior legal arguments that convinced Nwosu to justifiably disregard the last-minute order to Justice Bassey Ikpeme stopping the June 12, 1993 election.”
Nwosu’s disregard of the order was hinged on the law guiding the conduct of the election, Decree No. 13 of 1993, divesting any court power from stopping or interfering in the conduct of the elections. According to Iredia, “…Nwosu’s seeming disobedience of the said order had nothing to do with irrational courage. He rightly disobeyed because Section 19 (1) of the Presidential Election Decree No. 13 of 1993 ousted any court making Ikpeme’s type of order.”
Editors also noted the odd hours powerful forces rushed to the court in the attempt to prevent the election from taking place.
Iredia adds: “Justice George Oguntade had earlier said that the electoral body did not even need to appeal such illegal orders. The facts were presented to the government but it was reluctant to give the go-ahead for the election to continue.”
We can remember that midway into the election another court order was issued by Justice Dahiru Salleh which was not only to stop further announcement of results but which contained a warrant of arrest on Nwosu and his principal officers. The then Attorney-General Clement Akpamgbo who earlier rationalised the disobedience of the first order turned round to be the one who served Justice Salleh’s warrant of arrest on the electoral chief, Nwosu.
With all the impediments put on Nwosu’s way, he was undeterred. He was determined to deliver a credible election and untainted results. Seeing that the government had become ambivalent over the election and hell bent on frustrating the exercise and the officials charged with it, Nwosu went and tabled the result at a court as soon as he could read the signs. He proceeded to the Court of Appeal sitting in Kaduna against Justice Salleh’s order to present the election results showing that Abiola won. The government in response suspended the electoral commission to remove the table from under its feet to deprive it of any further platform on which to stand. As the court was preparing to make its ruling, a terse statement emanated from the Office the Chief of Staff, Admiral Augustus Aikomu, annulling the results of the election in its entirety.
These were the powerful forces ranged against Professor Humphery Nwosu and which he faced stoically; there was no going back. The government did not expect the election to go the way it went—transparently free and the results indisputable. There was no straw to cling to as an excuse to cancel the entire exercise. And Nwosu did not buckle under. Nor did he entertain any fear of any cold reception back in the East from where he was drawn out for the crucial assignment. Abiola lost to Basir Tofa in the zone except in Anambra State. Ebonyi had not been created as of the time. Abiola won spectacularly in Edo and Delta States, 69 per cent in the former and 69.3 per cent in the latter. Abiola beat Tofa in his home state of Kano, 52.28 per cent; also in Jigawa and Kaduna States. Tofa beat Abiola in the then Rivers State: 63.37 per cent to Abiola’s 36. 63 per cent, but Abiola beat Tofa in Cross River State: 55.23 per cent by the former to the latter’s 44. 77 per cent. Professor Nwosu distanced himself from the roles played the roles played by Dr. Ofonagoro, Uche Chukwumerije and Arthur Nzeribe. Prof. Nwosu stood firm.
It is on a head such as his that a crown of gold should be placed for his integrity, fair-mindedness and wisdom that the legislators in the Senate could not find him worthy of immortalization, one who raised the tone of public service in that sector to a height never seen in Nigeria since independence. One who performed the act of the impossible against all odds! President Bola Tinubu said of him in his tribute that he was “a visionary election boss, a bold and courageous administrator as well as a patriot and national asset.” The President went on to charge the current electoral chiefs to emulate Humphery Nwosu and behave like him “as a champion of democracy by upholding credible, transparent and democratic elections that embody the people’s right to choose their leaders.” The Senators did not take note of the glittering testimonial by Tinubu.
Related to this tribute is the one he showered on Frank Ovie Kokori, now of blessed memory who was Secretary General of NUPENG, (National Union Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers). Alluding to the role Kokori played mobilizing members of his union to stand up against the military government, Bola Tinubu described him as “a man of proven integrity and foremost nationalist of uncommon courage who fought against the dreaded military regime.”
Nigerians rose to challenge the darkness that had overcast the Nigerian horizon. Organizations were formed, the principal one being NADECO with Chief Anthony Enahoro as the world-wide leader, Senator Abraham Adesanya as the leader of the Nigerian arm and Air Commodore Dan Suleman the leader in the United Kingdom. Prominent Nigerians saw the annulment of the election result as a slap in the face. Among them were Professor Wole Soyinka; Professor Bolaji Akinyemi; Dr. Kayode Fayemi; Professor Udenta Udenta, Dr. Fred Fasehun, the founder of OPC. The Nigerian wing comprised the leaders of Afenifere and some former governors and legislators. Standing tall in the Nigerian team was Navy Commodore Ndubuisi Kanu. Ayo Opadokun was secretary. The NADECO leaders, Senator Adesanya, Pa Solanke Onasanya, Chief Ayo Adebanjo and Chief Olu Falae were arrested and locked up. On account of his advanced age Onasanya was asked to be reporting to the police from home. Chief Bola Ige was in his wig and gown going up and down, pressing for their liberty. A major financier of NADECO, Chief Alfred Rewane was assassinated. Kudirat the wife of Abiola herself was assassinated. There was Kudirat Radio run by Dr. Fayemi, with Prof. Soyinka standing solidly behind him. Journalists fled into exile with Bola Tinubu’s house in the UK as the destination. Tinubu himself was very active in the drive towards the actualization of the June 12 mandate, giving press interviews on the injustice of the annulment of the election and why the struggle would continue until their objective was achieved.
Newspaper houses were closed and some editors clamped into detention. What triggered it all was the integrity of the polls conducted by Humphery Nwosu. And the Senators cannot see this and give Nwosu his due as the catalyst for the waves sweeping through the land in the national pursuit of what was right as opposed to what was wrong and evil! Unbelievable!!
The reason they gave was that Nwosu was not courageous enough to declare the results of the election with absolute disregard to personal consequences that could even lead to his death. One said because the results were not unambiguously declared, his brother died in the ensuing storm that swept through the land and the engendered waves of uncertainties that gripped everywhere. They could not see it was enough bravery that Nwosu displayed that got the nation to decide to throw off the toga of docility to face what a great many saw as insults and humiliation. What specious arguments! What jejune, indeed pedestrian, arguments!!! The Senators have also surprisingly demonstrated that they are unaware that the declaration of results was the responsibility of the returning officer chosen from among the national commissioners, which fell on Professor Felix Ideriah.
Of course, with the posture of President Bola Tinubu it should go without saying that a posthumous national award should be on the way for Professor Nwosu, a man of tremendous courage and honour who could easily have elected to hide under the cover of political correctness.
All said, I have spoken in this vein conscious of increasing decline of we human beings after the failings of the era of the Divine Right of Kings when man replaced the ordinance of the Will of God with their own system of governance. Apostle Paul spoke of the state of incomplete knowledge, and drawing from the statement of the Lord Jesus Christ, said “For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part, but when the perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.” (1 Corinthians 13: 9-10)—Dake’s Annotated Reference Bible.
In what he called The Three Messages of God, Ernest Schmitt said in his work, “The history of mankind—that is the spiritual development of men on this earth –is spanned by three Messages of God, the Old Testament, the Age of the Father which brings us to the awareness of the Justice of God which the Prophets proclaimed; the New Testament , the Age of the Son of God which brought the Love of God, “concluded in the Mission of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the helping Love, the all-embracing just and severe Love of God.” This is to be followed by the Age of the Holy Spirit in which we are in the present time. Dr. Stephen Lampe speaks of the Third Age as the Age of the Holy Spirit “which unites the teachings about the Justice of God, the Love of God, and the absolute Perfection of God. This perfection cannot possibly change; for by definition any change in perfection renders it imperfect. And illogicality or contradictions are not compatible with the Perfection of God.” Dr. Lampe adds that the “Everlasting Testament is the Message brought by the Spirit of Truth of whom Jesus spoke.” And it is the last, what I have often referred to as the Higher Knowledge spreading in these times. The Lord Christ had said, “I have yet many things to say to you, but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit when he, the Spirit of Truth is come, he will guide you into all the truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and will shew it unto you.” (Dake’s Annotated Reference Bible). New Revised Standard Version put it better: “and will declare to you the things that are to come.” (John 16: 12-13). What does this say to us? Should we not begin to seek so we can find? Part of is the things to come is that decisions concerning the affairs of men cannot be taken through the show of hands by the majority. And this will increasingly reveal itself in the course of time.
Even now, the Senators cannot recognize who a hero is; the enormous courage the efforts by Professor Humphrey entailed in the tensed circumstances of his time. Without his bravery, there would have been no Abiola!
