By Ikechukwu Ngene
“I think I did something for the worst possible reason – just because I could. I think that’s the most, just about the most morally indefensible reason that anybody could have for doing anything.”
— Bill Clinton to Dan Rather on 60 Minutes; June 20, 2004.
Bill Clinton had not found religion as he spoke. He had not found morality either. What happened was that he became wiser by way of being caught cheating. For that indiscretion, Monica Lewinsky hitches a ride with him into the dusk of eternity.
*Prof NwosuWe can never regard Prof. Humphrey Nwosu enough. To understand his moral stature and what he achieved under the dubious conditions of the transition programme to civil rule during the regime of Gen. Ibrahim Babangida, let me state this with as little intent of hyperbole as possible “If the US 2020 presidential election was conducted using Nigeria’s centralized electoral system, President Biden would never have been elected.”
The
election of Biden as president in America’s decentralized electoral system
still required a relay of heroes in place. In the state of Georgia, Biden
picked up just 12,670 votes more than Donald Trump to secure Georgia’s 12
electoral college votes. The real hero however was Brad Raffensperger,
Georgia’s Secretary of State, who, among other things, rebuffed the then
incumbent president, Donald Trump, in a phone call where he urged him to
declare a false result.
But, not Brad
Raffensperger alone. Across the battle ground states, there were heroes up and
down the scale at the precinct, city, county, and state levels who were
committed to acting according to America’s highest democratic ideals.
Contrast Nigeria. In the
1993 general elections there were only two heroes, so to speak. The first was
Chief M.K.O Abiola, the Social Democratic Party’s flag bearer; and the second
was Prof. Humphrey Nwosu. The rest were either super villains, bad-faith
actors, or the indifferent.
Chief MKO Abiola – whose
vice-presidential running mate, Alhaji Baba-Gana Kingibe, was the first to
abandon him at the first hint of trouble – had put himself forward to contest
for president as a matter of conviction, and with confidence in his capacity to
add value to the quality of life of Nigerians. To be fair to him he did so only
after a discreet solicitation of his friend, Gen. Babangida, who assured him
that he had no dog in the fight.
Chief Abiola triumphed
at the polls but he was thwarted by the powers that be; but he was still man
enough to look history in the eye and claim his mandate even with the full
awareness of the consequences that awaited him.
Prof. Nwosu was
appointed chairman of the National Electoral Commission in 1989 to conduct the
local, state, and national elections that would usher in the Third Republic.
Prof. Nwosu set to work. In his previous life, he had taught political science
at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. He had studied our politics and thought
he had answers to some of its inscrutable weaknesses.
The mission he set for himself and NEC was to conduct a lofty and worthy
transition programme and erect democratic structures, which would stand the
test of time. He recommended among other things six political parties, the open
ballot system, and an original and revolutionary idea to co-opt the Nigerian
media into the electoral process as witnesses and guarantors of integrity and
transparency; as it is done in Western democracies.
The
Gen. Babangida regime rejected the recommendation to create six parties
purportedly for their ethnic propensities; and banned all the prominent
politicians from the Second Republic. Thereafter, the regime funded and
sponsored the formation of two national parties – the SDP and the NRC (National
Republican Convention).
The
open ballot system, Option A4, was adopted to reduce weaknesses the political
scientist had identified in our past elections. It discarded the use of the
ballot and ballot boxes. It required voters to line up behind the posters of
their candidate of choice, to be counted in plain sight by NEC officials; and
then to have the count authenticated on the spot by party agents; all in full
view of the press and international observers. Was that not novel and lofty?
Yes, something good could indeed come out of Nigeria.
Don’t
be so fast. Don’t be presumptuous. Wait for this. The Gen. Babangida regime
that was ostensibly conducting a transition to civil rule was also involved in
unsavory maneuvers and intrigues; and dark money was involved. One of the
career politicians disqualified earlier in the transition programme was Chief
Arthur Nzeribe but he soon found himself a new vocation as a ‘Subverter of
Democracy’. He had access to a sizable war chest from God knows where, and he
formed the Association for a Better Nigeria. Using the ABN, propaganda, and the
courts he then devoted himself to work to scuttle the lofty aspirations of
Prof. Nwosu.
Two days
before June 12, ABN went to an Abuja High Court and sought an injunction to
prevent the scheduled polls from taking place: Justice Bassey Ikpeme obliged
and so ordered. However, NEC disregarded the order, and rightly so, because the
court lacked jurisdiction. So it was that the election took place as scheduled
and 35 percent of eligible voters participated on that sunniest of Saturdays in
June 1993, to elect our president.
Here
you discover the genius of Prof. Nwosu. By June 14, 2021, NEC began announcing
the results as the regional and state commissioners sent them in and they were
immediately posted on bulletins at the NEC headquarters in Wuse, Abuja. There
was no lag and the reporters lapped it up. Soon, by official count, Chief
Abiola had won 19 out of 30 states with a vote count at 4.3 million out of 6.6
million. In fact, he won also the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, and Kano
state where NRC’s Alhaji Basir Tofa hailed from.
Then
a series of curious events happened. If you understand the alliances and
collusion then sooner or later you will figure out where all the dark money
came from. Prof. Nwosu had delivered the freest and fairest poll in Nigeria’s
history which heralded the dawn of a new nation, but in so doing he displeased
the military. Prof. Nwosu was summoned to the corridors of power. Vested
military interests wanted to know why NEC went ahead with the election in spite
of the order of Justice Bassey Ikpeme that forbade it.
Hint:
Her Honourable Justice was in violation of Decree No.13, 1993, in pronouncing
such an order. Even as Prof. Nwosu paced the offices of the red
collars, NEC work proceeded apace. Prof. Felix Iredia, the chief returning
officer, continued to post the results on the bulletin. It was clear enough
that Chief Abiola was on a path to a victory.
Again,
ABN went to the Abuja High Court. Justice Dahiru Saleh, the Chief Judge of FCT,
ordered, ex parte, the discontinuation of the announcement of results of an
election that had already been concluded. He did not bother to hear the side of
NEC. The dark forces had succeeded and the military had become a witting
partner in scuttling their own transition to civil rule.
It
was a bitter medicine to swallow and NEC obeyed the order of Justice Dahiru
Saleh. That election had been conducted in plain sight and with transparency.
The final results, though unauthenticated, were soon available for the whole
world to see. Chief Abiola had secured 8,341,309 votes out of 14,293,396 total
cast to win by a landslide of 58%.
The most
grievous open wound on our national psyche remains the callous indifference of
purpose of Gen. Ibrahim Babangida that led him to annul the Saturday, June 12,
1993, presidential election with a clear, undisputed winner in sight. That
self-styled military president had decided, after the fact, that he did not
trust his own civilian associate, Chief Abiola, after all, and annulled that
popular poll _just because he could_.
But
unlike Bill Clinton, General Babangida had never offered any regrets. We bear
our wound with equanimity and fortitude for we glimpsed a promise in the sky
before dark clouds consumed it. Prof. Nwosu beat the subversive tendencies of
our career politicians but he could not take on our biased courts and the
vested interests of the military as well.
In
this Democracy Month of June as we celebrate Chief MKO Abiola as the best
president Nigeria never had, let us recognise also the courage and sagacity of
the man who made it all possible by conducting a successful poll … the scholar
with the heart of a lion who wrestled with Generals and lived to teach us a
counter-narrative of what we are – a people of dignity with lofty achievable ideals.
Send
some love to Prof. Humphrey Nwosu, and if per chance you find him in a plane,
please give up your window seat for him and wish him well.
*Ngene wrote from Atlanta, the United States.
Professor Humphrey Nwosu is an unsung hero that should be celebrated alongside the late Chief MKO Abiola. He should be accorded due recognition because of his doggedness and will in conducting the best election we've ever had in Nigeria.
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