Tempers flared in the Senate on Wednesday following a motion to honour the late Professor Humphrey Nwosu, former Chairman of the National Electoral Commission (NEC), who supervised the historic June 12, 1993, presidential election.
The controversy arose when Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe proposed a motion under personal explanation to immortalize Nwosu but faced resistance.
“Even if the Senate leader says that it doesn’t follow, by the fact that a senator wants to make a personal explanation, you must give that senator a chance to make that personal explanation. We are not under a dictatorship,” Abaribe argued.
Professor Nwosu, who led NEC from 1989 to 1993, passed away at 83 in a hospital in the United States on March 1, 2024.
His tenure was marked by his role in organizing the June 12, 1993, presidential election, widely regarded as one of Nigeria’s freest and fairest polls before it was annulled.
The current INEC Chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, had recently called for a posthumous national honour for Nwosu in recognition of his contributions to Nigeria’s electoral system.
Professor Nwosu will be laid to rest on Friday, March 28, in his hometown in Anambra State.
