₦airaland Forum

Edwin Clark, convener of the Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF), says President Bola Tinubu should ensure the restructuring of the country to sustain its unity.

Clark spoke in an open letter addressed to President Bola Tinubu.

In the letter dated June 13, the PANDEF convener alleged that discrimination against the people of the south-east region has continued under the administration of Tinubu.

“Mr. President, even in your administration, the discrimination and injustice against the Igbos have not abated,” the letter reads.

“The old Eastern Region and the old Western Region, of which I belonged to, were equal competitors and partners before and during the First and Second Republic but today, you have appointed 10 Yorubas as Ministers from the South-West and only five Ministers from the South-East and you even failed to give them the ministerial appointment due to their region that would have made it six Ministers.

“There is no justification for this grave omission, and no effort has been made to correct it.

“The most recent opportunity the Igbos had to rebuild their broken leg was when their disunity, selfishness, and greed made the popular Igbo candidate, Mr. Peter Obi of the Labour Party, lose the election because most Igbos refused to unite behind him with their resources before and during the election, and voting for him massively in the South-East on the election day was like medicine after death.

“Now that the elections are over, we must face the restructuring of this country.”

Clark said the country should be restructured if it must remain one.

“I repeat again, the immediate restructuring of Nigeria must be carried out if this country is to remain one, and I appeal to Mr. President to take immediate action to implement the historic 2014 National Conference Report, which submitted 600 recommendations to the Presidency on how to restructure Nigeria in every aspect of our lives,” he said.

“The Igbos of South-East or wherever they are in Nigeria, must stand up and assert their rights legitimately, judiciously, and in a democratic way to benefit like any other Nigerian, as it was before the civil war of 1967.”

The elder statesman said the people of the south-east deserve to have a sense of belonging in Nigeria.

“All that is required is for us to demonstrate reciprocal respect, love, and understanding to one another,” the PANDEF convener said.

“Let us do what is right; let us accommodate one another and be fair to one another.”

DEMOCRACY DAY 2024: PROF HUMPHREY NWOSU, THE ARCHITECT OF NIGERIAN’S JUNE 12 ELECTION, 1993
Posted on June 13, 2024

The story of June 12 will not be complete without the mention of Prof. Humphrey Nwosu. A BRAVE man From AJALLI, Anambra State, who gave his heart and life against all odds for the love of democracy in Nigeria. He led the team that conducted the freest and fairest election in Nigeria, sitting as the Chairman of the National Electoral Commisssion of Nigeria in the year 1993.

WHO IS THE MAN PROF HUMPHREY NWOSU?

Prof Nwosu was born on 2 October 1941, and became a Professor of Political Science at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. A first class degree holder and one of the best brains in the world.He served in the cabinet of Commodore Samson Emeka Omeruah, former governor of the old Anambra State, amongst other achievements, he helped traditional rulers to gain staffs of office , receive salaries, and settled intra and inter Community land and Chieftancy disputes. Also served as Commissioner for Agriculture in the same administration.

He further served as Chairman of a Federal Technical Committee on the application of Civil Service Reforms in the local government service. He was appointed NEC Chairman in 1989 after his predecessor and teacher Prof Eme Awa resigned due to a disagreement with Ibrahim Babangida.

WHAT ARE THE KEY ROLES PROF HUMPHREY NWOSU PLAYED IN THE 1993 ELECTION?

Prof Humphrey Nwosu was the Chairman of National Electoral Commission of Nigeria which conducted the 1993 12th June election, which was the freest and fairest election till date in the history of this country, in which Chief Moshood Abiola presumed to be the winner of the election. Nwosu’s Commission introduced the novel Option A4 Voting System and the Modified Open Ballot System. He built the current headquarters of INEC and made the staff status pensionable , no longer ad hoc.
After the voting exercises of June 12 elections, Nwosu had released many of the election results when he was ordered to stop further announcement by then military regime. He was strategic in his further actions to defend this democracy we are all enjoying today.

HOW PROF HUMPHREY NWOSU DEFENDED THE DEMOCRACY

[b] In the middle of the night of June 10, 1993, an Abuja High Court presided over by Justice Bassey Ikpeme, in breach of the relevant decree, ordered the electoral body to put on hold, the presidential election that was some 36 hours away to happen.The plaintiff in the case was an unregistered body known as Association for Better Nigeria (ABN) which consisted of a group of politicians generally believed to have government backing. Nwosu took the risk of his life and found his way in the morning uninvited to a meeting of the MILITARY COUNCIL, ASO VILLA to explain the grave consequences of Ikpeme’s indiscrete pronouncement. After intimidations and harrasment on Prof and other deliberations that took place at the uninvited meeting, it was then agreed that NEC could discountenance Ikpeme’s order and continue with its arrangements and preparations for the elections.
At the end of voting, when it became clear from the majority of the results already collated from the states, that the candidate of the then Social Democratic Party (SDP) Bashorun M.K.O. Abiola could not be stopped from winning the contest, the then Chief Judge of Abuja, Justice Dahiru Saleh ordered NEC to halt the process. Again, Nwosu stormed the ASO Villa, but this time he found that the government had withdrawn support from him.

The then Attorney General of the Federation, (AGF) Clement Akpamgbo who gave Nwosu legal backing earlier, did not only ditch him but also ensured that a bench warrant to arrest Nwosu issued by the Chief Judge of Abuja was duly served. As from then, Nwosu became labeled as the problem, while his Electoral Commission was formally suspended forthwith. The only other option left to Nwosu was to seek judicial cover from the Court of Appeal, Kaduna Division headed by Justice Achike With no one else behind Nwosu except the Commission’s vibrant Director of Legal Services, Dr. Bukhari Bello MFR, Chairman of Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) along side with Chief Dr. Tony Ojukwu OFR ,SAN, FICMC the current Executive Secretary, National Human Rights Commission (NHRC). [/b] NEC drew attention to an earlier judgment by a higher court in which Oguntade JCA as he then was, established two main points.

The first was that where a court makes an order in a case where it lacked jurisdiction, the order was null and void; and second that it was unnecessary to go on appeal in such circumstance. This suggested that Nwosu had no business obeying the erroneous decisions of the lower courts. Interestingly, NEC was able to produce in Court, the COMPLETE RESULTS OF THE ELECTION which he had been stopped from announcing and which confirmed the victory of MKO Abiola. The real problem was that some ambitious military fellows aided by a set of compromised politicians wanted to prolong military rule. At this point, government sensing that it might lose the case they decided to annul the election few hours to the judgment of the Court of Appeal.

Consequently, the winner of the election could not be declared. Unfortunately,as far as some very few Nigerians were concerned, Nwosu’s electoral Commission was to blame for not disobeying the new court order since it was able to disobey the first order without realizing the differences between the two. No one blamed the infamous politicians in the Association for Better Nigeria. The only person to blame was Nwosu” and his TEAM. However, Prof Humphrey Nwosu has been vindicated and the truth is now out on how he defended the election he conducted and stood firmly for democracy to prevail.

This brings me to the question, why would Prof. Humphrey Nwosu be so easily forgotten? A man who made what is being celebrated today possible, a man who played a key role in what we celebrate today, a man who gave his all for the love of true democracy and still *31 years after the elections he conducted remained the best in the history of the Nation.

The good news is that PROFESSOR HUMPHREY NWOSU is a hero that made possible what we celebrate today as democracy day in Nigeria, a true patriot.

CONCLUSION

PROF, THE WORLD KNOWS THAT YOU’RE AN ICON, AN INSTITUTION, AN EMBODIMENT OF KNOWLEDGE AND THE FACE OF DEMOCRACY IN NIGERIAN.
NIGERIANS WILL NEVER FORGET THE ROLE YOU PLAYED FOR US TO HAVE DEMOCRACY WE ARE ENJOYING TODAY.YOU ARE INDEED THE HERO OF DEMOCRACY.
PROF YOU’RE 83 YEARS OLD NOW AND WE ARE WISHING YOU LONG LIFE AND GOD’S BLESSINGS. YOU WILL CONTINUE TO AGE GRACEFULLY AND HISTORY WILL NEVER FORGET YOU AND YOUR FAMILY.

onuman:
How could a clown be addressing saner people?

Bookhub:
Mynd44
Seun
Rule 2
You banned me for something similar

CilicMarin:
He was/is a coward. He would have announced the results regardless of the intimidations by the military the same way Jega announced the 2015 election inspite of Jonathan's and his cronies' pressure.

Thats the reasons no one remembers the coward.

Whalis:
In so many ways ikwerres consider themselves a superior and an aborigine ethnic group. As have been said severally, the last thing an Ikwerre man will do is to get into any association with Igbos. It has never happened before and won't now.
Ikwerres formed Ogbakor Ikwerre Convention in 1963 years before Igbos formed Ohaneze Ndigbo. And this was when no one knew there would be war. In 1965 in a Communique today called Rumuomasi Declaration Ikwerres solemnly declared they are not Ijaws, Ogoni or a sub of any other ethnic groups including the Igbos.
Ikwerre join the minorities who agitated that a state should be created out of the old East.
Whatever nomenclature or abuse you may use to describe the ikwerres it is no problem as far as it includes that ikwerres are not Igbos.
Igbos are hard working, ikwerres as you said are lazy so how are ikwerres Igbos?

seunmsg:
Court judgement supersedes court injunction.

seunmsg:
With this judgement, that injuction is no longer valid. This is a final court judgement and not an injuction or order.

Jamestown123:
Some Enyimba's players needs to be sanctioned, they are not professional at all. See the way that one want to beat the linesman.

guobe:
Seems its going to be abandoned

ANSMEDIA:
Ogidi international market was the idea of Chinwoke Madinuju

Thormentor:
By average

SE 11.1/5 = 2.22

SW 16/6 = 2.66


wait let's conduct census you can then wail and rationalize why SW has 16M Poor people..

for now your crying and justification is good that's why you people have been going down . excuses!!!

Thormentor:
SE needs to do more I'm not impressed

11.1M is too much

thesicilian:
You seem to forget that more than 90% of the senators and reps are on Tinubu's payroll

DMerciful:
You aint gonna force it down my throat.

If we have regional ethnicities, perhaps we should be talking of separate countries

DrMuzungu:
People, keep killing each other because of tribe, political party, while polithiefcians eat it all.