By Prof Hassan A. Saliu
Professor Humphrey Nwobu Nwosu, who died at 83 on October 20th, 2024, was a man who made several marks in the field of Political Science both at home and abroad. He was the Chair of the National Electoral Commission (NEC) when his teacher, Prof. Eme Awa, stepped down from the position in 1989 over irreconcilable differences with the appointing authorities.
Hardly can one appreciate the nation’s electoral politics since 1993 without recognizing the impacts made by him and other colleagues of his in the electoral commission during his time as the Chair of NEC. He rose to confront all the forces that were against the conduct of the June 12, 1993, presidential election until his main backer switched over to the side of the advocates of annulment.
This prompted him to declare in an interview in 2019 that: “Those who blamed me for not announcing the final official results do not know that, without me, there couldn’t have been a June 12 election.”
Professor Humphrey Nwobu Nwosu was born on October 2, 1941. He attended the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, for his first degree, graduating with first-class honors. He followed up his academic pursuits, earning a Master’s degree and a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1973 and 1976, respectively.
He started his career at his alma mater (UNN), where he eventually became a Professor before answering the national call to participate in practical politics through appointments. He was appointed Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs in 1986 in the old Anambra State under Group Captain Samson Omeruah as Governor.
This was at a time when the profile and fortunes of the traditional institution received a boost due to his efforts. Professor Nwosu later became the Commissioner for Agriculture in his native Anambra State. His area of specialization was Public Administration, specifically Local Government Studies.
On the strength of the level of impact he had made in that academic area, he was recognised and occasionally invited to discharge some responsibilities for the Nigerian State. For instance, he was made Chairman of the Local Government Reforms Committee under the military. He was also consulted by the Uwais Committee on electoral reforms constituted by the Yar’Adua Government upon its assumption of office based on the extent of the fraud in the election that brought him to power.
Upon his retirement in 1999, after returning to the Department of Political Science, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, from his sojourn in NEC, he became a public speaker who was always eager to share his research findings with wider audiences. For instance, he was invited as the Lead Paper Presenter at the conference organized by Nigerian political parties in Sokoto in 2009.
He also devoted a considerable amount of his time to community service, overseeing the development of his Ajali community, Orumba North LGA, Anambra State, before his death on October 20, 2024, in Virginia, USA.
Professor Nwosu had published many books and contributed articles to reputable publication outlets across the world before his death in 2024. Some of his publications include:
- Political Authority and the Nigerian Civil Service (1977)
- Problems of Nigerian Administration: A Book of Readings (1985)
- Introduction to Political Science, edited with Ray Ofoegbu (1986)
- Laying the Foundation for Nigeria’s Democracy: My Account of June 12, 1993, Presidential Election and Its Annulment (2008)
All his aforementioned publications are seminal works that are being used globally.
I must confess that I never had the opportunity to meet him in person. However, I have interacted with him through his publications. The first of them was his book on Problems of Nigerian Administration, which I stumbled upon when I was on my doctoral programme around 1993 or 1994. In it, he discussed the multifaceted problems of the Civil Service, situating them in historical context.
The last book he published on the June 12, 1993, presidential election was where he came out to reveal more about the watershed presidential election held on the Option A4 and Open Voting System that would have radically altered the electoral history of Nigeria. Albeit, it generated controversies and was abruptly annulled by the military through untidy but induced judicial processes that threw the nation into confusion, the effects of which Nigeria cannot be said to have put behind her.
The controversies that trailed the conduct of the 2023 General Elections, which have been interpreted differently by citizens and some foreign interests, have reignited discussions on the country’s electoral politics and the necessity for further electoral reforms.
For some, he did justice to the topic in the book by bringing Nigerians up to date on the June 12 election and the interplay of forces that led to its eventual annulment. The annulment, in my view, did not take into account the amount of intellectual effort that went into preparing for the election, as it was whimsically annulled by the president who initially set out to improve the democratic environment of Nigeria but ended up as a kind of anti-thesis to democracy in the country.
On this, Prof. Nwosu informed Nigerians in an interview in 2019 that: Abacha interjected, saying we should postpone it (election) for a week, but I told him that sensitive materials had been distributed across the country. President Babangida asked if I was sure I would succeed, and I said yes. That is why I commend Babangida. The military was divided. Some wanted the election to take place while others didn’t want it, and I felt that Abacha wanted to have a stint as President (Quoted by Ayo Yusuf in This Day, accessed January 27, 2025, at 12 noon online).
Both his book and that of Prof. Omo Omoruyi titled A Tale of June 12… have tried to provide information on what really happened to the much-hyped Babangida transition programme, particularly the roles played by certain actors and some interests in the annulment of the election. However, the real motives behind the annulment were not revealed, leaving the cause of an inquisitive Nigerian unfulfilled.
For instance, Prof. Omoruyi’s book, after throwing mud in different directions as possible causes of the annulment, failed to unravel the real motive, which is now subject to multiple interpretations, bordering on unwillingness to transfer power on the part of the president at the time; a supposed pact between President Babangida and his (Khalifa) Chief of Defence Staff, or Chairman Joint Chief of Staff; and the suspicion of certain interests that were against the transfer of power, etc.
Prof. Nwosu, on the other hand, was preoccupied with narrations on the process of the election and how the initial threats to the transition programme were handled by him before the anti-June 12 forces gained the upper hand in the power play. Somehow, the two books presented President Babangida as a kind of victim of circumstance, a conclusion that many Nigerians and the external promoters of democracy would contest. This is more the case with Prof. Nwosu’s book.
Who knows, maybe what Nigerians have been looking for on the June 12, 1993, presidential election may be found in the advertised public presentation of General Babangida’s book titled: A Journey in Service, slated for unveiling on February 20th, 2025, in Abuja. One only hopes that the General will give the required information on the 1993 presidential election on that day and in the much-anticipated book.
From the accounts he gave in the book and observations of Nigerians, the 1993 presidential election was doomed right from its inception (non-registration of political associations, banning and unbanning of politicians, annulment of presidential primaries, shifts in the exit dates for the military to vacate the political scene) as many booby traps were set for the electoral commission, causing incremental terminal havoc as the process of the election progressed.
A few days to the election, the pressure to get it postponed became thick in the air, with a prominent military man leading the charge for its postponement. At a point, and in the course of defending the cause of the election, the electoral chief received some insults from the anti-election forces, but he never minded. He attended so many meetings on the need to postpone the election, even for a week, but the late Professor Nwosu saw the ploy in the calls for postponement, which were meant not to allow the election to hold in the long run and he refused to fall for it.
One thing that was remarkable about the late Professor was that throughout the period of the shenanigans, he maintained his calm while he confronted head-on all the forces that were against the conduct of the election most times ignoring the potential dangers of doing so. Prof. Nwosu stood his ground and voted for the wheel of democracy to keep running in the country.
At a point, his Commission approached the courts when the infamous Association for a Better Nigeria, ABN, acting as a shock storm to democracy, began its nauseating anti-democratic behaviour, using the courts to suspend the further announcement of election results. The suspicion then was that the initial irritation that the Association constituted to the electoral process and its eventual elevation as a badge banner for all the anti-democratic forces was actively supported in its activities by sections of the Nigerian State who were opposed to the handing over of power to the winner of the election.
Ultimately, President Babangida, who appeared to be the only supporter that Prof. Nwosu had in the government, later capsized and went along with those clamouring for the cancellation of the election after it had been held. This was achieved on June 26, 1993, through a national broadcast made by President Babangida.
I recall that in a discussion on a programme of elections by the NPSA, our members on one of the platforms came up with dimensions of the June 12, 1993, presidential election, particularly its relevance to the on-going discussions on electoral matters in the country. This underscores the continuous relevance of the epochal June 12 election of 1993. It means that as long as there are issues with elections in the country, there will always be a recall of the revolution that was witnessed under the NEC leadership that Prof. Nwosu headed.

Different strokes on June 12
For the benefit of our younger colleagues, Prof. Nwosu was a colourful head of NEC. They need to be informed that he was a committed chair who was always coming on air, demonstrating how the election was being planned and the procedures for the citizens to carry out their civic duty through gesticulations and dissemination of information on the ABC of the procedures. Prof. Nwosu was admired for that as a born teacher who was giving all the details necessary for a smooth poll. He thus displayed a lot of passion, conviction and readiness to achieve a democratic breakthrough for the country in his public engagements with Nigerians.
It was therefore difficult for Nigerians to understand why the efforts put into the historic election went to waste through a controversial annulment of the election. Again, in his book on the election published in 2008, Prof. Nwosu led us into some happenings that culminated in the annulment by the Babangida military government and the efforts made by him to save the election from those who did not want it to see the light of day.
Much as his effort in declaring that the presidential election was won squarely by Chief Moshood Abiola of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in the book was a relief to most Nigerians, the subtle effort to exonerate General Babangida, who annulled the election, of any blame did not, however, go down well with some Nigerians and external promoters of democracy.
Inevitably, the annulment turned him into a kind of reclusive person, rarely attending public events. The point needs to be made about Prof. Nwosu that an otherwise promising career in academia was literally cut short due to the post-annulment circumstances that made him to prioritize security over all other matters until he finally died in 2024.
Prof. Nwosu must have been a happy man in 2018 because fifteen years after the annulment of the June 12 election by the Babangida regime, the Buhari democratic government brought a closure to the issue of the election by recognising its eventual winner and giving him all the entitlements due to him as a former President of Nigeria.
This development thrilled Prof. Nwosu, as it marked a kind of reward for his efforts made in organising the June 12 election fifteen years earlier. He responded to the letter of invitation extended to him to attend the posthumous recognition of Chief Abiola in 2018 as the winner of the June 12 presidential election and consequently as the elected President of Nigeria with a sense of fulfillment.
He had enthusiastically said in the letter: I thank His Excellency, the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari, and the Federal Government of Nigeria for recognising June 12 as Democracy Day and also for honouring the winner of the June 12, 1993, presidential election, Chief M.K.O. Abiola. Indeed, June 12, 1993, marked a turning point in Nigeria’s tortuous journey towards democratic stability. It is an honor to hard-working men and women of the defunct National Electoral Commission under my leadership at this long-awaited recognition. I humbly commend this action by the President (Punch, June 11, 2018, Online).
He will surely be missed for his ebullient performance as the second Political Scientist to have headed the electoral body in Nigeria, despite many issues that came up under his tenure. One of these was his age at the time he was called upon to replace his teacher, who was then having difficulties working with the military.
As the programme for the final burial rites has just been announced for this consequential member of our Association, some posers are still being raised by Nigerians regarding what happened to the June 12 presidential election of 1993. These are:
1. Who were the people who annulled the election, and for what purpose?
- Can we say that the events that have surrounded subsequent elections held in the country after 1993, where voters’ turnout has been decreasing due to the adoption of technology, justified the annulment of the election on the basis of low voter turnout?
- Can we say that what gave rise to the adoption of the Option A4 mode of election have all disappeared in the country?
- What about the decree that ousted the judiciary from interfering in the electoral process of the time?
- Why would the judiciary, whose involvement had been ousted through a decree, be the body on which the annulment of the election was blamed?
- How come the Presidential Judicial Panel established to adjudicate on the election was not allowed to do its work?
- With the turn of events in our nation, where inducements of various shapes and forms are being witnessed, how many more annulments of elections is the nation ready for, with the high jump in the level of these electoral misconducts in our nation?
While answers are being sought to these posers, among others, one can say that the revolution that would have shaped up the electoral environment was truncated, while other issues not anticipated have since visited the electoral process in the country. Technology is trying to clean up the environment, but the human angle to its adoption is still creating a nightmare for the electoral process.
This is surely the time to think more about the country’s electoral politics, which tends to taint the efforts of the nation in leading in electoral integrity and lowers the image of the country both at home and across the borders on the issue of democracy. Removing the stigma of electoral malfeasance and inching the country towards a more transparent regime of electoral integrity would be a befitting honour we can give to Prof. Nwosu, who had worked extra hard to impact positively on our electoral system.
Our Association therefore calls on the National Assembly and the Presidency to hearken to our call for immortalising Prof. Nwosu, the pathfinder for electoral integrity in Nigeria.
Adieu, our departed elder and senior colleague. Continue to rest in the bosom of the Lord.
The author is the president of the NPSA