Ahead of the March 28, 2025 burial of former Chairman of the defunct National Electoral Commission (NEC), Prof. Humphrey Nwosu, a call has been made to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to immortalise him by naming the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) headquarters in Abuja after him for conducting the June 12, 1993, presidential election, which was adjudged the freest and fairest election in the history of Nigeria.
The Coalition for the Immortalisation of Prof. Humphrey Nwobu Nwosu, which made the call, also tasked Anambra State Governor, Charles Soludo, to grant to the deceased the honour a kinsman of such status deserves.
Leader of the Coalition and Executive Director of the Citizens Network for Stability & Justice, Collins Steve Ugwu, during a media briefing, yesterday, in Ikeja, Lagos, said that the recent admission by the former military president, Ibrahim Babangida, that the election was won by the late philanthropist and democracy hero, Moshood Kashimawo Olawale (MKO) Abiola, indicated that Nwosu discharged his duties selflessly even though Babangida annulled the election, hence the country “should close that sore and honour him deservedly.”
He said that naming the INEC headquarters after him would “show that there was once a great Nigerian that served independently with exemplary courage, purpose and fortitude.”
Ugwu, who was joined by the South West Coordinator of Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide, Everest Ezenwoke and a public affairs analyst, Mazi Chris Maduka, also urged Tinubu to grant Nwosu the national award of Grand Commander of the Order of Niger (GCON) or the Commander of the Federal Republic (CFR).
“We restate that Nwosu, as that wine of candour from a deep wine press, deserves preservation and honour,” he said.
He represented the bold spectrum of what a credible electoral umpire was and should aspire to be. He humanised our election experience in a way no one has got close, by stamping an authority of simplicity, transparency and integrity on NEC, derived from citizens’ inspirations and stellar application. He was very different from the graphic epicentre of fraud and mercantile manipulations that the body has continuously degraded into. Please, Let us put virtue back to the violence INEC has become since his exit, by returning honour to a man that deposited and warehoused chastity in that house,” he said.
