Ike Abonyi
20 June 2008
Abuja — The former Chairman of the National Electoral Commission (NEC) and the author of the latest controversial book on June 12, 1993 Presidential Election, Professor Humphery Nwosu yesterday reacted to the barrage of criticisms that greeted his book launched on June 12 declaring that he did not exonerate anybody in his book.
Nwosu has been under heavy attack by various stakeholders who claim that his book was intended to launder the image of the former military President, Ibrahim Babangida.
But in Abuja Thursday exactly one week after the launch of the controversial book, the University don said "My book is an account of the process that midwifed the election credited to be the most free and fair in Nigeria's history. It is not an account on the annulment of June 12, 1993 presidential election".
"In the book, I never exonerated anybody in the issue of June 12. I told you that that the annulment was external to the National Electoral Commission (NEC), it was from the Arms Forces Ruling Council (AFRC) which I was not a member of".
"So, how can I tell you what transpired within the AFRC? There were the military cabal that annulled the election. I had started announcing the result of the election on posters and billboards when I heard, Stop!", said Professor Nwosu, who conducted the controversial June 12 presidential election.
Nwosu spoke yesterday in Abuja on "Dialogue on Election Management Bodies: Administration and Relationship with Stakeholders", put together by the International Republican Institute (IRI) and the Inter-national Foundation for Electoral System (IFES).
In what seemed like a vigorous effort to correct a "wrong impression" which he said his book entitled: "Laying the Foundation for Nigeria's Democracy: My Account of the June 12, 1993 Election and its Annulment", Nwosu said he was more concerned on the reform of Nigeria's electoral system so as to make it a representative of the peoples voting will than accounting for who was or who was not responsible for the annulment of the June 12 election.
The roundtable also provided a forum for political scientists and members of the civil society organizations to deliberate on the processes that could give birth to an independent, functional and people oriented Election Management Body (EMB) in Nigeria.
Some people that spoke at the event were Chairman House of Representatives Committee on Election Matters, Musa Sarkin Adar, a Professor of Political Science, Prof. Okey Ibeanu, Chairman Citizens Popular Party, Maxi Okwu, Country Directors of IRI and IFES, Dr. Mourtada Deme and Micheline Begin respectively, among 18 paper presenters and discussants.
In his goodwill message to the roundtable, the former NEC Chairman hinged the "success of the conduct of the elections" of December 8, 1990 Local Government election to June 12 presidential election on the establishment of an Inter-Agency Committee on logistics of the election at federal, state and local government levels.
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