THE IMPARTIAL OBSERVER
Matter of the Moment
A Jaded Humphrey Nwosu Finds his Mislaid Voice
Hank Eso
Wednesday 18 June 2008
Nigerian politics never ceases to be melodramatic. A case in point, last Thursday 12 June 2008, a sizable crowd gathered at the Sheraton Hotel, Abuja, for what was to be an intellectual and historical event. It turned out to be an anti-climatic non-event. None of the big names billed for the launching of the book about the annulment of the 1993 presidential elections in Nigeria showed up. The author, Prof. Humphrey Nwosu, a key player in the event, therefore remained in the cooler, where he had of choice, elected to be since 1993. The reason for such a visible national rebuff is obvious.
In June 1993, Prof. Humphrey Nwosu had a once-in-lifetime-opportunity to change the course of Nigeria’s history and politics for good. He opted out. Indeed, he wimped out. He never seized the moment as great men do. Fifteen years after, he is telling stories that are at best, cock and bull concussions, and he wants Nigerians to believe him. Well, I am sorry, those who want to should. I don’t, since I see it all as self-serving. June 12 is now marked as Democracy Day and the day that changed Nigeria. Humphrey Nwosu is not, and will never be one of the heroes of June 12, nor for that matter, of Nigeria’s democracy.
Last week, a grossly jaded Humphrey Nwosu, in a show of sorry and despicable afterthought, told Nigerians what they had known all along: that the late Chief M. K.O. Abiola won the 1993 presidential elections. Nwosu should have said so in 1993 and dammed the consequences. He did not and as such, he mortgaged his right along with that of the nation. History will never forgive and neither will Nigerians.
The only new revelation, is that he has offered us concrete numbers -- Social Democratic Party’s (SDP), presidential candidate, Chief Moshood Abiola won by 8,323,3005 votes against National Republican Convention’s (NRC) Alhaji Ottman Bashir Tofa 6,073,612 votes. Sadly, in this instance, the devil is hardly in the details. Rather, Lucifer was still hiding in two words Nwosu dared to utter; the “cabal” – those disingenuous nameless and faceless evil doers that might have instigated the annulment of the election considered the most transparent in Nigeria’s history. If the culprits were Gen. Ibrahim Babangida or his "military colleagues", a colluding Nwosu is still too timid to say who specifically did it.
What is even more troubling is that, even though Nwosu had canvassed the nation ahead of the publication of his book, at its launching he conveniently continued to dodge telling Nigerians anything new or what they would like to hear from him. That is to say, that the courage that deserted him in 19993 has still not returned. Those who cowered him then, are still very much around, which explains why he is not naming and shaming those responsible for disenfranchising Nigerians of their universal suffrage. Prof. Humphrey Nwosu’s silence is analogous to the silence of the lambs. It is reticence still driven not by courage, not even by fear or discretion but by self-preservation. If therefore, he expects our adulation and praise, he should think again.
Nwosu’s fate is that of an adolescent child, who did not care to understand the forces that conspired to kill his father before going after them. Like his father, he too would be destroyed. In his Igbo clan, there is the saying that “what an adult sees while sitting, an adolescent will never see while standing”. Prof. Humphrey Nwosu may have amnesia. However, he should not assume that 160 million Nigerian suffer similarly form that ailment. Hence, he should know that we have not forgotten how he got his job as the NEC chairman.
When in 1989, Nwosu’s teacher and mentor, Prof. Eme Awa, the then NEC Chairman was being prodded by the Babangida regime toward electoral events that were ungainly and opprobrious, he would not play the anti-politics game with his military interlocutors. Two things were clear to him then; he was much older and far more educated, if not wiser than the military rulers. Secondly, he knew that history would never forgive him for playing such a role. Rather than acquiesce, he opted to be removed from the office and left with his dignity well intact. Prof. Eme Awa, stands a respectable name – a fact, which regrettably, with the most recent outing, we can no longer attribute to Prof. Nwosu.
As an academic, Prof. Nwosu has woefully flunked a test he set for himself. He wrote a book meant to set the record straight. There was a basis, a thesis, a premise, a body and but a vacuous conclusion. The unanswered questions, which ought to have been the raison d’etre of the book, remains unanswered and loudly so. Where Nigerians demanded an answer and a closure, Nwosu, appallingly offered none.
Prof. Nwosu may not have been directly complicit in the annulment of the 1993 elections. But he tacitly sustained that illegal act by keeping silent for one decade and half. Had he gone abroad in 1993 and declared that MKO Abiola won the elections and gave the figure, which he offered last week, things may have turned out differently for him, for Abiola and for Nigeria. Were he a courageous man, the lives of many people who died in the aftermath of the June 12 crisis may have been spared. The nation would have progressed also. His pussyfooting and cowardice, though human, is unforgivable.
When Prof. Nwosu suddenly went silent in the politically roiling summer of 1993, there was an empathetic speculation that he had been “settled” i.e. bought off. Such conjectures mixed freely and well with the story that the military boys and specifically, Col. Halilu Akilu, the boss of the Directorate of Military Intelligence (DMI), had manhandled him. Whether Nwosu keeping quiet for this long, was partly discretion, partly ingratiation or both, many Nigerians continued to hold out the hope that Nwosu, who held the key to unlocking the mysteries of the 1993 annulment, would someday speak up. Well, he has and both his voice and his facts fell woefully flat.
Some have suggested that while the military annulled the elections, they did so with the collusion of some civilians. Indeed, it is not farfetched that the conspiracy that led to the annulment in 1993 is continuing. It is noteworthy, and remarkably so, that among the few dignitaries who attended the Abuja book launch was, retired Brig-Gen. Halilu Akilu.
Let it be said
here, even if as a conjecture, that Nwosu may have been spooked into not telling
what happened in 1993, as well as into writing a diversionary book, in order to
rewrite the annulment history and secure infinite immunity to those involved in
the annulment conspiracy. Why should Nwosu speak power to the truth, when his
alleged nemesis, Akilu was in the audience, as if to remind him that the
conspiratorial business was not over? In fact, what Akilu reportedly said
during the launching should underline the belief that Nwosu is still being
strung along. One only needs to read between the lines of Akilu’s words to
conclude that Prof. Nwosu is still a man trapped in the bondage of the annulment
conspiracy. Akilu’s words:
Without my friend (Prof. Nwosu) I wouldn’t have been here. People claim and alleged that I even arrested him and slapped him, which was not true. The fact is that I was the one even providing security for him. If you ask him after the book launch, he will testify to my statement now. He said it. “Nobody forced him to write this book.” We haven’t set out eyes or even heard from Prof. Nwosu for the past fourteen and half years. (…..) He spent about three years in Nigeria without talking to the press and that was commendable. After that, he decided to take sabbatical leave and left for the United States where he settled down and gathered all the materials and wrote this book. So, let me be sincere with you, nobody knew about this book….
Well, when a once feared ex-military brass speaks on a critical national question using the royal plural “we”, evidently, he speaks not just for himself, but also for others and hints at collective responsibility, collective interest and agonizing reprisals that would be collectively meted out. When he also commends Nwosu “for not talking to the press”, one begins to wonder. Finally, when he says that “nobody knew about this book” there might be some truth to it, which may also explain why Akilu may have felt compelled to be personally invigilate the launching, to ensure that nothing untoward happens. Then, again, the ex-DMI boss may have been fending off suspicions about the book being heavily censored. Having acknowledged awareness of the rumors that he had slapped Nwosu around, here is a key question Akilu left unanswered: What were he and the military doing providing security for Nwosu, a civilian public servant? Go figure. The plot only thickens.
History will judge Prof. Humphrey Nwosu for capitulating at a time of immense national crisis, when extreme courage was called for. Already, Nigerians have diametrically condemned his latter-day half-hearted rehabilitative effort. As two observers independently remarked, “If Nwosu knew that all he had to offer are half truths and half stories, it were better he did not speak or write” and “Nigerians are not interested in someone could not defend the truth.” I suspect that many Nigerians will rally to such views if asked to assess the once shining, erudite and proactive but now grossly jaded professor. Such is life and the pitfalls of getting what one wishes.
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With neither anger nor partiality, until next time, keep the law, stay impartial, and observe closely.
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Hank Eso is a columnist for Kwenu.com. His commentaries on Nigerian politics and global issues have appeared in The New Times (Lagos), African Profile International (New York), The Nigerian And Africa Abroad, (New York), African Market News (New Jersey) and in Gamji.com and Nigeriavillagesquare.com
© Hank Eso, Wednesday 18 June 2008
Email: hankeso@aol.com