June 12 celebration without honour to Humphrey Nwosu big injustice to Igbo – Group

An Igbo group, Ndigbo Cultural Development Organization, NIDO has said that it is injustice against the Igbo nation if the Federal government continues to celebrate June 12 Democracy Day without honouring the former Chairman of defunct National Electoral Commission, NEC, late Professor Humphrey Nwosu.

The group, in a statement in Umuahia, said the history of June 12 would not have been possible without the heroic actions of Professor Nwosu in 1993.

The statement signed by Don Afuluike, NIDO’s Director of Communications and Information, regretted that many Nigerians, including Professor Humphrey Nwosu who fought and made various degrees of sacrifices to ensure a return to constitutional governance have not been recognised by the government.

“As Nigeria observes the day, it is an opportunity to reflect on the gains and pains of today’s democratic governance riding on the back of seven successive national elections in 1999, 2003, 2007, 2011, 2015, 2019, and 2023 under different electoral umpires.

“Without doubt, a review of each of these elections only leads to an assessment of which is worse than the other in terms of all known indices of assessment of elections.

“The consistent clamour for electoral reforms till date and now periodic amendments to the Electoral Act depicts a sick electoral system which negatively impacts governance at different levels and resulting in growing discontent and lack of trust in Nigeria’s elections and democracy,” it said.

The Igbo group said it was a glare injustice against the Igbo nation that no national asset has been named after Professor Humphrey Nwosu despite introducing “Option A4”, which the group called Nigeria’s most transparent system of conducting election.

The statement further urged Anambra State Government, Nwosu’s home state, to also name a major edifice after him, warning that failure to do so could discourage successive INEC officials from serving with courage and a sense of patriotism.