A professor of law, Joy Ezeilo has decried President Muhammadu Buhari’s non-recognition of Prof Humphrey Nwosu, former Chairman of defunct National Electoral Commission of Nigeria, NECON.
Nwosu conducted the June 12, 1993 presidential election, adjudged to be the freest and most credible in Nigeria’s history. The acclaimed winner of that election, MKO Abiola, will now get a posthumous GCFR as directed by President Buhari.
Ezeilo, who is the Dean, Faculty of Law at the University of Nigeria, Enugu Campus, expressed the worry in Enugu on Thursday in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).
“I commend President Muhammadu Buhari for honoring Chief MKO Abiola by this declaration, I urge him to accord Prof Nwosu similar recognition because without that result declaration, it will still be unclear who won the 1993 election.
“Prof Nwosu, against all odds and threats to life announced the result. I strongly think he deserves presidential national award while still alive than waiting to posthumously receive it,” she said.
On the change of Democracy Day from May 29 to June 12, the legal luminary felt the earlier date should remain because it was constitutional.
“However, the date may cease to be public holiday and the extant law to that effect repealed.
“The change of democracy date from May 29 to June 12 is not per se the problem but failure to do prior consultation and consideration of other ramifications especially on constitutional and legal implications of this change,” she added.