The House of Representatives was thrown into disarray, as lawmakers disagreed on a motion to immortalize former National Electoral Council (NEC) chairman, Humphrey Nwosu.
The lawmakers were divided after the Senate rejected the posthumous national honor for Nwosu, who passed on five months ago after a prolonged illness.
The motion, raised under matters of urgent public importance by Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe and co-sponsored by members of the minority caucus primarily from the South-East, titled ‘Urgent Need to Immortalise Professor Humphrey Nwosu’, aimed to recognize Professor Nwosu’s contributions and courageous defense of the democratic electoral process during the 1993 presidential elections.
However, just as Abaribe began to present the motion, Senate Leader Senator Opeyemi Bamidele raised a point of order, arguing that lawmakers had not been provided with copies of the motion, citing a procedural issue that he claimed breached Senate rules.
The disagreement quickly created a charged atmosphere in the chamber, with Deputy Senate President Senator, Barau Jibrin noting that the motion was contentious, given divided public opinion on Prof. Nwosu’s role in the annulled June 12, 1993, presidential election.
According to him, “It’s controversial, some see him as one of those who truncated June 12, while others view him as a hero of democracy”.
When the motion was eventually put to a voice vote, the ‘nays’ prevailed, effectively rejecting the proposal.
Efforts by Abaribe to reintroduce the motion under different procedural orders were declined by the Senate Leader, who explained that the time for that had passed, further escalating tensions.
This caused him to protest, questioning why a motion to honor Nwosu was deemed problematic saying What is wrong with this motion? What is wrong with immortalizing Prof. Nwosu?
Senator Yahaya Abdullahi, who sided with Abaribe, cautioned against setting a “dangerous precedent” that could suppress lawmakers from raising critical issues.
He said, “We must allow people to speak; if we don’t, we are saying that whenever things go wrong, we cannot intervene to correct them”.
The Deputy Senate President, however, responded by pointing out inconsistencies in Abaribe’s procedural approach, stating, “You approached me to bring the motion under Order 50 and 51, but you later changed it to Order 42; this is a process”, and advised Senator Abaribe to resubmit his motion on the next legislative date.
South-East Senators, including Patrick Ndubaeze and Victor Umeh, openly expressed their displeasure over the rejection of the motion.
One of them hit the table, raging, “What is the meaning of this? We can’t continue to do things this way; what is going on?”
As tensions continued to mount, Senate President Godswill Akpabio intervened to calm the heated debate, urging lawmakers to approach the issue with a sense of national unity.
Akpabio advised, “We must handle this matter with sensitivity and respect for history; while opinions may differ, we should focus on strengthening our democratic institutions rather than revisiting past divisions”.
Following further deliberations, the Senate deferred a final decision on the motion, referring it to the appropriate committee for further review.
