The Senate on Wednesday rejected a motion on the immortalization of a former Chairman of the National Electoral Commission, now Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), late Prof. Humphrey Nwosu.
A Senator from Abia State, Eyinnaya Abaribe, had moved the motion under Senate Orders 41 and 51 but faced opposition.
The motion was put to a voice vote and subsequently turned down by the Deputy Senate President, Jibrin Barau, who presided over the session.
A visibly disappointed Abaribe questioned why the motion was considered controversial.
He said: “Mr. President, I don’t see what is controversial about immortalising Humphrey Nwosu. That is our problem—what exactly is controversial about it?”
However, the Senate Leader, Opeyemi Bamidele, argued that Abaribe failed to follow proper procedure, as he was late in citing another Senate order.
“Mr. President, we had already passed the relevant points in our order of the day. Matters of urgent public importance and personal explanations have a specific timeframe, which had already elapsed,” Bamidele explained.
He noted that Abaribe would need to reintroduce the motion formally on the next legislative day through a substantive motion.
In contrast, Senator Yahaya Abdullahi warned against setting a “dangerous precedent” by restricting when senators could raise personal explanations.
“Point of Order and Personal Explanation can be raised at any time. We must not deny senators the opportunity to interject or intervene when necessary,” he argued.
Barau, who addressed Abaribe directly, pointed out an inconsistency in his approach.
He said: “When you approached me this morning, you mentioned Orders 41 and 51. You never mentioned Order 42. Now, after your motion was defeated, you are changing it to Order 42?”
Nwosu, who conducted the annulled June 12, 1993, election, served as NEC chairman from 1989 to 1993.
He died on October 24, 2024, at the age of 83.
