President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, on Thursday, posthumously conferred the Commander of the Order of the Niger (CON) on former Chairman of the defunct National Electoral Commission (NEC), Humphrey Nwosu, in recognition of his role in conducting the historic June 12, 1993 presidential election.

Naijaonpoint reports that Tinubu made the announcement during his address at a joint session of the National Assembly to mark Democracy Day 2025.

The national honour comes barely three months after the Senate rejected a motion to immortalise Nwosu by naming the INEC headquarters in Abuja after him.

The motion, sponsored by Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe (Abia South), was blocked, prompting members of the South-East Caucus to stage a walkout from the chamber in protest.

President Tinubu, while acknowledging MKO Abiola as the central figure of the June 12 struggle, insisted that the story of Nigeria’s democratic journey cannot be complete without recognising other key contributors like Nwosu.

Tinubu said, “The struggle was never the province of any one group or section of the country. “It was pan-Nigerian in its conception and will be even more pan-Nigerian as we strive to perfect it.”

Appointed by former military President Ibrahim Babangida, Nwosu presided over the 1993 general election, widely regarded as the freest and fairest in Nigeria’s history.

Though results were never officially declared, it is widely accepted that MKO Abiola won the poll. The annulment of the election by the military regime triggered widespread protests and years of political instability.

In 2018, former President Muhammadu Buhari formally recognised Abiola as the winner of the 1993 election and declared June 12 as Democracy Day, replacing the previous May 29 observance.