As Chairman of the Federal Election Commission between 1964 and 1966, Chief Eyo Ita Esua was determined to come out clean over political intervention based on his experience as a well-grounded mentor and first Secretary – General of the Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT).
Esua knew Nigeria well enough through his years of unionism and was well exposed to organised climes outside the country. An Efik man who spent time in Calabar before proceeding to Lagos, he was not afraid to get things done properly.
Before the West went wild in 1965, leading to the eventual demise of the First Republic, Esua did his best to manage the Federal and Western Region elections. He spoke truth to power, stating boldly that the electoral body could not guarantee free and fair elections.
He had read the handwriting on the wall and wrote to the governor of Western Region. “It was a notorious fact that some electoral officers refused to accept nomination papers of certain candidates,” Esua’s letter revealed. That was in November 1965 after the October election.
Earlier in September, the FEC boss released a statement highlighting the plight of his men in the West. Some had been kidnapped and others threatened with violence. He noted that Regional Commissioners were loyal to the government in power. That was during the crisis involving the Nigerian National Alliance (NNA) and the United Progressives Grand Alliance (UPGA).
When all this happened, the present Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Joash Ojo Amupitan was two years away from Planet Earth. He dropped down on April 25, 1967, a little more than one year before the country went up in flames in a bloody Civil War induced by events of 1965.
I have gone down memory lane to remind Amupitan of his background as a teacher and son of a teacher. Beyond electoral matters, that is what he has in common with Esua. Let me reveal that there was a Prof. Eyo Ita who also lived in Lagos as a teacher and left a mark for compatriots after him.
On assumption of office in 2025, Amupitan vowed to conduct free and credible elections. The acid test comes in 2027, during the presidential election. The taste of the pudding, like they say, is in the eating. Meat that has fat will prove it by the heat of fire.
There have been dirty stories oozing out of the INEC office. We have heard of workers using Artificial Intelligence (AI) to clone and manipulate the Voters Register. There are tales of polling units growing fatter and adding 1,000 percent of new entries. Allegations and counter accusations are polluting the polity.
Amupitan should be proactive, like Esua. As a well brought up child, from a deeply religious home, he should have announced to the world that some of his workers were dining with the devil and distorting voters’ faces. INEC only reacted after the manipulations were discovered by concerned Nigerians.
Esua spoke truth to power. Amupitan should be bold and brave. He loses nothing. Prof. Eme Awa was not a rubber stamp electoral boss. Prof. Humphrey Nwosu held his head high even when soldiers wanted to gun him down. In 2027, our democracy will be tested. Ayetoro Gbede and the entire Ijumu area deserve to be celebrated for giving democracy a worthy son.
Fair play pays. Esua did not run away from his post as claimed by those who did not want free and credible poll. His family came out with the truth and I am putting it down here for posterity to judge.
“Grandpa did not abscond from his post. He conducted the election as best as he could under the prevailing circumstances and at the end of the elections, informed the government of the day in candid fashion that the elections he superintended over could not be adjudged free and fair,” a family spokesman wrote.
“He resisted pressure by the powers that be to endorse the flawed outcome of the elections. He did not run off to Calabar as dubiously alleged and remained in Lagos where he faced threats to his life by aggrieved politicians.”
The truth is clear. Those politicians apparently thought Esua was a Lagos Johnny Just Come (JJC) from Calabar, in the Eastern Region. They did not know he had his two children in Lagos and one of them, Dr. Eyo Ita Esua II, an Army Major, was married to Olufemi Olufunmilayo Jibowu, daughter of first Nigerian High Court judge. The daughter, Mrs Eme Asuquo, first Nigerian Orthopaedic Nurse, was Senior Matron at Igbobi Hospital.
Amupitan should stand firm, do his best and make Nigerians proud. We do not care who wins the presidential elections so long as it is free, credible and fair. His four children deserve a great future where they can say, without fear, that their Dad made everyone proud.
