June 12 2019, was a happy day across the
country as the country’s democracy was
celebrated.
It was all the more so as this was the first
time that the nation would be celebrating its
democracy on that date. The country had
earlier celebrated democracy on the 29th of
May every year, as that was the date that the
Military Administration of General Abdulsalami
Abubakar handed over the baton of power to
the democratically elected government of
former President Olusegun Obasanjo in 1999.
June 12 was chosen as the new date by
President Muhammadu Buhari to celebrate
democracy in honour of the late MKO Abiola,
who is widely thought to have come out
victorious in the 1993 Presidential elections.
Abiola had become an icon for democracy in
the country following his imprisonment after
he stood up to defend his mandate. Abiola
would later die in prison.
However, the President has come under fire
in some quarters for these actions as some
have said that he was only being hypocritical
as his actions during his first four years as
President was not in tandem with the ideals of
the struggle to give democracy a lifeline in
1993.
Let us consider how some powerful Nigerians
seemingly with their words and actions
exposed the hypocrisy of the President in his
recent “show of respect” to MKO Abiola.
Atiku’s June 12 Speech
Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, the Presidential
Candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party,
PDP, in the 2019 elections is one of the
notable Nigerians who have come out to point
out out some of the shortcomings of the
President during his first four years in office.
Atiku had pointed out that the President has
not been a good democrat as he had on a
number of occasions, disrespected the rule of
law while brazenly disregarding court orders.
The cases of former NSA, Sambo Dasuki, and
comes to mind.
The Presidential candidate of the People’s
Democratic Party, PDP, Atiku Abubakar has
said that it is not enough to declare June 12
as Democracy Day when the government of
the day was disrespectful to the rule of law
and had wantonly disregarded a number of
court orders.
“June 12 is at the soul of our democratic
struggle; a threshold in our national life.
“Suffice it to state that the idea of June 12 is
not merely to declare it as a Democracy Day
– much as celebratory and commendable it
might seem.
“The idea behind the event of June 12, 1993,
embodies something much bigger than that.
It was a threshold moment in our national life
that demands of us as Democrats to do a
soul searching and ask the salient question
of all time: how better off are Nigerians?
“It is not enough to declare June 12 a
Democracy Day when the government of the
day is disrespectful of the rule of law and
wantonly disregards court orders on issues
that border on fundamental human rights,”
Atiku said.
Atiku further went on to explain the true
importance and significance of the June 12
date, saying that, the 1993 election held on
that date showed that Nigerians preferred true
democracy as against a “jackboot notion of
oppressive totalitarianism”.
Atiku as well stated that declaring June 12 as
a public holiday was not appropriate as a
huge number of Nigerian workers do not even
have what to eat since Nigeria was listed as
the poverty capital of the world, according to
a report by the World Poverty Clock in 2018.
Another point which Atiku had raised and that
had been on the front burner in recent times,
touched on the moves made by the
government to allegedly curtail press freedom
as top media houses AIT and Ray Power
were shut down recently by the NBC, albeit
temporarily.
“It is not enough to declare June 12 a work-
free day when freedom of the press, and of
speech, fundamentals of democracy is being
assailed, he said.
Atiku had condemned the shutdown of the
media houses when it occurred, stating that it
was an affront on press freedom in the
country.
Looking at this assertion critically, Atiku may
just have been right with his submission. This
was because the late Chief MKO Abiola was
sent to prison by General Sani Abacha for
daring to speak up in a bid to reclaim his
mandate. Abiola had his freedom of speech
scuttled by the Military government.
Also, the former Chief Justice of Nigeria was
placed on a suspension by President Buhari,
a move which many had condemned saying
that it was a direct attack on the Judicial arm
of government which was not in tandem with
the tenets of democracy. Onnoghen was later
convicted by the CCT and sacked from his
position as CJN by the tribunal. This touches
on the fact that the fundamentals of
democracy have been assailed as stated by
Atiku, a clear case of what happened during
the June 12 saga.
Atiku further pointed out that MKO Abiola with
his HOPE campaign slogan did not set out to
deceive Nigerians as he was sure to deliver,
urging the current administration to deliver on
its electoral promises.
“As a compatriot who stood shoulder to
shoulder with the icon of the June 12 struggle,
Chief MKO Abiola of blessed memory, I know
first-hand that the choice of HOPE as his
campaign slogan wasn’t merely a populist
tokenism.
“ He didn’t mean to deceive Nigerians with a
hope he could not deliver upon. And, today,
the minimum requirement for any June 12
convert is to demand of them wherever they
may be – either in government or in private
lives – to deliver on the promises they made
to the people,” he said.
Former Heads of State and
Presidents Shun Event
Meanwhile, it made the rounds in the media
that all the former Presidents and Heads of
State in the country were not in attendance at
the June 12 Democracy Day event.
This may not be unconnected to the fact that
some were of the opinion that the 2019
Presidential elections were flawed.
Some of the former Heads of States and
Presidents had also openly given their support
to the Presidential candidate of the PDP
during the elections but he eventually lost out
to President Buhari.
President Obasanjo had said that the
government should stop intimidating Atiku and
his family members due to the fact that he is
contesting the victory of the President at the
tribunal as President Buhari did the same
three times, even when he did not have a
basis for doing so.
In like manner, former President Goodluck
Jonathan has shown his support for Atiku’s
case at the Presidential Election Tribunal as
he recently stated why Atiku had a right to
contest the outcome of the general elections.
Wole Soyinka’s Criticism of
Buhari
Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka had also
criticised the President for praising former
Head of State, General Sani Abacha even
after declaring June 12 as the new democracy
day.
President Buhari has been known to defend
the government of Abacha on numerous
occasions. It is public knowledge that it was
Abacha who imprisoned Abiola for standing
up for his right as the winner of the 2019
elections.
Soyinka had himself snubbed the June 12
celebration by choice, condemning the
conduct of the 2019 elections.
All these and more goes to show that the
President may not have been sincere in his
move to honour Chief MKO Abiola, but may
have done so for certain interests and to
appease certain political players in the
country.
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