By Oguwike Nwachuku
On Friday, June 8, former President Olusegun Obasanjo, raised the alarm that President Muhammadu Buhari-led All Progressive Congress (APC) administration is planning his arrest.
Obasanjo alleged that Buhari’s men are plotting to put his name on security watch-list, a prelude to his arrest and eventual detention.
His media aide, Kehinde Akinyemi, issued a statement in Abeokuta last week where Obasanjo noted that the Buhari administration wanted to blackmail him “into abandoning his divine mandate to protect the rights of Nigerians to a better life.”
The statement read: “Since Chief Olusegun Obasanjo declared in his State-of-the-Nation special statement on January 23, 2018, the desperation to frustrate, intimidate and blackmail him into abandoning his divine mandate to protect the rights of the people to better life and living continued unabated and has even taken a bizarre dimension.
“Impeccable security sources have alleged Chief Obasanjo’s name is on their Watch List and that the security of his life cannot be guaranteed.
“According to these informants, many of who are in the top echelon of the nation’s security management and close to the corridors of power, the operatives are daily perfecting how to curtail the personal liberties of the former President and hang a crime on him.
“Ordinarily, we would not have dignified these reports with a response but for the fact that many of these informants are not known for flippant and frivolous talks.
“This government has demonstrably exhibited apathy, and in some cases, encouraged by its conduct, daily loss of lives and property in many states of the country, the office cannot be indifferent.
“We are currently in a nation where the Number Three citizen is being harangued and the Number Four citizen is facing similar threat within the same Government they serve.
“There is a groundswell of our nationals that live in fear that they could be hounded, harassed, maimed or even killed as the battle for 2019 takes this worrisome dimension.
“…The content of the alleged beastly designs, it was learnt are two-fold for now. One, to seize his International Passport and clamp him into detention indefinitely, in order to prevent him from further expressing angst on the pervasive mediocrity in the quality of governance, economic management and in the protection of lives and property by the government.
“But, since that could expose the government to a swath of international condemnation, embarrassment and outrage, it is said that another plot being hatched is to cause the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to re-open investigation into the activities of Chief Obasanjo’s administration using false witnesses and documents.”
Nigerians were excited on Wednesday, June 6 when Buhari announced that June 12 is now the new Democracy Day in the country, replacing the May 29 date they have always known since the return to civil rule in 1999.
In a letter Buhari personally signed designating June 12 as Democracy Day, he also announced the award of a posthumous Grand Commander of the Federal Republic (GCFR) honour to late Moshood Abiola, the winner of the June 12, 1993 presidential election, and the man at the centre of the agitation for the recognition of June 12 as the real Democracy Day instead of May 29.
Abiola’s running mate in the 1993 presidential election, Baba Gana Kingibe, as well as late human right crusader and lawyer, Gani Fawehinmi, were also honoured with the award of Grand Commander of the Order of the Niger (GCON) by Buhari.
Since Buhari’s pronouncement, instead of the narrative of the “problematic” June 12, 1993 election matter getting finally resolved, it is rather being further complicated.
On the one side are those who think that designating June 12 the authentic Democracy Day will create constitutional hiccups if not resolved through the Act of Parliament.
The fear of those in this category is that a shift in the date will definitely cause an extension in the tenure of whoever emerges president or governor, and will leave Nigerians with the extension of office conundrum. Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu is in this category.
Ekweremadu’s unassailable view on the constitutionality of the shift from May 29 to June 12 as Democracy Day has also got the backing of people like human rights lawyer, Femi Falana.
Falana thinks that the swearing in day could be separated from the Democracy Day, and this leaves us with another complication.
That Buhari made the pronouncement without the input or consultation of the legislature has been deemed another constitutional error that ought to be corrected before the pronouncement can have credibility.
For instance, the House of Representatives was almost thrown into pandemonium when the matter came before the lawmakers last week as most of them needed explanation from Buhari why he arrogated to himself what should have been a legislative function.
Another complicating scenario is the call by some senators like Yinka Olujimi who raised a motion on the floor of the senate, asking that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) releases the result of the June 12, 1993 annulled election, and declares Abiola and Kingibe president and vice president respectively, to enable the government pay them their emolument.
There is another complicating narrative from those who insist that those who played key role in the actualisation of the June 12 dream of chasing the military away from Nigeria’s highest political office must be recognised.
How about those who see nothing other than political capital in Buhari’s pronouncement?
For instance, it is being insinuated that the idea of making June 12 Democracy Day, and honouring Abiola is purely for political consideration, and to enable the APC-led government have the sympathy of the South West ahead of the 2019 general election. The opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP) is in this category.
In this category also are those who see it as another expansionist tendency for Bola Tinubu, a national leader of APC and the major brain behind the recognition of June 12 as Democracy Day and the honouring of Abiola by Buhari .
Tinubu was also said to be the brain behind the Gani Fawehinmi and Abiola families accepting and thanking Buhari for honouring and recognising their own.
There is the category of Afenifere die-hards who welcome the recognition of June 12 as Democracy Day and Abiola’s honour, but say they desire the restructuring of the country before the 2019 election as much as they desired actualization of June 12.
Yet, there are those who are worried that Kingibe who abandoned Abiola in the thick of the June 12 brouhaha and agitation would be so honoured, asking whether Kingibe’s recognition was a good omen for democracy ethos or for mere power balancing that favours the North and South West, some of whose leaders are the brains behind Buhari’s pronouncement.
Head or tail, the decision by Buhari to recognise Abiola who was even killed after his mandate was taken away from him is long overdue.
This is more so because past Nigerian leaders since 1999 till date, did not find the need to honour Abiola so as to assuage the temper that rose following the annulment of the election he clearly won and which some of the elements instrumental to the annulment tagged acclaimed.
Even Buhari in his letter regarded Abiola as presumed winner of the June 12, 1993 presidential election. That singular word is also being subjected to scrutiny by some people and compounds the complication narrative.
Politics or not, to say that Buhari has won the hearts of many Nigerians, particularly pro-democracy activists, civil society organisations and progressive politicians across the country who stood firmly for the realisation of June 12 as Democracy Day and the recognition of the man at the heart of the narrative, Abiola, is to say the least.
To me, that is the critical gain from Buhari’s pronouncement on June 6.
Nigerians, whether from the North or West, East or South South should challenge the president to show deep sense of commitment to the unity of the country the way Abiola’s victory symbolised.
If Buhari and his handlers on the June 12 issue mean well, their preoccupation should be how a free and fair election would be realised next year devoid of the fears that the opposition political parties are raising that the government in power is on the mission to muzzle them.
It is because political reasons are associated to the June 12 Democracy Day recognition and honour for Abiola that Obasanjo is raising the alarm that Buhari wants to rope him in and find reasons to put him in jail again.
Perhaps we have forgotten that late Nigerian maximum leader, Sani Abacha put Obasanjo in detention years after agitation for June 12 actualisation gained momentum, in 1995, over poor human rights records Obasanjo leveled against Abacha’s government.
Abacha was averse to freedom of speech of any Nigerian, including Obasanjo, and Buhari cannot afford to do the same thing in 2019, 25 years after Nigerians resolved to tow the path of democratic governance on June 12, 1993, the precursor of the civil rule we enjoy today.
Whether Obasanjo was a beneficiary of June 12 annulment or not, it will pay no South West person that Buhari with one hand gave them June 12 as Democracy Day, honoured Abiola with the highest national award and with another hand, turn around to imprison Obasanjo for speaking up on political issues that affect all of us, South West inclusive.
Let those who are making diverse contributions on how best to deal with the fellows that are directly connected with June 12 or not spare us the narrative because most of such suggestions are self-serving.
Methinks the only new thing Buhari needs to do now is to ensure that there is no constitutional conflict over May 29 as handover day and June 12 as Democracy Day. If it becomes difficult to amend the constitution to harmonise the dates, Nigeria can still retain both days as important dates in her political history.
To start making suggestions that have the potentials of putting the country in harm’s way, nay in another fix, the way June 12 did for 25 years before it appears “resolved” should not even be contemplated, else we are complicating the narrative further without knowing it.
