By Emeka Alex Duru
(08054103327, nwaukpala@yahoo.com)
Like a ghost, an incubus of sort, it refused to go but continued to hang around, haunting the nation at all fronts. From 1993 when it afflicted the nation, the phenomenon, like a bug, had stuck, traumatizing and discomforting successive administrations in the land – military and civilian.
Not even the hastily contrived May 29 Democracy – whatever that meant in Nigeria’s history, – could keep it at bay. But like a sore thumb, it kept festering, drawing attention and yelling for recognition, even when some of its advocates had gone.
But what, really is in a name, as celebrated writer, William Shakespeare would ask? In this case, what is in a date? Put in other words, what is in June 12? This is a question successive administrations in the land had tried to suppress since 1993.
June 12, 1993, was the day Nigerians went for a presidential election that was mostly adjudged free and fair. MKO Abiola, who was the presidential candidate of the defunct Social Democratic Party (SDP), was almost coasting home to victory over his opponent, Bashir Tofar of the then National Republican Convention (NRC), when the military administration of General Ibrahim Babangida, annulled the election, claiming that the exercise was dogged by irregularities.
Abiola who was bent on actualizing his mandate, was clamped into detention by the succeeding General Sani Abacha regime. He did not achieve the desire till he died under General Abdulsalami Abubakar administration, on July 7, 1998. Abubakar, who ran an 11-month political transition programme, later handed over to the civilian government of Olusegun Obasanjo on May 29, 1999.
May 29 had been celebrated as Democracy Day, with public holiday. Notwithstanding, Abiola’s supporters, had been clamouring for his recognition and June 12, celebrated as real Democracy Day.
For years, successive administrations had laboured to blot the June 12 date and what it represents. But try as the governments had done, the phenomenon had refused to die. On occasions, it had limped and lingered. On such instances, the celebration had been limited to some sections of the country, particularly the south west. Even at that, the spirit had been unyielding.
But at last, like the Greek Prometheus unbound, the date has bounced back, with renewed force, inching, probably, to regain the lost ground, perhaps, not in concrete terms, but in the conscience and consciousness of the people.
President Muhammadu Buhari, whose pre-2015 election profile, has dwindled greatly these days on account of the clay footed direction of the policies of his administration, gave a voice to June 12, in a move that shored up his democracy credentials.
In a deft political move that was obviously intended to worm him into Nigerians, particularly pro-democracy activists, Buhari, on Wednesday, June 6, 2019, conferred on Abiola, the posthumous honour of the Grand Commander of the Federal Republic (GCFR). Abiola died 22 years ago.
Buhari also declared June 12, Democracy Day, in replacement of May 29, that had since 1999, been celebrated for the occasion. He made the declaration in a press statement personally signed by him. The statement read in part; “June 12, 1993, was the day, when Nigerians in millions, expressed their democratic will in what was undisputedly, the freest, fairest and most peaceful elections since our independence. The fact that the outcome of that election was not upheld by the then military government does not detract from the democratic credentials of that process”. With that move, June 12, became a public holiday, in place of May 29.
Aside the proclamations of June 12 as public holiday, opinions are divided on whether Buhari is truly at home with the philosophical essence of the occasion. For the president, the day provides opportunity to flaunt the achievements of the administration. In his broadcast for instance, he listed attainments of his government in various sectors in celebration of the occasion. Judged from the cardinal principles of his administration which are anchored on revitalization of the economy, fighting corruption and tackling insecurity, Nigerians score him with different grades. Some insist that he has done well. Others disagree. It is the intangible side of the Day that critics say that Buhari cannot come close enough to laying claims to.
June 12, to many Nigerians, is a phenomenon, a watershed in the country’s history. Governor Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State, amply situated the date in his observation that the return of democracy in 1999 was a direct consequence of the relentless agitation by a coalition of civil society groups, students, labour movement, politicians, rights activists, journalists, academics and a host of people in the diaspora and diplomatic circles against the June 12 1993 election annulment. “It is one important moment that should never be forgotten because the tree of our democracy was irrigated with the blood of many known and unknown people who died as martyrs of democratic struggle”, Fayemi stressed.
It is not certain if the President appreciates this important aspect of the celebration. If he does, he is yet to manifest them. Some of the actions and policies of his administration, have rather tainted the ideals that Nigerians espoused on that historic election. With the Muslim – Muslim Abiola and Babagana Kingibe ticket, Nigerians spoke loudly in repudiation of the primordial factors of religion and ethnicity that had held down the country.
It is a sad commentary that 27 years after that eloquent expression by Nigerians for the search for a new beginning, the President is taking us back to the pre-June 12 1993 era by his lopsided appointments and policies that tend to favour his region of birth to the obvious marginalization of others. The unspoken message in this is that the country belongs to some more than others. No nation develops along this path.
We also cannot be deluding ourselves with recognising the essence of June 12, when our elections are monetized and the votes do not count. Nigeria is increasingly becoming a system in which the leadership at various levels does not emerge from the ballots but pronouncements of the Courts. This creeping trend featured more in the 2019 general elections which were incidentally conducted by the Buhari administration. In addition, godfathers are running riot in the states, determining who gets what. With these, democracy as government of the people by the people for the people loses its meaning.
I agree with Governor Fayemi that the symbolic gesture of recognizing June 12 in our national calendar has provided a psycho-social healing for the people who sacrificed, including their lives, for the enthronement of democracy. But the President should do more in entrenching the values of the date. He should rise beyond partisanship, provincialism and offer leadership that Nigerians of all persuasions would be proud of.