Now President Buhari has brought the June 12 Presidential Election out of the latrine of Nigerian history into the glorious shade of reckoning by his demonstration of the true spirit of democratic icon and unprecedented sensibility to the aspirations of the masses. With June 12 as the new ‘democracy day’ in Nigeria as from next year, the sacrificial soul of Chief Abiola who paid the supreme price for the enthronement of democracy on May 29 1999, will now rest fully in peace! With the posthumous honor awarded Chief Gani Fawehinmi, the undisputed prodemocracy and human rights icon who waged a relentless war for the cause of June 12, his immortality and that of Chief Abiola will remain evergreen on the scale of Nigerian history.
[dropcap]B[/dropcap]eyond any iota of sentiments the recent decision by President Muhammadu Buhari to posthumously honor Chief Moshood Kasimawo Abiola and Chief Gani Fawehinmi as Grand Commander of the Federal Republic (GCFR) and Grand Commander of the Order of the Niger (GCON) is the best news ever since the All Progressives Congress (APC) won the presidential election on March 28th, 2015.
Quickly, Ambassador Babagana Kingibe who was the running mate to late Chief MKO Abiola on June 12, 1993 during the freest, fairest and most credible presidential election in the nation’s history so far was equally captured as Grand Commander of the Federal Republic (GCFR) in Buhari’s declaration.
The June 12 1993 Presidential Election in Nigeria was an unprecedented phenomenon that took the grand enemies of the masses by surprise because they had plotted and brought their evil strategies to the zenith of perfection before the then Chairman of the National Electoral Commission (NEC) Professor Humphrey Nwosu threw his spanner into their machines of demonic agenda by allowing the historic exercise to take place.
Before one will delve into the nitty- gritty of the historic Presidential Election, it is most appropriate to salute the uncommon courage and incredible democratic sensibility displayed by President Muhammadu Buhari in officially throwing away the May 29 ‘Democracy Day’ imposed on the people of Nigeria by General Abdulsalami Abubakar Abubakar was the last Military dictator who led the treacherous top brass of the armed forces to hand over the baton of presidential power to one of their own, General Olusegun Obasanjo on May 29, 1999 in the name of democracy.
Buhari, no doubt deserves all the accolades that are being showered on him today for the single reason that twenty five years of grave injustice perpetrated against Chief MKO Abiola nay the masses of Nigeria has been reversed in the recent immortalization of the duo of Abiola and Gani.
The arguments being hawked around by mostly people from the opposition that President Muhammadu Buhari did what he has done to score cheap political points as the 2019 Presidential Election is at the corner is pedestrian and do not hold any water as far as this piece is concerned.
This is because Olusegun Obasanjo (Abiola kinsman from Ogun State who was the immediate beneficiary of the grim crime of June 12), Umaru Musa Yar’Adua and our brother from the Niger Delta, Goodluck Jonathan simply looked the other way and carried on the business of state despite strident and consistent clamor for the revalidation of June 12 Presidential Election by prodemocracy and human rights activists.
For twenty five years those who stole from our commonwealth persistently, who rode roughshod over us, terrorized our psyche and diminished our democratic belonging, blatantly refused to do the right thing, only for Buhari to take the giant initiative by putting our heroes of democracy on the podium of eternal honor. One will not clap for such a positive decision?
Whatever the route of dissents the opponents of this great decision will want to walk, the likes of ex-military president Ibrahim Babangida, the legions of retired military officers (some that have recycled themselves back as politicians) and other fair weather democrats now savoring the gains of this democratic order will forever bury their heads in shame for the inglorious roles they displayed against the spirit and letters of June 12th.
If you ask me Ambassador Babagana Kingibe who ran the same Muslim/Muslim ticket with Chief MKO Abiola on June 12 1993, do not deserve the joint-honor because he consciously joined the enemies of democracy and recklessly sold out the sacred universal mandate by taking the portfolio of Minister of External Affairs under the satanic regime of General Sani Abacha.
As an active participant in the ‘struggle’ then, it was clear to me that many frontline politicians of today worked against Chief Abiola’s mandate behind the scene. They sang June 12 during the day and dined with Generals Babangida and Sani Abacha in the night!
As the secretary, strategy/tactics committee Campaign for Democracy (CD), vice- chairman, Joint Action Committee of Nigeria (JACON), Chairman, Committee for the Defense of Human Rights (CDHR) etc., variously between 1993 and 1999 in Edo State, I witnessed a grandiose scheme that dared and deceived the people of Nigeria.
General Ibrahim Babangida, the celebrated ‘evil genius’ put in place a fraudulent transition to civil rule program that became endless in terms of personal intrigues against the country. Babangida’s political masturbation defied global analysis most especially in 1993.The hypocrisy of his idiosyncrasy was brought to the fore.
Under his watch the political space in Nigeria was substituted for a dubious assemblage of centrifugal forces, as his almost eight years old military regime was marred by corruption, apathy and repressive politics which culminated in the tragic and senseless annulment of the June 12, 1993 Presidential Election.
Using the then Social Democratic Party (SDP) Chief Abiola contested the June 12 Presidential Election. The first salvo of confusion and fear was fired by an Abuja High Court, presided over by Justice Bassey Ikpeme, on June 11, 1993, ordering the National Electoral Commission (NEC) not to conduct that Election.
Justice Ikpeme was dancing to the petition brought by those, like Arthur Nzeribe flying the political kite of General Babangida, who had wanted to continue as Head of State. Against the expectation of those who had wanted to block the realization of the June 12th election, Prof. Humphrey Nwosu stamped his foot on the ground and conducted the election using option A 4 method.
On June 16 1993, Nwosu suspended the results being released bowing to the powers that be. Then it was clear the nation was heading for a political nightmare. On July 13 1993, General Babangida signed into law a decree that threw the entire transition to civil rule program and NEC into the latrine of history.
On July 15 1993, seeing that Babangida and his boys had stabbed the nation cruelly on the back activists of various shades took the city of Lagos by storm in wild protests.
Now President Buhari has brought the June 12 Presidential Election out of the latrine of Nigerian history into the glorious shade of reckoning by his demonstration of the true spirit of democratic icon and unprecedented sensibility to the aspirations of the masses.
With June 12 as the new ‘democracy day’ in Nigeria as from next year, the sacrificial soul of Chief Abiola who paid the supreme price for the enthronement of democracy on May 29 1999, will now rest fully in peace!
With the posthumous honor awarded Chief Gani Fawehinmi, the undisputed prodemocracy and human rights icon who waged a relentless war for the cause of June 12, his immortality and that of Chief Abiola will remain evergreen on the scale of Nigerian history.
