By Igbotako Nowinta
Moving forward, is it applauding and laudable that the presidency of Muhammadu Buhari has thrown the vexed May 29th date into the dustbin of Nigerian history, and for the first time in the history of Nigeria, come June 12th 2019, Chief Abiola will be accorded his overdue honor when ‘democracy day’ will be officially upheld as a national holiday, to appreciate his supreme price. For me it is good bye to May 29th (though it still remains as the transitional day to transfer power to elective individuals) and welcome to June 12th, the authentic ‘democracy day’ in Nigeria. This latest development will only be more meaningful to the impoverished electorates in Nigeria, if it transmits gradually to the unprecedented distribution of democratic dividends in the next four years and many years to come.
When the heart of General Sani Abacha, then maximum ruler of Nigeria, suddenly stopped beating on June 8, 1998, the top military brass was thrown into utter confusion.
The unexpected confusion caused by the demise of one of Africa’s most despotic leaders, resulted in the emergency nocturnal deliberations by the then Armed Forces Ruling Council which ultimately generated the adoption of General Abdusalam Abubakar, as the Head of State and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Nigeria on June 9, 1998.
By succeeding General Abacha, Abubakar was hijacked by a motley of crises that included the shocking death of Chief Moshood Kashimawo Abiola, the undeclared winner of June 12 1993 Presidential Election in Nigeria whose sudden exit was trailed by series of conspiracy theories.
Unprepared, unwanted and untrusted by the generality of Nigerians, Abubakar swam in the mud of uncertainty and inexperience.
Staggered by multiple protests mostly from the Southwest angle of Nigeria organized by pro-democracy and human rights activists, and confronted by a mourning and confused nation in political crises, he unknowingly lost control and made a fatal mistake by adopting May 29 as “democracy day’ in Nigeria.
General Olusegun Obasanjo who dramatically became the compromised and adopted ‘President’ by the military bandits in Nigeria then, failed to write his name in the eternal democratic pages of the country, when he deliberately refused to honor Chief Moshood Abiola for paying the supreme price of democracy in Nigeria.
For those who do not know, Olusegun Obasanjo was drafted by the powers that be then to do their satanic bidding because he is from the same geographic location in Egba, Abeokuta, Ogun State, where Moshood Abiola hailed from.
In choosing Olusegun Obasanjo to assuage the Yorubas for the grave injustice done to them via the criminal annulment of the June 12, 1993 Presidential Election, the then owners of Nigeria were acting a terrible political script to benefit their parochial, egocentric and devious interests.
To prove to the whole world that Olusegun Obasanjo was unpopular and adequately forced down the gullet of the electorate in Nigeria during the Presidential Election in1999, he could not win his own ward, unit nor carry the day in the overall results declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for Ogun State.
It was a big minus for Obasanjo in Ogun State, but Abdusallam Abubakar supervised charade went on to crown Obasanjo as ‘democratically elected president.’
Undoubtedly, Chief Moshood Abiola was the sacrificial lamb for democracy in Nigeria, since May 1999, but the leaders, rank and file members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) refused to follow that line of reasoning, even as Olusegun Obasanjo threw plenty of sand into the cement of that thought.
Like a political version of the mafia, the PDP, with its leaders and own well defined internal rules turned into an instrument of nationwide obstinacy and stubbornness. It overturned and effectively smothered any opposition to the agenda of honoring Moshood Abiola with June 12, as democracy day in Nigeria for sixteen years.
Only ex-President Goodluck Jonathan bent backward to honor Chief Abiola with the third class option of renaming the University of Lagos after him, but the Yoruba leaders of thoughts in league with the then authorities of the citadel of learning, rejected the belated honor for obvious reasons.
To those who are current with the political up and down in Nigeria, May 29 as a date signifies horror, bloodshed and insanity. It was on May 29, 1966 that the fountains of human blood gushed out uncontrollably into the rivers of the Nigerian nation.
The ocean of mistrust, vengeance and tribal sentiments surging around the country in 1966, eventually swept General Thomas Aguiyi Ironsi’s junta out of power on May 29, when officers mostly from the Northern part staged the bloodiest counter military coup.
General Yakubu Gowon who was the ultimate beneficiary of the terror of 1966, regrettably, became a terrible clog in the wheel of progress, and was equally pushed out of power on May 29, 1975, by his colleagues. One can go on and on.
Therefore, May 29 has not been an ideal date for the rebirth of democratic process in Nigeria; it was a day dotted with sorrow, blood and tears.
Suddenly in 2018, President Muhammadu Buhari, a former Nigerian military dictator, serial presidential candidate, soldier, turned relentless democrat, stepped in to separate the country from the gory spirit and letters which trail May 29, when he decided to yank the country free, to step into the unhindered glorious democratic path.
Indeed, the President made a shattering history on Wednesday June 6, 2018, when he finally granted the twenty five (25) years old agitations of well-meaning Nigerians, by officially recognizing late Chief Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola as the undisputed winner of the June 12, 1993 Presidential Election in Nigeria.
Apart from the fact that the decision was a political restitution for the cruel injustice perpetrated by the military/civilian usurpers in Nigeria in 1993, under General Ibrahim Babangida, President Muhammadu Buhari displayed the true spirit of a democratic icon and unprecedented sensibility to the aspirations of the people.
Changing May 29 to June 12 every year as ‘democracy day’ was one of the greatest decisions in the recent national democratic evolution, because Chief MKO Abiola’s unprecedented sacrifice of 1993 to 1998 led to the inauguration/birth on May 29, 1999.
President Buhari gave late Chief Abiola the posthumous award of the Grand Commander of the Federal Republic (GCFR), along with his running mate then, Alhaji Babagana Kingibe, as custodians of the freest, fairest and the most credible presidential election in the nation’s history so far.
The late iconic pro-democracy/human rights crusader, Chief Gani Fawehinmi, was equally honored with the award of Grand Commander of the Order of the Niger (GCON) for his passionate and uncommon devotion to the June 12 mandate won by Chief Abiola.
Moving forward, is it applauding and laudable that the presidency of Muhammadu Buhari has thrown the vexed May 29 date into the dustbin of Nigerian history, and for the first time in the history of Nigeria, come June 12th 2019, Chief Abiola will be accorded his overdue honor when ‘democracy day’ will be officially upheld as a national holiday, to appreciate his supreme price.
For me it is good bye to May 29th (though it still remains as the transitional day to transfer power to elective individuals) and welcome to June 12th, the authentic ‘democracy day’ in Nigeria.
This latest development will only be more meaningful to the impoverished electorates in Nigeria, if it transmits gradually to the unprecedented distribution of democratic dividends in the next four years and many years to come.
Nowinta wrote Where We Are – A Call for Democratic Revolution in Nigeria.
