…Nobody needed to be told that the 1999 presidential election was contrived to appease the Yoruba people for the injustice done to the late Chief M.K.O. Abiola, acclaimed winner of the June 12 (1993) presidential election. The trouble with the arrangement was that with all the cards stacked in favour of (General Olusegun) Obasanjo, most members of the political elite in the Southwest saw the 1999 election as a deliberate act of provocation where June 12 and the memory of Abiola were concerned….What the foregoing says clearly is that there have been some cynical attempts in the past to deal with the June 12 challenge by those who misread history and its varied lessons—even though some find convenient excuses in the contradictions in the social, political and business life of Abiola (and there were many). Then came President Muhammadu Buhari, the last person you would imagine could honour Abiola or remember June 12…
The foregoing is taken from my 2018 column, ‘June 12: A Complicated Story’, following the decision by President Buhari to assent to the Public Holiday Act Amendment Bill, making June 12 Democracy Day in Nigeria and conferring Abiola with a posthumous award of Grand Commander of the Federal Republic (GCFR), the highest national honour reserved for only those who have led the country. Anybody who followed events in Nigeria, especially under the late General Sani Abacha to whom Buhari was close, would come to only one conclusion: It was courageous of him (Buhari) not only for bestowing recognition on Abiola but also for changing our Democracy Day from May 29 to June 12. But by adopting a selective approach to honouring those who were in the struggle to enthrone democracy in Nigeria, President Bola Tinubu is creating problems. That is perhaps what accounted for the pushback from the former Governor of Jigawa State, Alhaji Sule Lamido last weekend.
Speaking on ARISE Television, Lamido claimed that Tinubu, a senator under the Social Democratic Party (SDP) during the period, was ‘a major supporter’ of General Ibrahim Babangida, who annulled the poll. “Luckily, we were all alive. We were all there and participants in that affair of political history. I was in the middle of it. Tinubu became relevant and noticeable after Abacha took over the government,” while also dragging Tinubu’s late mother, Alhaja Abibatu Mogaji into his narrative. Lamido was the National Secretary of the defunct SDP whose candidate, Abiola, won the election that was annulled.
The presidency has replied Lamido, including lifting Tinubu’s contributions on the June 12 debate in the Senate from my book, THE GHOST OF JUNE 12, without attribution—a demonstration of bad faith. While I agree with the presidential defenders on fidelity to facts, it is also important for them not to miss the underlining intent of Lamido’s claim, even if it is false. Yes, Tinubu fought for the revalidation of the June 12 election and was at the frontline in the struggle for ending military rule in Nigeria while he was on exile. But not a few people now feel uncomfortable that Democracy Day celebrations in Nigeria are becoming both partisan and sectional. Unfortunately, this deliberate attempt by a few people to appropriate June 12 and by implication the struggle for democracy in Nigeria did not start today, but the current administration has taken it to another level. It was first pointed out seven years ago by Chief Olu Falae.
Following the release of the names of those invited to attend the maiden June 12 ceremony in 2018 by the Buhari presidency, Falae said the invitees were more members of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) than heroes of democracy or June 12. “Where is Alani Akinrinade whose house was burnt? Where is Dr. Amos Akingba? Where is Chief Ayo Adebanjo? My house was the headquarters where NADECO meetings were held; Abiola’s speech was written in my house. What are they talking about?” Falae asked in 2018. “I was in detention for 20 months, Akinrinade was in exile. They are only recognising as heroes of June 12, those who participated in the struggle and are members of their party.”
There are many outside the Southwest who have been asking the same questions based on what transpired during the military era. Meanwhile, in the same Southwest, there were many people, including prominent traditional rulers of the era who were not only military apologists but also worked against Abiola and the actualisation of June 12. Besides, there were also politicians from other sections of the country who didn’t care about Abiola or June 12 yet fought against the military (in this case the Abacha dictatorship) for the restoration of democracy in Nigeria. This was what I wrote seven years ago on the selective approach to those being considered as the heroes of June 12 by Buhari:
Why, for instance, was Mr Olisa Agbakoba, SAN, not invited to Aso Rock on Tuesday? On the day the late General Sani Abacha, then as Chief of Army Staff but based in Lagos, ordered troops to mow down hundreds of citizens protesting the annulment of June 12 on the streets of Lagos, Agbakoba was the poster boy for the resistance with an iconic photograph of his bloodied face (after he was brutalized by the military) taken by the AP published in several newspapers across the world. How can we forget Colonel Abubakar Dangiwa Umar, one of Nigeria’s most respected officers with a glittering career, who resigned his commission because of June 12, a decision that could jolly well have cost him his life under a different circumstance? And then we have the patrons of the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO). Chief Cornelius Adebayo and the late Chief Anthony Enahoro were arrested and detained for years before their release after which they fled to exile to join others. What about Prof Bolaji Akinyemi, Admiral Ndubuisi Kanu, Ms Gloria Kilanko, Chom Bagu, Joe Okei-Odumakin, Chima Ubani, Festus Iyayi and several others who risked their lives confronting the military over June 12?
Even within the armed forces, there were heroes. Both Admiral Alison Madueke, then Chief of Naval Staff and General Mohammed Chris Ali, Chief of Army Staff, were removed by Abacha following a tense Provisional Ruling Council (PRC) meeting where they broached the issue of Abiola’s continued detention. Chief Ajibola Ogunsola revived PUNCH newspaper after the death of the late Chief Olu Aboderin yet on June 12, he put everything on the line. In fact, on the day Abacha was proscribing Concord and PUNCH newspapers to render many of us redundant for several months, his anger was directed at the latter. “Concord I can understand since it is owned by Abiola so it is human that his boys would be attacking me but PUNCH; what is their own?” asked Abacha that day.
While there will be a day to remember those who fought for our democracy, including some upwardly mobile men and women then in their thirties and forties who acted as ‘Concerned Professionals’ (Atedo Peterside, Pat Utomi, Oby Ezekwesili et al), let us deal with the speculations as to why Buhari honoured Abiola and make June 12 Democracy Day. June 12 goes beyond the person of Abiola and what he may have represented in the past. It is not even about what happened that day, as significant as the voting pattern (Muslim-Muslim ticket securing the votes of Christians) was. It is about what happened afterwards, when several Nigerians stood up to the military and paid heavy price for demanding that the votes they lawfully cast could not be so cynically taken away…
The claim that Tinubu supported the annulment of June 12 is as false as the suggestion that he was not in the pro-democracy struggle against the military. Tinubu deserves praise for his pro-democracy role under the late Abacha. But he must also recognize the fact that his approach to the celebration of Democracy Day is counterproductive. If Buhari had the presence of mind to recognize June 12, Tinubu should use it to heal and unite the country. That is not what is happening right now. Even within the Southwest, only those who have turned ‘On your mandate we shall stand’ to their national anthem are being honoured.
That Lamido worked against June 12 is without question. I once recalled how he, in August 1993 at the Villa, threw back at me a copy of my book, ‘Abiola’s Travails’. But it is also true that Lamido was one of the people who fought the late Abacha and for that he was detained. There are many Nigerians like him who—either because they had personal beefs with Abiola or they didn’t like the ethno-centric slant the struggle took—didn’t support June 12 yet fought the military in the struggle to enthrone democracy in Nigeria. That aspect of our history is also very important.
While Lamido may be wrong in his false narrative, the president must also understand the danger of shrinking June 12 to a partisan or ethnic affair. I know many people who were angry that Buhari converted June 12 into Democracy Day. I believe the former president took the right decision. But if Tinubu turns June 12 or Democracy Day into another APC heritage or a southwest affair, he risks alienating the rest of the country on what should unite us. I hope it is not too late for him to reverse this ugly trend.
Credit:This Day