After about three and a half decades of brutal repression of civil rights and liberties by successive military regimes, Nigeria returned to civilian rule.
President Olusegun Obasanjo who emerged as the winner of the 1999 presidential elections organised by the General Abdulsalami Abubakar-led military junta, announced that with effect from the year 2000, May 29th of each year shall be observed as Democracy Day.
As with many decisions of government, many Nigerians criticised the then President for choosing this day instead to June 12, which a large section of Nigerians agree would have been a better pick. The reason is simple. June 12 1993, remains a watershed in the nation’s checkered political history. It was a day Nigerians, irrespective of ethno-religious affiliations, trooped out en mass to vote for an unprecedented Muslim/ Muslim Presidential and Vice Presidential ticket of the late Chief Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola and Ambassador Babagana Kingibe. Abiola and Kingibe stood on the platform of the defunct Social Democratic Party. Although the announcement of the election results was halted midway; and the election was annulled by the General Ibrahim Babangida-led junta, there was little doubt that Abiola was the acclaimed winner of the polls.
Abiola, who was arrested on June 23, 1993, on the orders of the late General Sani Abacha, later died at the age of 60 on July 8, 1998 during the regime of Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar.
For the unity of purpose shown by a cross-section of Nigerians and the events which followed the annulment, many expressed the opinion that positive lessons of June 12, 1993, which arguably laid the foundation for today’s democracy, should have earned it the status of being celebrated as Democracy Day.
In previous interviews with The PUNCH, two Senior Advocates of Nigeria, Yusuf Ali and John Baiyeshea, urged the Federal Government to respect the wishes of the majority of Nigerians to declare June 12, instead of May 29, as Democracy Day. They also asked that Abiola, the acclaimed winner of the June 12, 1993 presidential election, who became the symbol of Nigeria’s democracy struggle, should be immortalised.
Ali described June 12 as a defining moment for Nigeria’s democracy. He said, “I think we should turn June 12 to Democracy Day. We should forget May 29 and make June 12 Democracy Day. That is the date that defines the current dispensation of Nigeria. It is a defining moment for democracy. Another way to immortalise MKO is for the political class to get together and serve the people that voted them into office rather than serve themselves.”
On his part, Baiyeshea said, “No matter how we pretend about it, no matter how those in authorities pretend about it, it has become a watershed for democracy in this country. And I know that sooner or later, we would get to a stage where June 12 will become a nationally recognised holiday or the day will be declared to immortalise Abiola who is the symbol of democratic struggle in Nigeria. I know the time is coming very soon. I support the declaration of June 12 as a democracy day.”
The National Publicity Secretary of the Conference of Political Parties, Osita Okechuku, argued that June 12, 1993 laid the foundation and shaped the character of Nigeria’s current democratic journey. According to him, declaring any day other than June 12 as the day to celebrate democracy was a disservice to the memory of those who paid the ultimate price during the struggle. He said, “June 12 is the foundation of modern democracy in Nigeria. It is the foundation in the sense that it is the thing that quickened the return of civil rule.
“It also determined the character of our democracy. The character in the sense that it was because of June 12 that the northern elite in their collective self interest and patriotism for Nigeria decided to concede power to the South particularly the South-West.”
Okechuku further explained that several northerners who wanted to run for the Presidency were stopped to pave the way for the emergence of a candidate from the South-West. This, he said, went a long way to determine the character of today’s democracy. He equally noted that agitations which followed the annulment of the election were a direct consequence of the decision of the Babangida dictatorship to destroy a national consensus. The politician, however, observed that it was a paradox that ex-President Obasanjo, who was the first beneficiary of the democratic enterprise, turned out to be an anti-democrat who gave life to “do-or-die” politics.
All the states in the South-West observe June 12 as Democracy Day but the government at the federal level is yet to heed the call. Without a doubt, the end of military rule ushered in a new era of regular elections as well as the return of civil liberties, free press and an end to arbitrary arrests and torture.
However, pent up frustration about the slow pace of development have found expressions in violent upheavals across the nation since 1999. With the return of partisan politics came a brutal struggle for power among politicians. Sadly, political violence has become a central part of the struggle for political power. It comes in form of assassinations and clashes between gangs employed by rival politicians. Politicians recruit, arm and pay gang members to attack perceived political rivals and intimidate voters to pave way for vote rigging.
Official figures released by Human Rights Watch indicate that no fewer than 300 Nigerians lost their lives during political clashes linked to the 2007 elections. The death toll was higher than reported figures for the 2003 general elections. European Union observers recorded that 200 Nigerians were killed two weeks to the polls of the 14th and 21st of April 2007.
Although the 2011 general election was adjudged largely free, fair and credible, several Nigerians lost their lives in the violence which followed the announcement of the results of the presidential election. Since the declaration of May 29 as Democracy Day, successive federal and state administrations have observed it with pomp and circumstance. The significance of such a day, however, appears lost to a generation of Nigerians born after 1999. For this category of Nigerians, the day represents one of several other national holidays were citizens are given the day off.
Executive Director of the Civil Society Legislative and Advocacy Centre, Auwual Musa Rafsanjani, argues that the political class owes future generations a duty to leave behind legacies of unblemished service. He explained that one of the viable lessons that ought to serve as a guide for our electoral practice was the fact that the June 12, 1993 election was non-violent, until results were annulled by the military. Apart from the 1999 elections which gave Obasanjo his first mandate as a democratically elected President, none of the elections which followed since then came close to building the kind of national consensus which the June 12 elections built. Political pundits argue that for any nation to build a sustainable future there is a need to remember the past and draw lessons from it.
Some have continued to argue that whichever date is set aside, events of June 12, 1993, and not May 29, 1999, remain engraved in the minds of Nigerians old enough to appreciate the magnitude of the opportunity lost.
No comments:
Post a Comment