SIR: It was on June 6, 2018 that President Muhammadu Buhari, the 15th President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria declared June 12 the day of democracy. During the declaration, the president also conferred a posthumous title of Grand Commander of the Federal Republic GCFR on Chief Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola GCFR. With this declaration, Chief M. K. O. Abiola was officially recognized as the winner of the June 12, 1993 presidential election adjudged as the freest and fairest in the history of the country. Before President Buhari’s declaration, June 12 was observed as a public holiday across the six states of the southwest. With the presidential declaration, the day has been set aside as a public holiday throughout the country.
Chief MKO Abiola ran his presidential campaigns on the platform of the Social Democratic Party of Nigeria, SDP. It was created alongside the National Republican Convention NRC by then military president Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida. During the third republic, the SDP was seen as a moderate party attractive to young radical intellectuals and socialists. In its manifesto, it called for concerted efforts to improve welfare and fight for social justice. The party manifesto cut across areas of Energy, Rural Development, Mining and Petrochemicals, Employment and workers’ welfare, Education, Defense and Police reforms. The party was out to end the issues of poor pay for workers and unemployment in the country. The SDP won 57% of Senate seats and 53% of House of Representatives seats in the 1992 National Assembly election.
The frontline members of Chief Abiola’s Social Democratic Party then included Atiku Abubakar, Jerry Gana, Abubakar Rimi, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, Umaru Yar’Adua, Abdullahi Aliyu Sumaila, Dapo Sarumi, Sule Lamido, Magaji Abdullahi, Tony Anenih, Lamidi Adedibu, Albert Legogie, Iyorchia Ayu, Fidelis Tapgun, Moses Adasu, Boss Mustapha, Bola Tinubu, Mohammed Arzika and among others.
These people have joined other political parties in the fourth republic. For instance, Iyorchia Ayu is the national chairman of the People’s Democratic Party. One of the Presidential aspirants of the SDP in 1992, Atiku Abubakar, is the presidential candidate of the PDP. Bola Tinubu who was elected senator on the platform of the SDP in 1992 is now the presidential candidate of the All Progressive Congress. The SDP was then completely forgotten by the founders in the fourth republic.
In 2014, a new party emerged in the name of SDP. A chieftain of the SDP and one of its first presidential aspirants, Chief Olu Falae was quoted to have said that SDP was revived to address the failings of the two prominent parties; People’s Democratic Party and All Progressive Congress and to provide credible alternatives to Nigerians, as the SDP predates both the APC and PDP and has a history of winning elections. However, the winning prowess of the party is yet to be felt.
As we mark the 29th anniversary of June 12, a curious observer may ask, what are the possibilities of the Social Democratic Party gaining back her glory in Nigeria’s democracy in a situation where its founding members such as Iyorchia Ayu, Bola Tinubu and Atiku Abubakar are taking prominent roles in other political parties?
The answer lies in the hands of young Nigerians. In 1989 when the SDP was formed, most of its members were young people in their 30s, 40s and early 50s. The party attracted young radical intellectuals and socialists who wanted a better country for themselves and their generation. Today, one may wonder if the youths or young people in their thirties and forties are ready to take over the affairs of the country for good by grouping themselves into an ideological movement like the SDP.
- Comr Martin Iorsamber,
Abuja.