The Nation Newspaper

Tag: June 12

  • June 12: of life and death

    Twenty-five years tomorrow, June 12, 1993 to be precise, Basorun MKO Abiola, won a watershed election, many still refer to as the freest and fairest ever in Nigerian history.

    On 23 June 1993, the military junta, headed by Gen. Ibrahim Babangida, would purport to have annulled that election, in a most arrogant and cynical of manners.  Nduka Irabor, press secretary to Babangida’s No. 2, Admiral Augustus Aikhomu, would saunter into the press and drop an unsigned statement, claiming the election had been annulled.  What arrogance!  What outlawry!

    Then on 7 July 1998, after Sani Abacha’s sudden expiry on 8 June 1998, sitting Head of State, Gen.  Abdulsalami Abubakar, would announce MKO’s sudden death, after taking tea, in the presence of some American diplomatic visitors, he met after four years in detention, for declaring himself president, based on the June 12 presidential results.

    The people knew what Abubakar did not say and did not want them to think: MKO had been martyred, to clear the ground for a fresh start: IBB had stepped aside, Abacha had expired and MKO had been martyred!  Clinical, wasn’t it?

    Even Olusegun Obasanjo, product of a 1999 presidency the late Fela would dismiss as Army Arrangement (AA), haughtily announced May 29 — after the 29 May 1999 that he took power — as his Democracy Day; and, inaction, deeds, body language and all, he all but decreed June 12 had been buried; and MKO’s martyrdom with it!  The dead, as James Hadley Chase, in one of his crime thrillers would say, stay dumb!

    That subsisted until Wednesday, 6 June 2018, when MKO triumphantly resurrected, golden thanks to President Muhammadu Buhari’s recognition of his martyrdom, and restoration of the watershed June 12 as Nigeria’s new Democracy Day, effective 12 June 2019.

    It was a pleasant bolt from the blues, that gave MKO life but instantly degraded his traducers — most of them fortunately still living — into the living dead, out of indefensible shame.

    At the height of that most wayward of irresponsibilities, IBB boasted he was not only in government, he was also in power.  Thank Allah, and during the holy month of

    Ramadan too, a fellow retired general, a former military head of state like himself and a fellow Muslim, PMB, is now showing IBB a few golden tutorials on how to use governance and power for public good and manifest justice.

    Obasanjo, the chief beneficiary of MKO’s martyrdom, who went through his eight years of imperial presidency and who apparently could not find anywhere to hide his face, has come out with stunning allegations about someone, somewhere trying to frame him as Abacha did; and how his life was no longer safe.  Nice try!

    Though Alhaji Lai Mohammed, Information and Culture minister, has poured ice-cold water on the allegations, dismissing them as frivolous and as red herring wilfully timed to deflect attention from the June 12 rehabilitation issue, let the state act fair with Obasanjo, as it just did with MKO.

    The Bible, the Christian holy book, says righteousness exalts a nation.  So, it is with the June 12 issue.  No matter how long injustice might last, justice overtakes it in a jiffy.

    Congrats, PMB!  Congrats, fair-minded Nigerians.  Viva , MKO.  Nigeria will yet be great.

  • June 12: Katsina Govt backs Buhari as Atiku’s ex-aide threatens law suit

    The Katsina State government is backing President Muhammadu Buhari’s decision to honour the heroes of June 12.

    Secretary to the State Government Mustapha Inuwa said yesterday that the government and indeed the people of the state were solidly behind the president for courageously righting the wrongs of the past and entrenching the true democratic spirit among Nigerians.

    He said the action “is capable of uniting the true democratic spirit among Nigerians, it’s even stronger in uniting Nigerians than the civil war because it was an election Nigerians set aside their differences in the true spirit of democracy and freely elected leaders of their choices. We commend our President for his courage and wants Nigerians to give him four more years. ‘’

    On whether the state government would  declare tomorrow a work- free day for civil servants ,the SSG said it was no longer necessary since May 29,had already been observed as holiday but assured that in line with the federal government’s decision, June 12 of next year will be observed as public holiday.

    The SSG also frowned at the threat by the National Assembly to impeach President Muhammadu Buhari over criminal cases involving the Senate President and the Inspector General of Police and other sundry matters.

    He urged National Assembly members not to be sentimental but should differentiate between Dr Bukola Saraki as an individual and the actions he committed from that of the Senate as an institution. He said justice must be allowed to take its course.

    A former Special Assistant to former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, Dr. Umar Ardo, has threatened to sue President Buhari over his declaration of June 12 as Democracy Day on account of “failure to abide by the provisions of the constitution in the Award of National Honours”.

    In a statement yesterday,.Ardo, who is the Secretary of the Northern Leaders and Stakeholders Assembly, described the president’s action as  “unconstitutional”.

    “Pursuant to the powers of the Council of State in Section 6(a)(iii)  of Part 1 to the Third Schedule of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended) to advise the president on the matter of awarding National Honours, I call on President Muhammadu Buhari to immediately convene a meeting of the Council of State to deliberate and advise him on his decision to award National Honours to the late Chief MKO Abiola, Ambassador Babagana Kingibe and Chief Gani Fawehinmi before performing the planned investiture ceremony on Tuesday. This is simply to comply with due process of law.

    “Driven by the need to determine whether the president’s decision to confer the said national awards is  constitutional and due process of law had been followed, I telephoned and asked a former President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and a serving Member of the Council, whether to the best of his knowledge the issue had at any time been raised in any of the meetings of the Council of State and the advice of the said Council sought and obtained, he informed me and I verily believe him that it was never ever raised nor the advice of the Council ever sought or obtained.

    “Therefore, to go ahead and perform the investiture ceremony as planned is to indulge in flagrant illegality. Having campaigned on, sworn-in and is on oath to govern this country in accordance with the provisions of the constitution and due process of law, and to defend and protect the said constitution.

    It is important, however, to state here that I have absolutely no objection to the president conferring such national honours on the late Chief MKO Abiola and Chief Gani Fawehinmi, and indeed that they richly deserve such awards and much more,” the statement said.

  • June 12: Abiola’s rival Tofa kicks as ACF backs Buhari

    • Akinyemi: Opposition to declaration can’t stand
    • It’s political opportunism says Ango Abdullahi
    • Lagos, Oyo, Osun, Ogun declare public holiday
    • Abiola’s daughter: FG’s action politically, morally correct

    The controversy sparked by President Muhammadu Buhari’s declaration of June 12 as Nigeria’s authentic Democracy Day, continued yesterday with the candidate of the National Republican Convention (NRC) in that election Alhaji Bashir Tofa objecting to the decision of the federal government.

    He asked government to reconsider its position on the matter and claimed that conferment of national honour on anyone should be beyond some cold political calculations.

    A former Foreign Affairs Minister, Professor Bolaji Akinyemi, dismissed as untenable and a red herring, questions over the legality of the national honour of Grand Commander of the Federal Republic (GCFR) which Buhari plans to confer posthumously on the late Chief M.K.O.Abiola, the winner of the election.

    Akinyemi, a chieftain of the pro-democracy group –the national Democratic Coalition (NADECO) -in its heyday, said there is no basis for such opposition to the conferment of the honour as there is already some precedence.

    Tofa , who placed second behind Abiola, the candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in the election, said although he had been inundated with calls on why he was not listed for honour, it was not the most important thing to him.

    He spoke in a statement, saying: “Following the decision by President Muhammadu Buhari to honour my late friend, Alhaji Mashood K. Abiola (may Allah grant him peace) and officially recognise him as the winner of the inconclusive 12th June 1993 presidential election in which I was a candidate, I have been inundated by calls from friends, well-wishers, former political associates and journalists.

    “While some worry about the brazen one-sidedness of this curious presidential action, especially given the list of invitees to Tuesday’s event at the Villa supposedly to mark ‘Democracy Day’, there are also those who canvass that I be so honoured with a similar award of GCFR, if the motive indeed was noble and meant to serve the end of justice.

    “As much as I appreciate the goodwill, in this circumstance, however, I have to say that I would not accept it as it is, even if given.

    “While I do not begrudge the President his power to bestow favour on whomsoever he pleases, it is also important, especially for history, for all actions from the highest authority in the country to be based on fair play and law.

    “Needless to say, being one of the two presidential candidates in that election does not in any way define me or my achievements in life; it was not even the most important one.”

    “However, as I have reiterated many times in the past, I am grateful to the numerous Nigerians from across the length and breadth of the country who made enormous sacrifices in the National Republican Convention (NRC) as well as the millions of our citizens who voted for both the late Abiola and myself in that historic election.

    “Much more importantly, I am most grateful to Almighty God for the several honours He has bestowed on me; all of which have enriched my life.

    “As for my friend, M. K. O. Abiola, what he needs most is our sincere prayers for Allah’s mercy and the gift of Paradise for him. While some of us cherish his memory as a departed friend and compatriot, there are many who will continue to exploit it and to glory in it for their own benefits.

    “For those who may have forgotten or never knew, the late Abiola was a close personal friend of mine, a relationship dating back to the Second Republic when I was the National Financial Secretary of the then ruling National Party of Nigeria (NPN) and he was the Ogun State Chairman of the party. So, I do not in any way begrudge him the post-humous honour, even when I insist that the right thing must be done at all times.

    “Meanwhile, whatever may be the prevailing sentiment and politics in Abuja, the idea that June 12 should be the new Democracy Day is also a matter that deserves serious reconsideration. Such decisions should be beyond some political cold calculations.

    “Finally, like all, I am also travelling on the path prepared for me by God Almighty. He controls my destiny and I pray He will continue to favour and to guide me. All power belongs to Him alone. He gives it to whom He pleases and He has power over all things, including every ambition.”

    Why opposition to declaration of June 12 as  Democracy Day can’t stand –Akinyemi

    Akinyemi, in a statement in Lagos, advocated what he called a Dennington approach  “where determination is based on the need to achieve justice.”

    He was reacting to federal government’s decision to honour Abiola, his running mate in the much acclaimed June 12, 1993 presidential election, Ambassador Baba Gana Kingibe, and the late human rights activist, Chief Gani Fawehinmi.

    He hailed Buhari for recognizing the validity of the election.

    He said: “As a member of NADECO in its heydays when it was most dangerous to be a member, June 6 marked the fulfilment of dreams, and the achievement of visions.

    “On that day, President Mohammed Buhari recognised the validity of the June 12 1993 Presidential elections, declared Chief MKO Abiola as the winner of that election, conferred national honours on MKO Abiola, his running mate, Babagana Kingibe, the human rights activist Gani Fawehinmi and declared June 12 democracy day.

    “I recognise how momentous that decision was and I not only welcome the decision, I thank President Buhari for the decision,

    “President Buhari has addressed some of the wounds inflicted on this nation and applied healing balm on these wounds.

    “Only those who lost family members, those imprisoned and detained or who had family members imprisoned and detained, those tortured and those driven into exile had felt the need for some measure of closure. That closure was achieved on January 6 by the executive order issued by President Buhari.”

    He appealed to President to remember other Nigerians who “also played active roles in the struggle.”

    These, according to him, include Dan Suleiman, Ndubisi Kanu, Frank Kokori, John Oyegun, Dr. Akingba, Bagauda Kaltho.

    He said they all deserve national honours in future exercises.

    Continuing, Akinyemi said: “the declaration of June 12 as Democracy Day is a victory for all Nigerians and not just for those who voted for MKO Abiola.

    “The voting pattern on June 12 1993 sealed the cleavages that have bedevilled Nigeria since the unification by Lugard.

    “The annulment of the election results reopened and deepened those cleavages. I recognise and accept that the June 6 Presidential Executive Order has applied some balm on these cleavages and therefore should be welcomed as a national rather than a sectional victory.

    “The courage of the President in tackling this issue should be acknowledged.

    “As the Deputy Chairman of the 2014 National Conference, I recall that when the issue of June 12 was raised, it almost tore the Conference apart.

    “I also recall that the issue of June 12 had been raised in different sessions of the National Assembly without resolution. That it took President Buhari to resolve this issue is a manifestation of what social scientists call the Nixon-China syndrome.

    “It took a rabid anti-communist like Richard Nixon to extend diplomatic relations to China without the fear of being labelled a communist. It has taken a Buhari, who nobody can accuse of pandering to the South and who is trusted by the North to do justice to June 12.

    “The legality of the executive order which has been raised is not tenable and is a red herring. First is the issue of precedence. President Shagari awarded a national honour posthumously to Chief Israel Adebajo and his son collected it on his behalf.

    “Secondly, the award cannot be subject to strict legal interpretation. I would rather suggest a Dennington approach where determination is based on the need to achieve justice. MKO Abiola was elected in 1993 when he was still alive and remained alive for six more years.

    “That is when he earned the GCFR. Acts of illegality prevented him from being decorated with it. Those acts of illegality have just been annulled.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    The spirit of June 12 is national. Let us build on it. Thank you, President Buhari for taking the first of the many steps you will need to take to heal the wounds that afflict us.”

     

    ACF gives kudos to Buhari

    The Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) however applauded   the President for the move.

    National Publicity Secretary of the forum, Alhaji Muhammad Ibrahim Biu told The Nation that the President’s decision is apt, arguing that June 12 is truly more relevant to Nigeria’s democracy than May 29.

    One time Vice Chancellor of Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria, Professor Ango Abdullahi does not agree with him.

    For him, Buhari’s action is nothing short of political opportunism, and the planned honour for Abiola belated, while a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Dr. Soni Ajala warned against muddling “the politics of the issue of the posthumous award of Grand Commander of the Federal Republic (GCFR) with the core legal issue of the politics of the award.”

    Another senior advocate, Mr. Femi Falana, said the president’s action is in order.

    One of the late Chief Abiola’s daughter, Rinsola, said justice has been done at last.

    “What the president has done is what justice demands. It is politically correct. And it is morally alright too,” Rinsola, an aide to House of Representatives Speaker Yakubu Dogara, told The Nation.

    Biu said: “The decision of Mr. President is a good development that would put to rest any ill feeling generated by the annulment of elections of June 12, 1993.

    “Besides putting aside the feelings, June 12 is more relevant to democracy than May 29, considering the likely victory of Chief M K O Abiola and Ambassador  Baba Gana Kingibe in the June 12, 1993 election considered by many Nigerians to have been the most free, fair, credible and peaceful ever held.”

    Asked about those linking the President’s decision to 2019 general elections, the ACF chieftain said: “people can criticize anything they like, but the honour done to MKO and others, is well deserved.

    “The posthumous award of GCFR to late Chief Abiola, and GCON to Amb. Kingibe would certainly heal the wounds inflicted by the annulment, including the posthumous GCON for the late Chief Gani Fawehinmi, for his tireless fight for human rights and actualization of the June 12 election of 1993.

    “So, this as far as we are concerned is good for the democracy and also for the unity of Nigeria.”

    Honour for MKO is belated –Ango Abdullahi

    Professor Abdullahi in his own opinion said: “If the President’s declaration is intended to honour Chief MKO Abiola, I think, it is belated.

    “So, I consider it to be political opportunism. If there is any Democracy Day Nigerians should worry about, it should be 1st of October, which marks our Independence Day.

    “So, I think it is political opportunism because it is belated. If not, why didn’t Obasanjo do it, why didn’t Yar’Adua do it or even Jonathan?

    “We have had three regimes since MKO’s death and nobody had the right thinking cap to remember the man? Or to honour him or remember the circumstances of his death until now? That is why I said it is first of all belated and in my own thinking a political opportunism,” he said.

    Speaking on the declaration of  June 12 as Democracy Day, Professor Abdullahi  said, even May 29 ought not to be Nigeria’s democracy day.

    His words:”why was May 29 Democracy Day in the first place? It was a creation of Obasanjo. Because that was the day power was handed over to him.

    “But, must that be Democracy Day, when we already have October 1st? But, because Nigerians always like to go on holiday, that is why they accepted Obasanjo’s May 29, which as far as I am concerned is the marking of his own history in the political development of Nigeria.”

    Ajala: FG must first resolve existing legal hurdles, reverse the annulment

    In a separate interview, Dr Ajala said: “Much as all patriotic Nigerians applaud Mr. President, for the bold step of recognising the supreme sacrifice of Chief MKO Abiola as the acclaimed winner of the June 12, 1993 presidential election, there are landmine legal puzzles that cannot even be cured by administrative publication in the Federal Government Gazette by the Attorney General of the Federation as directed by President Buhari.

    “I seriously share the sentiments expressed by Senator Ike Ekweremadu on the floor of the Senate on Thursday, June 7, 2018 when he attempted to sensitize the hallowed chambers on the complex legal issues intertwined in the gesture of Mr. President in bestowing posthumous award of GCFR on Chief MKO Abiola and the declaration of June 12 as Democracy Day.

    “Lest we forget, the presidential election conducted by the National Electoral Commission under the leadership of Professor Humphrey Nwosu on June 12, 1993 was annulled by a decree, duly promulgated by the National Defence and Security Council (NDSC) presided over by the Military President Ibrahim Babaginda on June 26, 1993. This historical legal instrument is very well to the knowledge of the presidency of today as it is  an open secret that the presidency of the day has one of the finest minds in the legal firmament of contemporary Nigeria.

    “Therefore, the unsettling question to dispassionate legal analysts  of the web of legal issues thrown up by the gesture of President Buhari in bestowing posthumous award of GCFR on Chief MKO Abiola and the declaration of June 12 as Democracy Day is thus; ‘Can something be placed on nothing and it’ll be expected to stand?”

    It’s validation of the integrity of the election -Falana

    Human rights activist, Femi Falana (SAN) said: “By declaring June 12 Democracy Day, the federal government has officially validated the integrity of the fair and free election that was criminally annulled by the Ibrahim Babangida junta.

    “By recognising June 12 as Democracy Day, the federal government has put an end to the hypocrisy of May 29, which was proclaimed by the Olusegun Obasanjo regime.

    “By conferring the post-humous award of national award of Grand Commander of the Order of Niger (GCON) the federal government has officially endorsed his enormous contributions to the titanic battle against military dictatorship and promotion of human rights in Nigeria.

    “In addition to the historic gesture, the federal government should proceed to adopt Abiola’s Programme of Welfare to Poverty and respect the human rights of all Nigerian people, which Chief Gani Fawehinmi SAN defended in his life time.

    “In particular, the federal government should mark the first national Democracy Day on June 12, 2018 with the release of all citizens being detained illegally all over the country and immediate compliance with all valid and subsisting court orders.”

    On legality of the national honours, Falana said: “The Honourable Justice Alfa Belgore, a retired Chief Justice of Nigeria was reported to have questioned the legality of the decision of President Buhari to confer posthumous awards on Chief M. K. O. Abiola and Chief Gani Fawehinmi SAN.

    “Curiously, his lordship did not refer to any section of the National Honours Act or any other law that has been violated by the President. In like manner, some persons have alleged that the June 12 holiday declared by the President is illegal on the grounds that the approval of the National Assembly was not sought and obtained.

    “With profound respect to the Honourable Justice Alfa Belgore, the National Honours Act has not prohibited or restricted the powers of the President to confer national honours on deserving Nigerian citizens, dead or alive.

    “No doubt, paragraph 2 of the Honours Warrant made pursuant to the National Honours Act provides that “a person shall be appointed to a particular rank of an Order when he receives from the President in person, at an investiture held for the purpose…”

    “But paragraph 3 thereof has given the President the unqualified discretion “to dispense with the requirement of paragraph 2 in such manner as may be specified in the direction.”

    “Therefore, since the national awards conferred on Chief Abiola and Chief Fawehinmi cannot be received by them in person the President may permit their family members to receive same on their behalf.

    “Furthermore, section 2 (1) of the Public Holidays Act stipulates that in addition to the holidays mentioned in the Schedule to the Act, the President may appoint a special day to be kept as a public holiday either throughout Nigeria or in any part thereof.

    “It is crystal clear that the President is not required by law to seek and obtain the approval of the National Assembly before declaring a public holiday in the country.”

    “In view of the combined effect of the National Honours Act and the Public Holidays Act the legal validity of the well deserved awards and the historic holiday has not been impugned in any manner whatsoever.”

    A lecturer in the Department of Law University of Lagos (UNILAG), Mr.Wahab Shittu, is in agreement with Falana on the declaration of June 12 as Democracy Day and conferment of Post-Humous honours on Abiola and Gani Fawehinmi, saying: “both actions are legal because the Honour Acts and Holiday Acts say the President has the prerogative to declare any day as public holiday and give national honours to whoever he deems fit.

    “The honourees can also send representations to receive the awards on their behalves. The declaration of June 12 as Democracy Day is a result of popular clamour over the years. It is consistent with people’s yearnings and agitation for years.

    “We all know Abiola made huge sacrifices for the democracy we all enjoy today and is a fitting awardee. I think we should all commend the administration for taking the measures, which are clearly in order.”

    On whether the moves could have been politically-motivated, he said: “Whatever motivation is inconsequential and immaterial because people will always read motives to whatever action one takes.

    “What is important is to find it the actions were in response to public agitations and in the interest of all. Once that has been proven, whatever motivation people want to read into it is immaterial.”

    Buhari’s action is polically, morally correct, says Rinsola Abiola

    Rinsola Abiola  hailed Buhari for doing the right thing at long last.

    “It’s not just a political matter, it’s a moral issue,” she said.

    She added: “my father laid down his life for the freedom of this country and her citizens and what the president has done is what justice demands. It is politically correct.

    “And it is morally alright too. We are happy that he has been recognised at last for laying down his life for democracy in Nigeria.

    “It’s going to be 20 years since daddy passed away in July; two whole decades. This is coming really late but better late than never.

    “The fact that some people refused to acknowledge the truth doesn’t mean others won’t do the right thing. For whatever reason you think it is, it took 20 years and others could have done this but they didn’t.”

     

     

  • An honour and a closure

    The giddy events of June 1993 have been described by many a scholar as watershed in the annals of Nigeria. The presidential election held on June 12, and the suspension of poll result announcement, and eventual annulment on June 23 have been variously documented officially and unofficially. Since then, there have been controversies about what was done and how to undo the consequences of the annulment of an election generally regarded as the “freest and fairest” in the country’s political history. President Muhammadu Buhari’s Wednesday declaration of June 12 as a public holiday to mark the return to democracy in the country is a welcome development. He, in addition, announced that the man who took the nation by storm, shattering all previous negative connotations on politicking by securing clear victory against all odds, Chief Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola, would be conferred with the highest national honour, the Grand Commander of the Federal Republic (GCFR).

    His running mate, Alhaji Babagana Kingibe, is also to be awarded with the second highest national honour, the Grand Commander of the Order of the Niger (GCON), alongside a stormy petrel of the era, a scourge of military dictatorship, Chief Gani Fawehinmi, a senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN). Both  Abiola and Fawehinmi are being honoured posthumously.

    It is beyond dispute that Chief Abiola made the supreme sacrifice for Nigeria. He won the election in all parts of the country, including Kano State from where his only opponent, Alhaji Bashir Tofa of the National Republican Convention (NRC) hailed. Against predictions that Nigerians, especially Christians, would reject the Moshood Abiola / Babagana Kingibe ticket on the ground that both men were Muslims, they received overwhelming support from all classes and creeds. Had the government been inaugurated, the Abiola administration would have soared into office with the most popular mandate in the nation’s history, and the only President to have emerged with clearly spelt out manifesto widely published and debated.

    It was, therefore, inexplicable that the Ibrahim Babangida military junta frustrated the people’s will. The reasons adduced by the government were tenuous and the action was thus stoutly resisted by Abiola and the people who voted for him. It marked a manifest change of what would have been a glorious dawn to pitch darkness.  Babangida who was head of the military junta had to hurriedly put together an illegal contraption called Interim National Government (ING), headed by Chief Ernest Shonekan, a government that lacked the legitimacy that only an election confers, and the force of military coup. Between August 27,  and November 17, 1993 when General Sani Abacha toppled Shonekan’s anaemic government, the regime merely tottered, unable to find a compass to move forward.

    Abacha had no time for finesse and niceties. He clamped Abiola in detention after the winner of the June 12 election had courageously proclaimed himself president, threatening to constitute a parallel government. A National Democratic Coalition (NADECO), stoutly resisted the Abacha junta and insisted on the restoration of the Abiola mandate.

    Buhari’s change of Democracy Day from May 29 to June 12 is a step in the right direction. June 12 was a day Nigerians shunned primordial sentiments to vote in a president of their choice. Unity is a necessary factor for nation-building, and, since the annulment, it has been a missing ingredient. May 29 signifies nothing as October 1, the date of independence had been previously adopted for inauguration of governments. The whimsical change of that event to May 29 is thus meaningless. June 12 is a date Nigerians can relate to. Independence Day remains a public holiday, but June 12 is a day Nigerians expressed their mind on the way forward.

    Abiola’s campaign centred on Farewell to Poverty, restoring the dignity of all Nigerians and turning round the country’s fortunes. That was the hope of Nigerians at the election, and an indication that the citizenry wanted meaningful democracy. Since 1999, the country has been groping in the dark, more divided now than ever before.

    The award to Abiola is therefore a soothing balm.  Fawehinmi is no less deserving of the honour bestowed on him. He was a doughty fighter for the truth, human rights and justice. Denied the Senior Advocate of Nigeria title for so long, he was awarded the Senior Advocate of the Masses by an appreciative public. Despite being denied his freedom many times, he took it as one of the hazards that came with the path he had chosen to tread. He took up the fight for Abiola while in detention and never looked back.

    We applaud the moves by President Buhari. The motives as being canvassed by some are immaterial. It is time to bring the June 12 conundrum to a closure, turning the adversity visited on the country by the military to prosperity. It is heartwarming that both the Abiola and Fawehinmi families have indicated their willingness to accept the honour. The Nigeria Labour Congress, too, considers it a worthy move. This should be sufficient for all.

    While the battle for June 12 transcended any individual, Abiola stood as an unswerving symbol of Nigeria’s quest for an egalitarian society shorn of tribal jingoism, religious bigotry and sectarian hubris. In that quest, even while Abiola was behind bars, many others also languished behind bars, while many others too, now anonymous, lost their lives in explosions of protests across the land, especially in Lagos and southwest of the country. Waves of migration to safer places over fears of a civil war as well as exiles turned Nigeria into a state of murderous uncertainty.

    The restoration of June 12, celebrated in the southwest often to sneers, apathy, withering contempt in other parts of the country, is a vindication of the latent impulse of our polity to revive itself from the divisive tensions of recent years.  Buhari can take advantage of this salutary moment to start a healing process where wounds have festered whether with herdsmen, or suspicions of ethnic and religious occlusions.

    We expect the Buhari administration to build on this by ensuring that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is supported to conduct an election that builds on the foundation laid on June 12, 1993. The challenge is to ensure that the Nigerian people experience genuine democracy. Arguments by former Chief Justice Alfa Balgore that the award should be for the living fly in the face of provisions of National Honours Act 5 of 1964. This progressive proclamation is primarily for June 12, the Nigeria people and state.

    The announcement is an honour that comes with a sense of ignited harmony the nation has not known in a while.

  • June 12 and sanctity of truth

    Upon hearing the news, my die hard pro June 12 associate was over emotional. Tears poured down his face as he tried to really sink in the reality of the news. Indeed, not many saw it coming. The several self acclaimed ‘Seers’ and ‘Octopuses’ in the country did not predict it.

    The news of the resurgence of June 12 jolted many like a thunderbolt. The more antagonists of June 12 thought they had finally nailed and buried what the date represents, the more its ghost continue to further hunt and prick their conscience.

    Several calls for the immortalization of Chief MKO Abiola, the acclaimed winner of the June 12 election, were continually rebuffed. Same goes for the calls to recognize June 12 as the nation’s official Democracy Day.

    But like it is often said, truth is constant. Though it can be suppressed for quite a while, it cannot be permanently obliterated. Truth has a way of coming back.  Over the ages, ruthless men have variously tried to repress the truth. Some murdered those they thought hold the key to the truth. Others proscribed mediums they believed could help in preserving the truth while others did everything they could to silence the voices of truth. But then, historically, conspiracies against the truth have always failed woefully.

    In the annals of our country’s political history, June 12 remains a watershed. That is the truth that many do not want to hear. But then, truth does not become truth because it is validated by man. No matter the depth of denials, truth remains truth. No more, no less.

    The truth is that, no matter how hard its opponents try, for many reasons, June 12 will continue to be a watershed in the annals of our nation’s political history. It was the day that Nigerians expressed a strong resolve to chart a new course for their beloved country. It was the day that Nigerians redefined and reshaped the nation’s political scenery. Prior to that time, our politics sharply reflected our palpable religious and ethnic divides.  But on June 12, all that changed. Chief MKO Abiola, who was the presidential candidate of the defunct SDP, had more votes in the northern part of the country than Alhaji Bashir Tofa, his northern challenger from the defunct NRC.

    One other remarkable feature of the June 12 election is the electorate disposition to religious sentiments and concerns. In 1993, the defunct SDP was bold and daring in its conviction that fielding a Muslim-Muslim ticket (Abiola and Kingibe) would not jeopardise its electoral success. The party went ahead with its conviction and recorded a resounding success at the polls. But for the annulment of the poll’s result, such audacity could have effectively checkmated religious contemplations in our political scene.

    Sadly, the then ruling military junta  led by General Ibrahim Babangida, rtd, annulled the result of the June 12, 1993, election, thereby ensuring that the acclaimed winner, Chief MKO Abiola, was unable to claim his mandate. Indeed, he died in that process. Sadly, the annulment of the June 12, 1993, election threw the country into needless chaos that opened a floodgate of sorrow, tears and blood. Thus, an election that was supposed to cement our unity was used by ‘powerful’ force to further divide the country. Sadly, most of the principal antagonists of June 12 are holding or have held very prominent positions in the current political dispensation.

    Now, the resurgence of June 12 should draw attention to certain fundamental issues that need to be critically addressed in our nation. One is the need to banish ethnic and religious sentiments from our body politics. This is a fundamental lesson from June 12. Closely tied to this is the need to always ensure that future elections in the country are free, fair and credible. June 12 election has been adjudged as one of the freest in the country. Perhaps, that is why its ghost has continued to hunt its adversaries.

    Equally, it is important, at least for the sake of posterity that Prof Humphrey Nwosu, the Chief umpire of the election comes out to give the true picture of what transpired, especially leading to the annulment. At what point was he prevailed upon to annul the election? Who were those that tried to suppress the voice of the people?  Why has he kept silence for so long? Perhaps, more importantly, there is a need to have an official release of the complete result of that historic election.

    Furthermore, it is imperative to further propel the wheel of justice as evidenced in the posthumous honours bestowed on Chief Abiola and Chief Gani Fawehinmi, a leading pro June 12 voice. The point here is that if justice must be properly done as it concerns June 12, those who conspired to ‘kill’ the people’s mandate must be made to face justice. Also, the death of those who lost their lives in the process of the struggle for the revalidation of Chief Abiola’s mandate must be probed and those found culpable in their death must face the music. The truth is that evil triumphs in any society where evil continually goes unpunished. Those

    Also, it is imperative for political leaders across the country to always weigh the future import of their actions, especially as it concerns posterity. Only God knows how the man that annulled the June 12 election and his collaborators would be feeling right now. Right in his lifetime, a significant step is being taken to redress an injustice he perpetrated. The political class, at all levels, must take a cue from this in all they do.

    When he wrote In Julius Ceaser that the evil that men do live after them, legendary Writer, Williams Shakespeare, was alluding to the fact that evil deeds in history are often more easily remembered than the good ones. A cursory dip into any history book will confirm this. In Julius Ceaser, one of the purposes of Mark Antony’s speech is to mitigate any evils that Caesar may have committed while highlighting the good that he did.

    It is often said that history is written by the victors. In the immediate aftermath of Caesar’s assassination it is the conspirators who are the victors. And as such they are keen to rewrite the history of Caesar’s rule to their advantage. Mark Antony’s speech is a subtle attempt to stop them from doing this. Not only is he absolutely determined to ensure that Caesar’s good name will live on, he is also going to do whatever he can to make sure that the evil of the conspirators, their bloody act of treachery, will not only be punished, but never forgotten.

    Now is the time to unravel some of the mysteries associated with the June 12, 1993 election. We really need get closer to the truth behind the story of June 12!

     

     

    • Ogunbiyi is of the Lagos State Ministry of Information and Strategy, Alausa, Ikeja

  • Buhari is (not) playing politics with June 12? Four reasons why Nigerians should ask for more clarifications from the president

    Moving promptly and directly to the four items listed below, let me state that for me, it is beyond question and beyond dispute that President Buhari’s declaration of June 12 as Democracy Day is a deliberate move to get the vote of the Southwest in the 2019 elections. Those who so desire can debate whether this is true as much and as long as they wish. For me, there is not the slightest doubt that politics, opportunistic politics, is behind the declaration. Going beyond that issue, in the following brief notes, I ask all patriots, pro and anti-Buhari, to ask themselves these and similar questions concerning how, beyond the symbolism of June 12, Buhari has, both in the past and in the future, conducted and will henceforth conduct his political career in accordance with the substance of the legacy of June 12. June 12 was and is a powerful symbol; but beyond that, it had and has a content, a substance. Anyone can applaud Buhari for the symbolism; but please, let us make him and his supporters address the substance as well.

    First reason: Buhari has never shown any evidence that he was/is inspired by the legacy of June 12 – what is the evidence that he will do so if he is reelected in 2019?

    To be fair to him, Buhari has never issued any anti-June 12 or anti-Abiola declarations or sentiments, as has, for instance, Olusegun Obasanjo on many occasions. But then, on how many issues or events of great importance to the nation’s well-being has Buhari ever made any declarations? Moreover, only a couple of weeks ago, Buhari made a statement of ringing praise to the memory of Sani Abacha! For me, the single most telling evidence we have that Buhari has never been inspired by or will in future be inspired by the legacy of June 12 is the fact that on many occasions, he has stated bluntly that he has absolutely no regrets about anything and everything that he did as a military ruler. His violently antidemocratic and draconian decrees, especially Decrees No 2 and No 4 of 1982? The notorious case of the 53 suitcases that his ADC helped the Emir of Gwandu to smuggle into the country at a time when one of Buhari’s decrees made smuggling a crime punishable by extremely harsh jail sentence? Buhari’s loyal service to Abacha? The open and unapologetic difference with which Buhari treated political detainees of the NPN and the UPN/NPP/PRP? Buhari has no regrets about any of them. Which means that given the chance, he would carry out these heinous acts and policies again.

    And then, of course, there is the second coming of Buhari. Since I will say more about this issue in some of the notes below, permit me to simply state here that Buhari’s fundamental attitude to power has not changed one bit. This is evident in both great and small things. In great things, we can cite the example of the fact that he has never felt obliged to explain or justify his actions and inactions to either his party or members of his administration that do not belong to the small cabal of his kinsmen and diehard loyalist that rule the country with his blessing. With regard to relatively small things, there is the case of his own wife’s frustration with her husband’s indifference to the harm being caused by Buhari’s reliance on opportunists, lickspittles and groupies who have no understanding and no belief in the much touted “Change” agenda of the ruling party and the president.

     

    Second reason: June 12 united the South and the North under a genuinely progressive movement and agenda – but Buhari squandered the chance to renew and reinvent that legacy by instituting the most sectionalist and nepotistic administration in Nigeria’s political history.

    One of the strangest, most baffling things about the second coming of Buhari is the fact that he has been completely indifferent to accusations that, by his actions and behaviour, he has divided the North and the South far beyond any other ruler in our post-independence political history. Here are some of the facts given by those making this charge against the president. There is not a single Southerner in the inner cabinet of four or five men who run the country in Buhari’s name and with his blessing. The authoritative members of the National Security Council are all Northerners. There are no notable Northern progressives in either Buhari’s cabinet or the appointments that he has made to public offices at the federal level; with few exceptions, virtually all the Northerners that he has elevated to positions of authority in his administration have their antecedents in conservative parties and formations of the past and the present like the NPC, the NPN and the Arewa Consultative Forum. Correspondingly, the self-identified Southern progressives in his administration were chosen, not for their progressivism but because Buhari inherited them from other parties when the APC was formed. And at any rate, the personal loyalties of such men to him count far more to Buhari than their progressivism. I am talking here of people like the Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, Raji Fashola, Rotimi Amaechi and Kayode Fayemi.

    With this profile in mind, one could argue that Buhari has also not united the conservatives of the North and the South as previous civilian and military regimes had done at many crucial junctures in the country’s political history. But where does that leave us? Well, let me share one concern that this trend in Buhari’s second coming has imposed on me: under Buhari, Northern and Southern progressives are as far apart as they have ever been. As a matter of fact, I would go so far as to state that under Buhari, Southern progressives are losing whatever awareness and knowledge they had about the traditions, the heritage of deep and honourable progressivism in the North. All Southern progressives see around Buhari are known and unknown figures from conservative bastions of the North. This is one of the most important aspects of the legacy of June 12, the closing of ranks between progressives of the North and the South. What is Buhari doing to it? He is shredding it, not embracing and enlarging it.

    Third reason: Like Murtala Muhammed, Abiola was transformed by June 12 from his old self to a catalyst for Nigeria’s greatness at home and abroad; Buhari remains who he has always been, a blusterer with a very poor understanding of Nigeria and the world.

    Who remembers now that initially, M.K.O. Abiola was generally regarded as an agent of imperialist control of Africa and Africans and a loyal follower of the Northern conservatism that dominated his party, the NPN? Who remembers that to the very end of his life, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti hated and despised Abiola for precisely these reasons? To this day, there are many radicals and progressives from the North and the South who fought for the implementation of the mandate of June 12 but who remain skeptical whether M.K.O. really changed and would have fulfilled the dreams and aspirations foisted on him by the unexpected political windfall of June 12. We shall never know, one way or another. But this much we know, Abiola was very much aware of who and what he had been; and he gave every indication that he would be guided by the hopes and aspirations he had awoken throughout the length and breadth of the land.

    What of Muhammadu Buhari? Has he given any indication, any at all, that the nationwide plurality that brought him to power after three previous, hopelessly futile attempts that he has been changed by that victory? Is the answer to this question not a resounding No? And has the disappointment caused by Buhari’s failure to live up to the promises of the campaign and the realignment of forces that brought him to power not been spread across the political landscape of the nation and the wider world?

    We thought we were getting a new person, a person who had been changed by the inescapable fact that only by widening his base and making change the guiding light of his rule could he hope to carry the nation and the world with him. But who and what did we get? A ruler who comes into power with the ringing promise of curbing and even wiping out corruption who cannot curb corruption in his own administration. A ruler who remains silent and inactive for weeks and months while marauding killers of herdsmen wipe out entire farmsteads and farming folk in hundreds and thousands, again and again and again. Is the nation with Buhari today? And the world in general?

    Has Buhari not shown that he has a very poor understanding of Nigeria and Nigerians? And his understanding of the world? Hasn’t the world lost interest in him, in his ability and will to understand the demands of the mandate of 2015? The denunciations of his rule that have come from some of those who preceded him in office as Head of State have not drawn an iota of self-scrutiny from Buhari, not to talk of previous followers from his former party, the CPC, who have stated loudly and clearly that the man they see now in Aso Rock is not the man they expected to be there. In the final analysis, here’s the question that Buhari must answer in clarification of his decision to make June 12 Democracy Day: the Mandate of 2015 has been nothing remotely like the Mandate of June 12; on what basis can we assume that a (fresh) Mandate in 2019 will be closer to that of June 12?

    Fourth reason: At the bottom of everything is a genuine concern for the sanctity and dignity of human life, all of human life; Buhari is yet to demonstrate that he has this in his moral and spiritual compass.

    Admittedly, Muhammadu Buhari is very slow to act on anything and everything. Sometimes, when it pleases him, he does not act at all, period. The whole country, the whole world might be in an uproar about something that needs to be done urgently; but Muhammadu Buhari works according to the promptings of an inner clock whose ticking he and he alone hears. It took him more than two months to get his cabinet together in 2015. All the while, apologists for his inertia explained the lugubrious slowness away with the promise that when the cabinet list is eventually released, people would see that the long wait had been worthwhile. When the list was finally announced, with one or two exceptions, it did not contain men and women of any outstanding credentials or experience.

    We shall never know the amount in productivity and development potential that the country has lost on account of Buhari’s fundamental or constitutive laziness and imperturbability. And yet, he has an army of aides, attaches and support staff at his beck and call. We have simply lost count of the number of times when we were told that some file is sitting on his desk, awaiting his perusal and his approval. As I write these words, the file on the former Secretary to the Government of the federation, SGF Babachir David Lawal, is sitting on Buhari’s desk awaiting his perusal and action regarding the humungous sums of money stolen by Lawal. I repeat: the laziness, the slowness of Buhari is constitutive; it is the laziness and slowness of a neo-feudalism that feels and obeys no accountability to the ruled.

    We must draw the line on living with Buhari’s laziness and slowness when it comes to human life. It took him months to finally make a worthy speech about the herdsmen killings of farming folks and the destruction of their livestock and farmlands. Remember how long it took him to actually go and visit some of the devastated communities? When all has been said and done, we must admit that the legacy of June 12 is about the value of the lives of all Nigerians regardless of their ethnicity, their religion, their region, their class and social status, their gender and age. The lives of the herdsmen are as valuable as the lives of the farmers. That means that you must treat the lives of both with the same concern, the same reverence.

    All forms of genuine democracy, June 12 included, are based on this fundamental reverence for life. Buhari has shown abundantly that he comes short when it comes to reverence for life. Where does this leave him in his bid to appropriate the legacy of June 12 for the 2019 elections?

    • Biodun Jeyifo

    bjeyifo@fas.harvard.edu

     

     

  • Enriching the ritual of June 12?

    Two unrelated developments in actual and symbolic engineering of our polity in the last two weeks have encouraged republishing of this article which first came out two years ago under the title of “June 12 Plus.” The first development is presentation two weeks ago of an executive bill that seeks to put management of surface and underground water solely in the hands of the federal government. The second development is President Buhari’s decision last week to enrich the ritual of June 12 by promising to move celebration of Democracy Day from May 29 to June 12 as from 2019 and the award of posthumous national honour to MKO Abiola.

    A well-deserved ritualisation of June 12 took place last Sunday. As usual, this year’s ritual of remembrance of the period of loss as a device to engineer reform went well in most of the Southwest states, leading to public holidays in some states, street marches in others, and calls for substantive and symbolic compensation in others, as well as reinforcement of twenty-three-year old call for true federalism in others. Today’s article is to remind readers of what the June 12 struggle has not been able to accomplish and the new thorns thrown on the road opened by June 12 to re-federalisation and full democratisation of Nigeria.

    Historically, the June 12 struggle had three goals: restoration of MKO Abiola’s presidential mandate given to him by the fairest and freest election in the country’s history; de-militarisation of the country’s polity; and return of federal system of governance to the country. After the death of Abacha and later of Abiola in circumstances that continue to raise questions till today, the struggle lost its first goal. The second goal was partially won at the time General Olusegun Obasanjo became president at the end of General Abdusalaam’s transition to democracy in 1999. But Obasanjo’s presidential election was not guided by any visible constitution to let citizens and candidates know what they were bargaining for. And the third goal, re-federalisation of the polity, had been hanging in the air ever since. Even after four post-military presidential elections, Nigeria is still saddled with a constitution crafted behind closed doors by military rulers and with concentration of power in the federal government and at the expense of subnational governments in a federal republic.

    Surprisingly, seventeen years of elected governments have not alleviated the problems that arose from June 12. On the contrary, the period of post-military rule has aggravated the unsolved problems left behind after Abiola’s death and the transition to civil rule that followed it. However, the narrative of re-federalisation remains alive even 23 years after annulment of Abiola’s election, but its retelling has been hobbled by confusion arising from several quarters. NADECO at home and abroad suffered some gradual haemorrhaging since some of its members came to political power in the Yoruba region. Only a few of the governors/lawmakers elected since 1999 and a few NADECO leaders remained vocal in calling for return to functioning federalism.

    The frustration of efforts to restore federalism has taken many forms. NADECO became war weary after the death of Abiola and became excited by the promise of return to democratic rule by the Abdulsalami Abubakar government. The excitement of periodic elections in a country that had been denied such opportunities on-and-off for many decades of military dictatorship created complacency for uncritical voters. Some found creation of mushroom organisations as vehicles for demanding federalism and as a means of staying politically and socially relevant in their communities. Many others see June 12 as a fitting time to repeat the demand for restructuring while others would rather not be bothered for calling for the kind of change that restructuring entails.

    Ironically, a former chieftain of NADECO-abroad, now leader of the All Progressives Congress, opened a hydrant on the fire of re-federalisation a few days before this year’s June 12 anniversary when he announced that federalism is not a priority of the new administration. Many who voted for a New Nigeria in 2015 are already feeling confused by the pronouncement of the chairman of APC and President Buhari’s media assistant who characterised the call for federalism as a distraction from the ruling party’s priorities. But the following statement in the highlights of APC manifesto: Initiate action to amend our Constitution with a view to devolving powers, duties and responsibilities to states and local governments in order to entrench true Federalism and the Federal spirit, does not suggest that an item in the highlights of the party’s manifesto is not a priority item. From information available to the electorate, the manifesto of APC emphasises re-federalisation or reforming the existing largely unitary system through amendment of the 1999 Constitution. If the spirit to do what was promised is no longer there, it is important for the party to say so. And I believe doing so should go beyond an ex-tempore assessment of Buhari administration’s priorities by the ruling party’s chairman.

    More than two decades after NADECO’s struggles for democracy for electoral and cultural democracy, Nigeria is still largely at the same point that it was after the election of the first post-military government of Obasanjo. The partial de-militarisation achieved through election of Obasanjo as a civilian and of subsequent civilian presidents and lawmakers remains as limited as it was in 1999. The constitution that presents a unitary system as a federal one is still intact. And the largest chunk of the nation’s revenue is still going to the central government that has no direct constituents to service while states and local governments that house and provide direct service to citizens receive much less than the central government. The imbalance between subnational and national governance is even getting worse as petroleum fortunes become more unpredictable by the day. States are now leaving on bailouts and loans. Instead of constitutionally returning power and freedom to states to be more productive, they are now at the risk of losing power over actual and virtual water supply in their communities.

    ‘June-twelvers’ who have remained committed to the ideals and goals of June 12 deserve to be congratulated for not becoming despondent after two decades of a constitution that is afraid to come to terms with the demands of managing a culturally diverse country. Since 1966, Nigeria has been trying to find its way to the map of modern development. Rather, it has been moving from one crisis to the other, a situation that had made nonsense of the lives of millions of people who had died while waiting for justice and progress and of the chances of many others still alive to have a good life in a country whose progress is believed to be undermined politically and economically by its flawed structure. There is, however, danger in allowing the government spawned by a party popularly known as A New Party for a New Nigeria which citizens voted for massively in 2015to be derailed by what looks like rightwing interpretation of the platform presented to the electorate in 2015.

    In addition, ‘June-twelvers’ and others genuinely committed to bringing federalism back to the country should not be contented with gathering every year to remember the injustice of the past. Remembering Abiola and June 12 must include working towards realisation of the missed goals of the NADECO struggle, not just through gathering of motley associations, but through a return to a cohesive organisation to resist further erosion of power of subnational governments and to work toward restoration of true federalism to our multi-religious and multiethnic federation.

  • June 12 at last

    President Muhammadu Buhari’s replacement of May 29 with June 12 as Democracy Day confirms the aphorism that no matter how fast falsehood runs, truth will eventually catch up with it one day. For over 19 years, successive governments in the country had lived in denial by observing May 29 as Democracy Day. But we all know this was not the case; we know that June 12 is more significant in the country’s political history. That was a day that over 14 million Nigerians set aside all the primordial sentiments that hitherto had become ready tools in the hands of our ruling elite to polarise Nigerians. They went to the polls called by the then military junta, headed by General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida (retd), but which he, characteristically and ‘maradonically’ (permit me the use of that word) attempted to stop, through all means possible, including the judicial process.

    But for the courage of the chairman of the then National Electoral Commission (NEC), Prof Humphrey Nwosu, and the resoluteness of Nigerians who had come to realise that Babangida was merely playing chess with his very expensive transition programme designed to transit to nowhere, Babangida would have halted the electoral process, thus aborting an election that has come to be recognised worldwide as the freest and fairest in the country’s history. Thus, the election went ahead on June 12, 1993, in defiance of a kangaroo court order procured by the Association for Better Nigeria (ABN), one of Babangida’s contraptions to scuttle the transition programme, asking NEC not to go ahead with the election.

    President Buhari captured the developments succinctly in a statement on Wednesday: “For the past 18 years, Nigerians have been celebrating May 29th, as Democracy Day. That was the date when for the second time in our history, an elected civilian administration took over from a military government. The first time this happened was on October 1st, 1979. But in the view of Nigerians, as shared by this Administration, June 12th, 1993, was far more symbolic of democracy in the Nigerian context than May 29th or even the October 1st.”

    Buhari did not stop here. He also bestowed the highest national honour in the land, the Grand Commander of the Federal Republic (GCFR) on the acclaimed winner of the election, Bashorun Moshood Kashimawo Abiola, popularly referred to as MKO. Abiola’s running mate, Ambassador Babagana Kingibe is also to be given the second highest honour of Grand Commander of the Order of the Niger (GCON). In the same vein, Chief Gani Fawehinmi was honoured for his heroic role in the struggle to revalidate the June 12 election result.  Although some people have argued that Kingibe does not merit the honour because he, rather than stay with Abiola to fight for the revalidation of the election result, decided to pitch his tent with the Sani Abacha government that succeeded the Interim National Government (ING) which Babangida hurriedly put in place to succeed him, after seeing that the seat of power was becoming too hot for comfort due to the protests that followed his annulment of the election.

    Babangida’s annulment of the election result was as dramatic as his final exit from power. Bouncing like an over-bloated tyre, and in a manner suggestive he was being propelled by something from within, Babangida, on June 23, 1993, announced the annulment of that election.

    Of course, for a few years after, the country was in political turmoil, with neither the bird that perched on a rope nor the rope itself feeling comfortable. The annulment led to a string of events in the country. As stated above, it was the beginning of the end of the Babangida regime which it finally consumed, with Babangida, contrary to his earlier boast not to be stampeded out of office, hurrying out of Aso Rock when he stepped aside on August 27, 1993. The ING, led by Chief Ernest Shonekan, was itself unable to take firm control of the country, such that it was only a matter of about three months for General Sani Abacha to sweep it aside. Abacha himself, again, like Abiola, died in mysterious circumstances on June 8, 1998. Abiola died precisely a month after, on July 7, 1998, while in detention.

    Suffice it to say that President Buhari’s decision on June 12 is not just the reversal of an injustice against Nigerians but the undoing of a grievous harm done the entire nation by a cabal that was determined to keep Babangida in power by other means, or, at best prevent Abiola from being sworn in as president because Abiola’s mandate, as freely given on June 12, 1993 was pan-Nigeria. It had no tribal colour; no religious fragrance. Abiola’s running mate, Kingibe,was also a Muslim, just like Abiola. But that did not deter the voters who, for once, ignored such primordial sentiments at the polling booths. Of course, when Nigerians decided to be orderly at the polls, it was because they had realised Babangida’s antics. They knew he was not prepared to leave office and that he was only looking for the slightest excuse to make a mess of the election. Babangida was so disappointed because all his calculations, either that the elections would not be peaceful, or that Abiola’s challenger, Alhaji Bashir Tofa of the National Republican Convention (NRC), would defeat Abiola at the polls, fell flat on his face. Abiola contested on the platform of the Social Democratic Party (SDP). It is impossible to chronicle the course of the events that trailed that singular decision by the Babangida government in a few pages.

    Expectedly, some people have interpreted President Buhari’s gesture in many ways. Some say given the fact that Buhari has not been known as an advocate of June 12, his sudden reversal of Democracy Day to that date was a political palliative meant to woo the civil society groups and the southwestern part of the country. Some even say it is an attempt by the Buhari government to shore up what they call its waning influence and popularity due to its inability to deliver on its electoral promises. Everyone is entitled to his or her own opinion; for me, what is important is that the Buhari government has the courage to do what its predecessors could not do.

    It is heartwarming that the Senate and, by and large, the House of Representatives too have seen the good in the president’s gesture. This is the way it should be, devoid of undue politicking. Many of those in both houses were living witnesses to Babangida’s unending transition programme during which he banned and unbanned politicians from participating in the programme at will.

    We must say never again to the idea of some people waking up from the wrong side of the bed to toy with our future. The kind of impunity that made Babangida and his cohorts to annul the result of the election and still be walking our streets free should not be allowed again.

    However, without any attempt to ethnicise the matter, because that was one major thing that June 12 debunked about Nigerians, it is important to also honour the then electoral commission boss, Nwosu. If he had not ignored the court order procured in the night to stop the election, it would not have been possible to celebrate the mandate that we are celebrating today. There is no way we can talk of June 12 without talking of Nwosu. He braved the odds; at grave risks to his life and perhaps those of his close family members. He defied the court, even when it was obvious that cancellation of the poll was what Babangida and his co-travellers in infamy wanted.

    We do not have to forget the ordinary Nigerians who also died in the course of actualising the June 12 mandate, including those killed in Lagos and elsewhere by the  Abacha regime. They are part of the real heroes of the democracy that we enjoy today. Without them, it might have been impossible to send the soldiers to the barracks when we did in 1999. As I have said several times on this page, majority of those who have benefited from the return to democracy did not lift a finger to bring it into fruition. That is part of the reasons they do not know how to manage it. That is why they want to live like oil sheikhs even when the country is in dire economic crisis and minimum wage remains at a paltry N18,000 per month.

    President Buhari should begin the process of doing the needful to give legal teeth to his action where necessary to make the decision endure.  He should also initiate the process of paying the entitlements of those honoured. By looking away from June 12 all these years successive governments had only demonstrated the insincerity that has characterised governance and hobbled the country’s development. Without doubt, Buhari’s decision is significant one way or the other for all, irrespective of whether you stand or sit on June 12.

     

  • Osun speaker lauds revalidation of June 12, Abiola, Gani’s honours

    The Speaker of the Osun State House of Assembly, Dr. Najeem Salaam, has lauded the courage of President Muhammadu Buhari on his proclamation of June 12 as Democracy Day.

    He also lauded the President for recognising the nation’s past heroes of democracy, according the late winner of the presidential election, Chief Moshood Olawale Abiola, with the Grand Commander of Federal Republic (GCFR), the highest honour in the country, and honouring the late Chief Gani Fawehinmi, SAN, with the Grand Commander of Niger (GCON).

    In a statement signed by his Chief Press Secretary, Mr. Goke Butika, Dr. Salaam, who is vying for governorship seat in the state, said the President has shown courage and leadership in reversing an injustice that had lingered for 25 years.

    He said: “It takes courage and responsible leadership to reverse injustice, for those who directly benefitted from the struggle of June 12 which ultimately consumed the lives of Chief MKO Abiola, his wife Kudirat and tens of others failed to redress the injustice represented by the annulment of June 12, 1993 presidential election acclaimed to be free, fair and credible.”

    Speaker Salaam also commended President Buhari for recognising the sterling quality of the late human rights defender, Chief Gani Fawehinmi, SAN, as he was posthumously honoured with national medal of GCON, the second highest honour that could be bestowed on any individual in Nigeria, saying that the honour was well deserved.

    “Recognising the duo of MKO Abiola and Chief Gani Fawehinmi with the highest honour is good news coming from the right quarters. It is marvelous because the two heroes made the democracy we are enjoying today possible.

    “Ignoring Abiola and Gani was an injustice to them and everyone who fought for civil rule. But these honours have come at the right time and justice is well served,” Salaam said.

  • Heroes of June 12

    The ‘June 12’ battle was not for men of frail will. On the field were great fighters who dared the military. These democratic forces were scattered at home and abroad. Many died; some lost properties. When the fight became hotter, they did not develop cold feet. They did not betray the cause and they did not desert the battle. Instead, they endured the heat and fought to the end. Their weapons were their power of ideas, intellect, strong will and determination. Group Political Editor EMMANUEL OLADESU writes on the heroes and martyrs of the titanic struggle, whose persistent agitations heralded the restoration of civil rule in 1999.

    Abiola

     

    The symbol of the struggle was the late Chief Moshood Abiola, the billionaire businessman, who wanted to use power to abolish poverty in Nigeria. Before he joined the race, he had established himself as a friend of top military brass and philanthropist. Apparently, the ruling military class underrated him as a presidential material, until it was too late. His credential was highly intimidating. Largely perceived as the liberator of the people from the military cage, Abiola received massive support, beating his rival, National Republican Convention (NRC)’s Bashir Tofa in his native Kano State. He polled 8,341,309 votes, representing 58.36 percent of the total votes. When former Military President Ibrahim Babangida annulled the election, there was sporadic protest. The ghost of the cruel annulment still hunts the General. Abiola declared himself President-elect at Epetedo, Lagos Island. He was arrested and detained by the Abacha regime.  He fought on until he died in detention under Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar, who succeeded Abacha.

     

    Kudirat  Abiola

     

    The late Alhaja Kudirat Abiola was one of the numerous wives of the SDP presidential flag bearer. The annulment forced Kudirat into the pro-democracy movement. She developed a steely determination that dared military bullets. When her husband was in solitary confinement for claiming his presidential mandate, Kudirat confronted the military dictators. Her leadership motivated other pro-democracy groups to spring up and seek the actualisation of the election. In 1994, Kudirat was actively involved in sustaining the oil workers’ strike, which crippled the economy and weakened the military government Despite this harassment, she continued her campaign. She and the late Chief Alfred Rewane funded the pro-democracy activities, which unsettled the military. When protesters were detained, she would promptly visit police stations to secure their release. Kudirat knew that she was operating in an atmosphere of danger. She was planning to process her visa to leave Nigeria, but on June 4, 1996, a few days to the third anniversary of the June 12 election, Kudirat was shot dead by assassins in Oregun, Lagos State.

     

     Ajasin

     

    The late Chief Adekunle Ajasin, former governor of Ondo State, doubled as Afenifere and NADECO leader. He was a principled fighter and moral voice who offered inspiration to the democratic forces. Despite threats to his life, he never wavered. The Owo-born politician objected to the progressives’ participation in the Abacha administration, but Abiola prevailed on him to give his consent. His bedroom was invaded by former military Governor Ibe Onyearugbulem, who had Abacha’s mandate to make Ondo State uncomfortable for NADECO forces. In June 1995, he was arrested by the military alongside others for holding a meeting, but was released 24 hours later. He died when the battle was raging.

    NADECO members based in Ondo were pro-active. Prominent among them were Chief Segun Adegoke, a lawyer and Awoist, the late Chief Adebayo Adefarati, who later became governor, Mrs. Bolaji Osomo before she joined Abacha cabinet, Senator Remi Okunrinboye and Bishop Bolanle Gbonigi. The activist-cleric was nicknamed the ‘NADECO Bishop’ because of his principled position on June 12. He decried the injustice from the pulpit and offered moral and spiritual support to the pro-democracy agitators. When the late military governor, Onyearugbulem, and some soldiers invaded Ajasin’s Owo country home, an encounter ensued between the governor and Adefarati. The governor asked Adefarati whether he was a NADECO member. Adefarati, beating his chest three times, answered in the affirmative. The soldiers could not arrest him in Ajasin’s room.

     

    Rewane

     

    During the dark days, Pa Alfred Rewane used his pen and money to fight the military. He was a pillar of financial support for NADECO and many human rights activities. His motive was the de-annulment of the June 12 election. He also personally campaigned against official graft in high places, lack of accountability and gross violation of human rights by the military. But, on October 6, 1995, he was murdered in curious circumstances, which elicited wide outcry. The killers are still at large.

     

    Adesanya

     

    The elder statesman, lawyer and former senator, Chief Abraham Adesanya, became the leader of Afenifere after Ajasin’s death. His personal assistant was Rev. Tunji Adebiyi. Adesanya’s compatriots in Afenifere, the pan-Yoruba socio-political group, who also fought the military were the late Chief Ganiyu Dawodu, the late Bola Ige, the late Alhaji Lam Adesina, Chief Olu Falae, Chief Ayo Adebanjo, the late Sir Olaniwun Ajayi, the late Pa Solanke Onasanya, Kofoworola Akerele-Bucknor, Dr. Femi Okunrounmu, Chief Olabiyi Durojaye, and Chief Cornelius Adebayo. Some of them suffered bruises. Rev. Adebiyi was bearing a letter from NADECO leaders in Lagos to Ajasin at Owo when he was arrested at 10 pm at Maryland by the police. Persistent pleas by Kudirat secured his release. Adesina and the late Comrade Ola Oni were captured by soldiers during a protest at Ibadan as “prisoner of war”. Durojaye, Adebanjo and Dawodu were detained. Assassins were also trailing Aremo Segun Osoba. He escaped been hit by bullets by whiskers.

    Death came calling in January 1997, but Adesanya had years earlier miraculously escaped assassins’ bullets, thereby earning the appellation, Apamaku. He remained undaunted to the end. Under his leadership, Afenifere intensified the battle for promoting the virtues of minority rights, equality, restructuring and true federalism.

     

    Enahoro

     

    The late Chief Anthony Enahoro, nationalist and elder statesman, was the chairman of NADECO’s Steering Committee. In 1995, he was detained for almost three months without any charge by Abacha. Before he escaped abroad, he was a thorn in the flesh of the military. He also chaired the Movement for National Reformation (MNR) and the Pro-National Conference Organisation (PRONACO). Enahoro was the leader of NADECO abroad.

     

    Fawehinmi

     

    The late Chief Gani Fawehinmi (SAN) was an outstanding lawyer and world-acclaimed human rights crusader. He was an advocate of de-annulment. For daring the military, he was detained for long.  He provided legal, moral and financial support for freedom fighters. Fawehinmi claimed that soldiers in barracks voted for Abiola, daring the military to declare the result of army voting. He was a target of liquidation by the military. Many Nigerians have applauded President Muhammadu Buhari for giving him the highest national award of the Grand Commander of the Federal Republic (GCFR).

     

     Fasehun

     

    Dr. Fredrick Fasehun, a former SDP presidential aspirant, founded the Oodua Peoples Congress to press for the de-annulment of the election. He was one of the founding fathers of NADECO. He was detained for long by the military for fighting the cause. At that time, a prominent member of the group, Gani Adams, who is now the coordinator and Aare Ona Kankanfo of Yorubaland, was always visible during protests. He was a great campaigner of the revalidation of the election results.

     

    Musa

     

    Former governor of Kaduna State, Alhaji Balarabe Musa, did not perceive the struggle as a regional fight. To him, Abiola got a pan-Nigerian mandate. He has always contributed ideas to the sustenance of the struggle, which he believes, was foisted on the pro-democracy forces by a military cabal that was reluctant to accept the outcome of the transition programme it set up.

    Musa refused to join the bandwagon of tribal egoists. He believed that June 12 offered a redemptive option to the country in its quest for legitimate leadership. In his view, the annulment was a national calamity and the struggle was not a sectional affair as wrongly projected by military spin doctors.

     

    Tahir

     

    Dr. Ibrahim Tahir, spoke forcefully against the Babangida regime for foisting an avoidable crisis on the country. To the old teacher and astute politician, the military had no option than to restore Abiola’s mandate. When the struggle intensified under the Abacha regime, he challenged the military Head of State to a duel, saying that he has conveyed the impression that power cannot be surrendered voluntarily unless there is an epic struggle and war of liberation against the government. In his view, the annulment was not a northern agenda, but the agenda of the military class in defiance to the popular yearning for democracy.

     

    Soyinka

     

    Prof. Wole Soyinka, playwright, poet, novelist, and implacable critic, is the first black African to bag the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1986. The former university don was one of the brains behind Radio Kudirat. Other frontline activists behind the opposition radio were Enahoro and Dr.Kayode Fayemi, who made broadcasts leaking plans by the soldiers to wipe out freedom fighters from Nigeria. It was the radio that alerted people to the plot to assassinate Ajasin and Adesanya. The Nobel laureate was not new to prison walls through his activism. In 1994, Soyinka lived in exile in the United States and France after leaving Nigeria. When the June 12 election was annulled, Soyinka played a key role in mounting pressure on Abacha to reverse the decision. Deploying his influence, he mounted a strong international campaign against Abacha’s dictatorial regime. In 1997 he was tried in absentia with other opposition members for a phoney charge of bomb attacks against army. The Abacha regime sentenced Soyinka to death in absentia.

     

    Akinyemi

     

    Among those who offered intellectual support for NADECO activities were Prof. Akinyemi, former Foreign Affairs Minister, Prof. Segun Gbadegesin, Prof. Ropo Sekoni, Prof. Ade Banjo and Prof. Adebayo Williams. They wrote numerous incisive articles denouncing the annulment, elongation of military rule and rights violation. They were targets of attacks by the military. They fled the country to continue the onslaught abroad. Banjo purchased 3,000 rifles to launch a guerrilla war against Abacha. He was caught and detained before he escaped to Ghana.  If the asylum proposed by Prof. Akinyemi had been accepted, Abiola may not have been killed. But, the symbol of the epic struggle rejected the asylum, saying the President-elect of the most populous nation in Africa could not be seeking asylum in the American Embassy.

     

     Kokori

     

    The oil workers strike rattled Abacha. The credit goes to Chief Frank Kokori, a fearless labour leader and former Secretary-General of the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG). In 1994, the pro-democracy activist led the oil workers on a sustained strike over the annulment, leading to the paralysis of social and economic activities, to the embarrassment of the Abacha junta. He was arrested on August 20, 1994 by security operatives and was moved round different prisons, mostly in the northern part of the country. The incarceration did not stop his activism.

     

     Carrington

     

    An American diplomat, who served as United States Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Nigeria between 1993 and 1997, Walter Carrington supported the fight for democracy in Nigeria. He stood resolutely with pro-democracy activists during the pro-June 12 agitation. He condemned Babangida for annulling the election widely adjudged free and fair. He expressed great concern over the abuse of human rights and the steady descent of Nigeria into a police state under the military. His remarks were weighty and they influenced America to mount pressure on the military to vacate power.

     

    Adebanjo

     

    Adebanjo is a fearless politician who does not hide his principled views, no matter whose ox is gorged.  He was a staunch member of NADECO; he has played opposition politics for many decades. Despite threats to his life and property, he was resolute in the fight for the restoration of Abiola’s mandate. It was ironic, because Abiola and his political leader, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, were politically opposed to each other. Adebanjo has often called for the immortalisation of Abiola.

     

     Dosunmu and ‘Epetedo forces’

     

    Former Minister of Housing and Environment, the late Dr. Wahab Dosunmu, was a close associate of Abiola from the NPN days. He was involved in the activities of NADECO from the scratch. He and Olufemi Lanlehin were instructed by their group, Primose, which later became Lagos Justice Forum, to attend the inaugural meeting of the group in Gen. Adeyinka Adebayo’s Ikeja residence. He was a signatory to the memorandum submitted by Afenifere at the formative stage of the association. Dosunmu, Prince Ademola Adeniji-Adele, Tokunbo Afikuyomi, Omotilewa Aro-Lambo, Senator Ajayi from Ekiti, Hon. Adesina from Abeokuta,  and Sikiru Shitta-Bey were also involved in the presidential declaration arrangement at Epetedo, Lagos Island.

     

    Opadokun

     

    Ayo Opadokun was the General Secretary of the Afenifere and NADECO. He fought the military for democracy to flourish in Nigeria. For five years, he was in detention. By the time he was released, the struggle had taken its toll on him. He expressed regrets that after the restoration of the civil rule in 1999, charlatans, military apologists and collaborators became the beneficiaries of the struggle.

     

     Oshun

     

    Olawale Osun is a former Chief Whip of the House of Representatives. When the IBB regime cancelled the election, he was among the legislators who denounced the criminal act. He was one of the few that planned the Abiola ‘Epetedo Declaration’. When Opadokun was seized by the military, he became NADECO secretary. He was later released, after which he fled abroad to continue the fight. He wrote his book, ‘Clapping with one hand’, in detention.

     

     Ukiwe

     

    Ukiwe, a retired Navy Commodore and Chief of General Staff from 1985 to 1986, was one of the notable actors in the pro-democracy struggle in the beginning. Most Nigerians believe that Ukiwe lost his post due to his principled nature. Knowing that Ukiwe could not be pushed around, Babangida replaced him with Augustus Aikhomu. However, Ukiwe reduced his participation when his life was under threat.

     

     Kanu

     

    The former governor of Imo and Lagos states joined the democracy group in retirement. He was in the forefront of the agitation for the actualisation of Abiola’s mandate. Abacha was particularly worried at his involvement in the agitation to halt his inglorious rule. He once told him to deck his khaki and face him with his gun, instead of joining forces with civilians to rubbish him. When he persisted in his NADECO activities, his businesses were crippled by the military. His private residence was searched by security agents. He was accused of planning to import arms and ammunition.

     

    Nwankwo

     

    Among the organisations that formed NADECO was the Eastern Mandate Union (EMU), led by the irrepressible advocate of human rights and good governance, Arthur Nwankwo. He shared that virtue of consistency and bravery with Dr. Chukwuemeka Ezeife and Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, who were prominent NADECO chieftains. A fierce speaker and prolific writer, Nwankwo was never afraid of detention camps.

     

    Sulaiman

     

    A gallant soldier, Commodore Dan Sulaiman, a former Minister of Communications, joined the democratic forces in decrying the annulment and incarceration of the symbol of the struggle. When the military was after his life, he fled abroad to continue the onslaught against the military.

     

    Ige

     

    The Cicero of Esa-Oke shunned the IBB transition programme based on Awo’s admonition to his followers to learn to dine with the devil with a long spoon. However, the entry of the late Chief Bola Ige, after the expiration of his ‘siddon look’ period, inspired the pro-democracy agitators to fight on. He was a leading fighter under NADECO and Afenifere, where he was deputy leader. Ige, a fiery speaker, hit hard at the Abacha regime. He described the five political parties of that period as five fingers of a leprous hand. He was detained at Epe.

     

    Umar

     

    As military governor of Kaduna State, he had shown the tendency of a radical. The political scientist was of the view that the military had overstayed in power to the detriment of democracy. Col. Abubakar Umar Dangiwa spoke forcefully in defense of Abiola. To him, the symbol was not the main issue, but the seizure of the nation’s collective passport for a genuine flight to the horizon of democratic progress. He sacrificed his career in the Army.

     

    Tinubu:

     

    In the Third Republic, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu was a senator. In the Upper Chamber, he was the rallying point for senators seeking an end to military rule. He challenged IBB to a duel. When the military leader annulled the poll, he demanded for explanations. Tinubu dared the military, urging the masses to resist the illegal act. After escaping abroad, he became one of the leaders and financial pillars of NADECO abroad. Tinubu became governor of Lagos State in 1999. He was the first governor to declare June 12 as ‘Democracy Day’ and a public holiday.

     

    Falae

     

    The former Secretary to the Federal Military Government and Finance Minister was active in Afenifere and NADECO. He was one of the ardent supporters of Abiola during the battle for the revalidation of the annulled results. Other Afenifere leaders who were active during the struggle included Senator Ayo Fasanmi, who resigned from the Constitutional Conference Commission set up by Abacha, Niyi Owolola, Chief Supo Sonibare, Prince Dayo Adeyeye, the late Baba Omojola, the late Chief Rafiu Jafojo, and  Chief S.K. Babalola. Before they joined the Abacha regime, the duo of Alhaji Lateef Jakande and Chief Ebenezer Babatope were also in the forefront of the clamour for the de-annulment of the election. However, when Afenifere recalled them from the federal cabinet, it was difficult for them to resign.

     

    Akinrinade:

     

    Gen. Alani Akinrinade was one of the leaders of NADECO abroad, who committed enormous time, energy and resources to the struggle for justice. His private residence at Ikeja was torched by suspected government agents. The same tribulation befell his compatriot, Dr, Amos Akingba, a former university don. He was harassed by the military. His residence was also attacked in Lagos.

     

    Justice Akinsanya

     

    Justice Dolapo Akinsanya  of the Lagos High Court, in her historic judgment, declared that the Interim National Government (ING) of Chief Ernest Shonekan was a contraption, unconstitutional, null and void. The verdict was a tonic for the pro-democracy forces to insist on the declaration of Abiola as president-elect.

     

    Tofa

     

    Alhaji Bashir Tofa of the defunct National Republican Convention (NRC) lost the election to Abiola. To his credit, he did not contest the outcome.

     

    Nwosu

     

    The National Electoral Commission (NEC) chairman, Prof. Humphrey Nwosu, conducted the most credible election in history. The agency later lost its independence. In fact, the hand of the military was heavy on the umpire, who was directed to stop further announcement of the results.

     

    June 12 casualties

    (Unknown Nigerians)

     

    The casualties of the struggle are too numerous to mention. Oshun, who is now the leader of the Afenifere Renewal Group (ARG), recalled that many protesters were shot on Ikorodu road by soldiers. Many activists were detained. Many lost their property. Businesses were ruined. Families were dislocated. Media houses were closed down. The family of Bagaudu Khalto is still in agony.

     

    Labour, rights groups

    and media:

     

    Human rights leaders – the late Dr. Beko Ransome-Kuti, his brother, the late Prof. Olikoye Ransome-Kuti, Femi Falana (SAN), Femi Aborisade, the late Chima Ubani, Joe Igbokwe, Olisa Agbakoba (SAN), Ayo Obe, Bishop Matthew Kukah, Ebun Adegboruwa, Clement Nwankwo, Shehu Sani, Mike Ozekhome, Osagie Obayuwana, Felix Tuodolo, Debo Adeniran, Ima Niboro, Akinola Orisagbemi, who was Personal Assistant to Mrs. Kudirat Abiola, Innocent Chukwuma, Bunmi Aborisade, and numerous activists under the banner of the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA), the Nigeria Medical Association (NMA), the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), PENGASSAN, NUPENG, Radio Kudirat, Lagos Justice Forum, June 12 Collective, the media, and National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) made invaluable contributions to the struggle.