The Nation Newspaper

Tag: June 12

  • June 12: Lagos names park after Ndubuisi Kanu

    Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola (SAN), on Thursday commissioned and named a newly built recreational park after a former Military Administrator of the state, Rear Admiral Ndubuisi Kanu for his contribution to the June 12 struggle.

    Fashola said the government chose the 21st anniversary of the June 12, 1993 presidential election, a very symbolic date in the annals of the nation’s road to democracy, to commission the park, albeit lamenting that some agents working against democracy are still very much around, and are manifesting their uncontrollable effort as election approaches in Ekiti.

    He said Kanu, whom the park is named after, was one of the many Nigerians that stood up for what is right during the June 12 struggle.

    According to him, “There is no occasion of June 12 that he (Kanu) did not participate, he stood for June 12 and he stood to restore democracy.”

    Fashola charged all public office holders across the country to remember that if those who stood up for democracy did not do so, perhaps they would not have had the opportunity to serve in the positions they hold in public trust.

    Responding, Kanu expressed gratitude to the government for the gesture, charging all those that will use the park to keep in mind the need to stand for what is right at all time.

    He called on Nigerians to pursue the objective of June 12 struggle, saying the country would have been better positioned if the election was not annulled.

    “There is more reason to pursue the tenets of the struggle, more reason to put this country where it should be.”

    Earlier, the state Commissioner for Environment, Mr. Tunji Bello, said the park was situated in Alausa to further enhance the greening culture the area is known for in the last 25 years.

    “For many, it is a citadel of relaxation, family retreats, friendship reunion, children’s excursion, a remarkable ground for all festivities and a place for individual relaxations and renewal,” Bello stated.

     

  • June 12: History lesson for our youths

    Last week, the social media was suffused with youth messages about their resolve to fight for their rights. Their new resolution they claim stemmed from the discovery that many PDP men have occupied the political space for far too long. Bamanga Tukur, current PDP chairman, they said was old Gongola State governor back in 1983. Bello Halliru a commissioner in old Sokoto State in 1980 is today, 33 years after, Minister of Defence; General David Mark, who was governor of Niger State in1984 has continued to monopolise the senate presidency. David Jonah Jang who was governor of Benue in 1985 is today governor of Plateau and trying to add the chairmanship of NGF he lost to Amaechi in an election; Murtala Nyako governor of Niger State in 1976, 36 years ago, is now governor of Adamawa State etc. They are keeping their battle strategy a secret.

    The reawakening of our youths is a welcome development. After all, Nigeria youths were in the forefront of the battle against colonialism. But before our youths, who are now university graduates at 19s and 20s embarked on an unwinnable war against politicians who recently publicly declared they would rather die than lose power, I think they first need to understand how the past, when some soldiers of fortune claimed they were sacrificing their present for our future, has come to shape the present ‘cash and carry democracy’ and a recycled leadership.

    Let us start with Ibrahim Babangida, the master of political subterfuge. He rode on the back of civil society groups and the press that detested Muhammadu Buhari’s tyranny following his palace coup against him in 1985. He introduced the Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) which destroyed our economy and legitimized corruption. In an effort to teach Nigeria that had engaged in party politics since the 1920s how to form political parties, he self-conceitedly decreed two government political parties, National Republican Convention (NRC) and Social Democratic Party (SDP), wrote their constitutions and manifestoes, appointed Tom Ikimi and Tony Anenih to run them as parastatals. His institute for democracy became the breeding ground for many of today’s PDP leaders. After eight years of ‘transition without end’, and billions down the drain, he annulled the landslide victory of Moshood Abiola, his friend.

    Arthur Nzeribe. He is the leader of government sponsored shadowy Association for Better Nigeria(ABN), declared illegal and banned from canvassing for ‘four more years’ for Babangida by the court. It secured a midnight judgment from Justice Bassey Ikpeme’s Abuja court to derail the Babangida’s eight year transition despite the existence of Decree 53 which shielded the National Electoral Commission (NEC) from court interference.

    Professor Humphrey Nwosu was the author of much derided “Option A4” which turned out to be Babangida’s nemesis as the method produced the most credible election acclaimed by local and international observers but faulted only by Babangida. He remained faithful to the transition by exploiting Decree 53 which shielded his NEC from prosecution until Babangida committed political suicide writing his name on the wrong side of history.

    Abiola made his fortunes through his military friends. Fela Anikulapo-Kuti described him as ‘international thief thief’. He set up a newspaper to fight Awolowo, the most prominent Yoruba politician who had mooted the idea of probing the military and their civilian fronts. He launched into politics, made a failed attempt at securing the NPN presidential ticket but was rudely told by Umaru Dikko that Nigerian presidency was not for sale. He stormed out of NPN and deployed his immense wealth to the services of the people all over the country without discrimination. He took on the West insisting it must make reparations for about 400 years of slavery. He was lured back into politics by Babangida who later betrayed him. He died in prison trying to protect the mandate freely given to him by Nigerians.

    Alhaji Bashir Othman Tofa of the NRC who during the presidential debate said he wanted to be president because “our nation is divided by issues of suspicion, distrust and the fact that most Nigerians have lost faith in the country’s leadership whether military or civilian”, was initially chief campaigner for ‘four more years’ for Babangida. He was an oil consultant under the military making thousands of pounds daily before he was lured into politics.

    Tony Anenih was the chairman of a victorious SDP who bargained away the victory of his party. He has a larger than life image of ‘Mr Fixer’, a euphemism for election rigging. He is currently PDP BOT chairman and chairman of Nigerian Ports Authority.

    Tom Ikimi was one of Babangida’s ‘new breed’ creations and the government-appointed chairman of the defeated NRC. He succumbed to pressure from his military masters in their conspiracy against our nation.

    Nduka Irabor was the press secretary to Augustus Aikhomu, Babangida appointed vice-president. It was Irabor who read an unsigned statement, hurriedly scribbled on a piece of paper which confined the June 12 election to history.

    Nduka Obaigbena, a failed senatorial candidate under NRC from Delta was on CNN barely 12 hours after the June 12 election calling for cancellation of the results because Abiola went into the polling booth wearing a dress with the stallion picture of SDP logo. His argument was the one adopted by government.

    Okey Uzoho was the NRC publicity secretary who on June 16, 1993, four days after the election signed the NRC document that formally called for the cancellation of the election on the grounds that there were ‘intimidation of voters, falsification of results in most states and monetary inducement by the rival SDP. And quoting Obaigbena, the statement concluded that ‘Abiola breached electoral law by wearing a dress bearing SDP logo’

    Walter Ofonagoro as Tofa’s campaign director of organization in a 14-point statement insisted that the election was not free and fair. And citing the Abuja court injunction, and quoting Obaigbena’s MKO’S alleged contravention of decree 13 of 1993 for parading himself before voters in Lagos in the colours and emblem of his party… he demanded “the disqualification of Chief Abiola, and Tofa declared duly elected or in the alternative, the June 12 election cancelled and a fresh poll conducted.”

    Clement Apamgbo, the Attorney-General of the Federation, was privy to Section 19 of the Presidential Election (Basic Constitution and Transitional Provision) Decree 13, of the 1993 which says “no interim or interlocutory order by any court or tribunal shall affect the date or time of the election”. But Nwosu, the NEC chairman confirmed that “The commission was served with a writ of summons through the honourable Attorney-General of the federation to show cause why the commission should not be charged for contempt of the said Abuja High Court for conducting the said election in defiance of the court order.”

    Duro Onabule, Babangida’s chief press secretary, while all this was going on, refuted foreign media reports that the federal government was interfering with the results of the presidential election. According to his statement: “NEC has been saddled with the responsibility of conducting the election; and it is left to it to bring to government’s attention any problem that tended to adversely affect its patterns. Government was yet to get any complaint from NEC.”

    General Adulsalami Abubakar, another major player in the June 12 debacle emerged following the death of Abacha to rescue the totally discredited military from final humiliation. Abiola died under his custody. In 1998, the embattled military wanted someone that would protect them out of government. They reached out for jailed Obasanjo who had during his own transition in 1979 opposed Obafemi Awolowo for threatening to deal with individual military officers that looted state treasuries.

    General Obasanjo was the main beneficiary of June 12 tragedy. He had said at the onset of the crisis that Abiola was not the messiah Nigerians were waiting for. He helped in installing an illegal Interim National Government headed by Ernest Sonekan, Abiola’s Egba kinsman. When the military zeroed on him as their candidate in 1998, Babangida, Danjuma, David Mark and other military ex- office-holders and their contractors including Kalu Uzor Kalu sponsored his candidacy. Obasanjo served two terms without acknowledging the contribution of Abiola to the enthronement of democracy. In an attempt to obliterate June 12 1993, Obasanjo and PDP fraudulently imposed May 29, the day the military was humiliated out of power as ‘Democracy Day’.

    This abridged history of June 12 and its enemies is important for our youths because none of the above men except Humphrey Nwosu has bothered to write his memoirs.

  • June 12 and the road to conscience

    June 12 and the road to conscience

    SIR: When Professor Eghosa Osaghae described Nigeria as a ‘Crippled Giant’, he was merely speaking the minds of many. That appellation describes everything that has been wrong with Nigeria since independence. Even the late Chinua Achebe identified leadership as the bane of the country over three decades ago. Leadership it is which continues to confound us. It is the reason why even as we bask in the euphoria of our nascent yet shaky democracy, those who are supposed to recognise democracy from where it was coming from have failed to give it the recognition it deserves.

    On June 12, 1993, Nigerians forgot their differences, tribe, religion and tongue. Twenty years after, we are still undecided as to how to accord that day its rightful place in our political journey to democracy. Since 1999, all those who have tasted power at the top have refused to listen to wise counsel to accord June 12 its due.

    June 12 may seem to those at the top as an irrelevant period in our history. It may appear as yet another useless eon that should be swept under the carpet like past ones which comes to us in fragments. It may sound to the Nigerian leadership as that period that must be suppressed, buried or even thrown in the dustbin of history. But we must not forget that the past always has its way of finding and haunting the present and future.

    Are we surprised that 53 years since independence and 14 years into our nascent democracy, we are still battling with electoral malfeasance? Are we not shocked that we are yet to find that good luck we have always yearned for even when ironically, good luck seems to be the norm peddled everywhere by political shenanigans and economic sycophants with little or nothing to show for it? Are we not seeing that ethnic tensions and religious intolerance which June 12 swiftly shoved aside have begun rearing its big and ugly head more than ever before in our political history? It is only the blind that would simply deny seeing the paintings on the wall. Even the blind in today’s Nigeria sees better than those with eyesight!

    If for all the salt we are worth, we cannot give adulation to that day and the significance it envisages; then we are not worth celebrating our heroes past which Chief Abiola luxuriously belonged. It is most unfortunate that the democracy we all claim to enjoy today, even when there is nothing to enjoy, what with the myriads of challenges confronting us as a nation, is not seen from the angle of the June 12 insignia. We are blinded by our prejudices that we do not understand that one man, against all odds and who despite the wealth, fame and connections in his possession, which ordinarily should have been channelled towards personal comfort, decided to suffer and risk his life and all the good things of life to pay the price for the freedom we are quickly tearing apart today.

    Abiola meant a lot to all Nigerians and we must do his memory a lot of good, not by mere rhetoric or speeches, as we have witnessed in the last one year, but by committing ourselves to acts that pursue equity and social justice for our nascent democracy and the vast majority of our people, after all, the democracy we all critique vehemently today was what Chief Abiola died for.

     

    • Raheem Oluwafunminiyi

    Lagos

  • Maximum leader, minimal democracy

    Maximum leader, minimal democracy

    Nigerians are loud, opinionated and impatient. Ordinarily, those traits should make for a vibrant and fascinating democratic adventure where freedom of expression and choice, as well as transparency in public affairs would take root.

    But for a people who are quick on the draw when expressing their views, recent events are evidence that we would also be content with a system of governance where a maximum ruler lays down the law and his loyal subjects fall obediently in line.

    Over the last two weeks we’ve been celebrating democracy with two symbolic dates. May 29 speaks to an uncommon longevity of civil rule – an unbroken run of 14 years. June 12 reminded us of the subversion of the very ideal we claim to hanker for.

    How interesting that the celebrations took place in the shadow of the bitter battle to elect a new leadership for the influential Nigerian Governors Forum (NGF). While it was fun for a while reducing what happened to a David and Goliath contest in which an increasingly overbearing president received his comeuppance at the hands of a Lilliputian governor, there are deeper issues at play here.

    Thirty-five governors locked themselves in a room and willingly subjected themselves to a democratic contest. When the dust settled, two “chairmen” emerged in a contest that could only produce one! The winner had a majority of 19 votes; the other claimant had a majority of pre-polling endorsements but only 16 votes.

    How telling that 20 years after General Ibrahim Babangida and his military co-conspirators annulled the results of the June 12, 1993 election, Nigerians are still being made to endure a brazen attempt to annul what was a clear-cut victory by Rivers State Governor, Rotimi Amaechi.

    Many governors who until now had been posturing as democrats have been exposed as they sought to deny what had happened by explaining that there had never been an election in the NGF, or that the polling should never have been filmed.

    Today, everyone has a version of the history of forum; how it had always chosen its leadership by consensus. One wonders where all the historians were in the run-up to the election. How come none of these custodians of the NGF folklore never piped up with a word of dissent all those months when it was clear that the next leader would emerge through balloting?

    One of the most disgraceful aspects of the NGF fiasco is the meddling by President Goodluck Jonathan. Following the defeat of his preferred candidate, Plateau State Governor, Jonah Jang, the president and his aides have sought to distance him from the mess. But then there he was recognising and addressing the “loser” as chairman of the governors forum at some Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) event in Abuja.

    What sort of example is that? Of course, he had never hidden the fact that he was opposed to Amaechi’s return. But then he’s president of Nigeria, not of the PDP and ought to elevate himself above certain things because of the exalted position he holds.

    When it suits them, those around Jonathan are quick to flay the opposition for “playing politics with everything.” They are also known to deliver lectures pointing out that elections had been held and won, and now was the time for governing, not politicking. That sermon was clearly lost on Jonathan who ought to have done everything he could to insulate himself – at least publicly – from the bitter politics of the NGF.

    By endorsing Jang and refusing to recognize the man who won the election on the night, Jonathan and the PDP have behaved in the same fashion as those who refused to accept the electoral outcome of June 12, 1993. The ‘annulers’ equally had reasons for refusing to concede.

    If Jonathan and his henchmen have refused to lead and set an example with something as simple as the NGF election, why should they expect the opposition accept any electoral outcome that isn’t favourable to them? In the same breath why would anyone believe that PDP, given their conduct in this instance, will accept anything short of victory in 2015? Put simply the bane of Nigerians elections which is mutual suspicion of the participants and the electoral umpire has only just been tragically reinforced.

    In the aftermath of the collapse of the PDP strategy to impose its man on the NGF, the party has gone overboard as it sought to exact revenge against the “traitors” who torpedoed its agenda. Both Amaechi and Sokoto State Governor, Magatarkada Wamakko, are out on their ears – the latter suspended for the most flimsy of reasons: refusing to take party chairman, Bamanga Tukur’s calls.

    Whatever may be the sins of these two men, it is evident that their greatest fault is refusal to toe the party line one hundred percent. In democratic practice there is certainly a place for enforcing the supremacy of the party. But truly democratic parties also allow room for dissent otherwise they would be no different from the old Communist parties in the USSR, China or Cuba. I may add that this flaw is not a failing of only the PDP.

    So instead of beginning to build a democratic culture with robust parties with internal traditions of vibrant and open disputation, what we now see is debate being driven underground. Parties are being split along the lines of ultra loyalists and the band of Judases.

    Debate and dissent are now dangerous foreign bodies to be stamped out at all cost. In this setting, the president or whoever is the maximum ruler at federal or state level simply lays down the law, and the rest of the cadres fall in line. In other words, the president has become the party.

    Amidst all the sentimentality that has trailed the NGF polls, the incongruity of trying to create of a new maximum ruler in a democratic environment seems lost on even the most sober of us. I have heard very intelligent people argue that governors had become too powerful and needed to have their wings clipped.

    Let’s hold this thought for a moment: if the governors are less powerful than they are now, the president simply becomes a Frankenstein monster no one can rein in. Even with the checks and balances in our system a reckless occupant of Aso Rock can unsettle the leadership of the states and National Assembly. Things even out when all sides realise there’s a balance of terror.

    In the end having these various centers of power is not so bad after all. Decisions can be arrived at on a more consensual basis. The different tendencies in the country would be carried along, and people wouldn’t feel too alienated. But beware the fake democracy where one man’s word is law.

  • 20 years after June 12: Noise without deliberation

    20 years after June 12: Noise without deliberation

    Twenty years after annulment of the presidential election of June 12, 1993 and the struggle for democratization that raged for four years against the dictatorship of Sani Abacha, the country has not made substantial progress in terms of responding to demands for democracy of and for nationalities in the country. But in terms of electoral democracy, the country has made some strides in the direction of de-militarization of the polity. Beyond conducting elections at intervals and electing officers to conduct the business of government at the federal and state levels, one crucial element of the struggle against military rule has been left unattended: the demand for restructuring of the polity.

    Since the coming of civil rule in 1999, there have been media and political debates on the topic of re-structuring without sincere efforts to really address the problem with the hope of solving it. In the fashion of the proverbial Nigeria factor, debates on the issue of re-federalizing the country have been so cacophonous and suggestive of efforts to debate in order to prevent proper debate and deliberation. The process started with General Olusegun Obasanjo. During his first term, he referred to those asking for sovereign national conference as individuals that wanted the country to break. In his second term, he organized what he called Political Reform Conference. At the end of the conference, nothing substantial was achieved. This again induced fresh calls for people’s constitution.

    President Umaru Yar’Adua did not have time to worry about addressing calls for restructuring, if he at all paid attention to them. But he succeeded in setting up a police reforms committee. The committee recommended that the central police system should be funded from the federation account, without giving any space of authority to the states which along with the central government own the federation account. As one area considered by federalists to be crucial to restructuring, those calling for a people’s constitution came back to the podium to drum up their demands.

    Then President Goodluck Jonathan emerged. He too was quick to pontificate that Nigeria’s current constitution has no serious problem and that the structure of the polity is in order. Shortly after saying that, he formed a special committee to look at the 1999 Constitution and make recommendations on how to improve the country’s union charter. Knowing that the recommendations of the Belgore Committee did not address the issues raised by committed federalists about the current constitution, citizens continued to make the same demands that include calls for a people’s constitution to be determined at a sovereign national conference or a constitutional conference.

    On its own part, the National Assembly expressed readiness to amend the constitution. Over sanguine federalists took this to mean that federal lawmakers would make recommendations to make the current constitution more federal. The process has been on for almost two years without any promise about when it will end. But from information released by lawmakers, the constitution, after amendment, is more likely to look more unitary, as we observed in this column last week. The purpose of the short historical journey since 1999 is to inform our readers about the failure of the country’s post-military political class to embark on de-militarizing and re-federalizing the polity. All efforts to make civilian rulers realize that continuing to govern the country with a constitution and a governance architecture that have no input from citizens is dangerous have not led to proper deliberation, even though they have generated a lot of noise.

    Efforts by federal legislators to amend the constitution notwithstanding, two types of discourse have emerged and have been raging for the past one year: Unity discourse and Diversity discourse. Those who control the unity discourse insist that the current constitution is perfect. To them, what is wrong with the constitution is the quality of those who use or supervise the use of the charter. The core of the unity discourse is that if Nigeria is able to get good leaders, all its problems regarding managing its diversity optimally would be over. This school of thought also affirms that devolving more powers to the states is capable of causing disintegration of the country and that recognizing the county’s nationalities in the constitution as Ethiopia has done successfully is capable of breaking Nigeria. Centralists are quick to affirm that should Nigerians insist on electing a man or woman of higher quality than we have had since independence, constitutional problems that militate against peace and progress will disappear. In other words, the problem is lack of benevolent leadership.

    But Diversity discourse focuses on the role of cultural plurality in the politics and economy of a multiethnic state. They ask for constitutional intervention in the management of the country’s diversity. Leaders calling for recognition of diversity insist that culture has a significant role in political and economic development and that cultural differences in the country are not likely to disappear and are also not injurious to the country’s unity, if well managed. Federalists insist that Nigeria may have bad luck that prevents it from having good and benevolent leaders, especially at the federal level. But they affirm that lack of benevolent leadership is not as impactful as lack of benevolent governance structure and institutions. They argue that many countries that have similar multiethnic character have created peace for the purpose of progress by adopting federal arrangements: Argentina, Austria, Brazil, Belgium, Canada, Ethiopia, Spain, Switzerland, the United Arab Emirates, and the United States of America, to name a few. Some federalists are even saying that the problems of Boko Haram partially result from failure to address the national question in the design of the country’s governance structure. In short, federalists believe that the problem of the country is not one of benevolent leadership versus benevolent structure; rather it is a combination of both. They also think that a humanist approach to governance suggests that it is easier to work at benevolent structure than to create benevolent leadership. Political systems are not about creating personalities that can create political miracles; they are about creating institutions that are conducive to enriching the performance of average political leaders in office.

    The challenge as we begin the third decade after June 12 must continue to include wishing the heroes who died while struggling for democracy in the country: MKO Abiola, Alfred Rewane, Kudirat Abiola, and many others to rest in perfect peace. It must also include finding ways to elevate the discourse of federalism that is almost being drowned by the thinking that says an imposed constitution is not as much of a problem as finding supermen to rule Nigeria.

  • Why June 12 still matters

    Why June 12 still matters

    (An almanac of national folly)

    June 12!!!! Spring is in full spring. But it is not yet summer, at least not officially. There is something profoundly mystical about this date. There is something grandly metaphysical about its provenance. It feels very good around this time. But it also feels eerily daunting and tasking. The human fear of the after effects of climatic good fortunes has kicked in. Had General Babangida and his cohorts consulted astrologers, they would have been told to beware of the Ides of June.

    Let us play some zodiac games. In the Gregorian calendar we have 12 months that make up a year. June is in the middle, and the middle of nowhere.  The twelfth day of June is in the middle of June, but not quite in the full middle. In other words, June 12 is in the near middle of the middle of nowhere. The in-between nature generates its own astral tensions. The twelfth night after Christmas is when merriment officially ends and serious business begins. Twelve is double six, and yet they say there is no difference between six and half a dozen.

    The number 12 has played a significant role in the political evolution of modern Nigeria. Just before June in 1967 and on the eve of the civil war, the then Major General Yakubu Gowon restructured the nation into a twelve-state federation. Twelve years later, it was the magical legal formula known as 12 2/3 which prevented the Murtala-Obasanjo Transition from achieving full integrity and fidelity to democratic norms. The military and their civilian accomplices had insinuated the virus that will destroy their own baby.

    General Babangida probably  never gave any thought to the zodiac import of the date when he lighted upon it. It was going to be another day for the permanent shuffling and reshuffling of the cards of transition which this author described then as “transfiction”. But there were enough astral signals to warn even political novices about the danger of toying with the destiny of the greatest conglomeration of Black souls in the world.

      As usual, it was the Americans that first picked the scent of political perfidy. Acutely aware of the political shenanigans going on in Abuja and the reality that IBB was about to abort the election , the Washington authorities caused a certain Mr O’Brien, their USIS chief of Bureau, to issue a stern warning that America would view such a move with great displeasure. For his pains, the USIS Bureau Chief was summarily expelled from Nigeria. The transition had arrived at terminus.

    The actual date itself was full of portents. The elements and the god of nations were warning those who had held Nigerians in military thralldom to let go. For a normally watery eyed month of June, not a single incident of significant rainfall was recorded anywhere in the nation on that day. And for a country with a global reputation for electoral mayhem, there was no record of any significant political disturbance throughout the length and breadth of the nation. Nigerians put up their best behavior to see off their military overlords. Everywhere was eerily calm.

    It is useful to situate this strange calmness on June 12, 1993 within the explosive and combustible background of the country’s political evolution. Twenty three years earlier in January, 1970, the country a three year civil war which was as bitter as it was savage came to a sudden end. The casualties figures were high and alarming . Thereafter, the country lapsed into hard-fisted military rule which many believed was necessary to lay the foundation of a strong, virile and united nation after the ravages and ruination of the Civil War.  Between January 1970 and June 1993, the military had ruled Nigeria continuously with the exception of a brief civilian interlude of four years between 1979 and 1983. Between December 1983 and June 1993, military officers from a particular region ruled the nation continuously as a result of the overwhelming domination of the officer corps by that region.

    But there is time for everything. By 1993, a significant section of Nigerians, particularly the educated elites, were saying no to military rule in any guise or hue. But in spite of all the warnings and ominous portents, history teaches that those who play the game of domination and hegemony never know when and where to stop. In the first instance, if they are weak-willed, they would never have been able to retain their hegemony. But as compulsive political gamblers, they never know when enough is enough. In the process, they tend to lose everything.

    Are there lessons to be learnt from the June 12 fiasco?  Of course there are signal lessons to learn and the tribal henchmen  of the current hegemony must read the following carefully.  Twenty years after June 12, 1993 and 43 years after the end of the civil war, an Ijaw president rules over Nigeria, taking his turn after presidents of Yoruba and Fulani extraction. Pontificating over the length of tenure of each is a foolish political exercise. What is significant is that 20 years ago when a structurally lopsided military was at the zenith of its power, such a development appeared impossible and in fact unthinkable.

    This significant political development would have been impossible without the struggle for the revalidation of the June 12, 1993 presidential election. The symbol of that struggle, M.K.O Abiola, was a most unlikely hero. The late business mogul was not everybody’s cup of tea, even among his fellow Yoruba political elite. There were many  who hold the view that the tragedy of Abiola was the tragedy of a man who forgot his origins. He was a creation of the military that eventually destroyed him.

    Yet in a significant respect, Abiola typifies the saying that it is not how you begin that matters but how you end up. Abiola has ended on the right side of history. Erupting from the ranks of villains, Abiola ended on the side of saints. Martyrdom, especially with the eyes wide-open, is not an easy proposition for people of money and means. Abiola took his own on the chin.  As he gradually passes into legend and folklore, he will be better remembered and much better regarded than most of those who have actually ruled Nigeria.

    It is important to restate this fact particularly in the light of those who will reduce the June 12 struggle to an ethnic affair, or are wont to see the continuing celebration of its memory as the annual ritual of Yoruba political disturbance of the nation.  June 12 is about firm and founding principles without which a nation may never know peace, order and prosperity.  The presidency of a country is not the birthright of an ethnic group. Neither is it the permanent possession of an ethnically derived political and military caste.

    It would have been easier for everybody and the nation if this lesson had not been learnt the hard way. But just as there are obstinate people, there also obtusely obstinate nations that can only learn the hard way. The struggle to establish foundational principles can be very ruinous for a stubborn nation. The casualties are often horrendous. The June 12 struggle cost Abiola his life.

    On June 8, 1998, it also led to the dramatic termination of General Abacha’s life in famously sordid and sorry circumstances. It led to the ruination of the old military establishment and its professional demystification. It led to the humiliation of the Sokoto caliphate and the decimation of its political authority.  It has consigned many formerly powerful people to political irrelevance and a few self-important actors to figures of national scorn and derision.

    But as an avenging talisman for foundational principles, June 12 is not finished with the nation.  As a direct and indirect consequence, 20 years after June 12, 1993, 43 years after the end of the civil war and 47 years after Isaac Adaka Boro’s rebellion was swiftly put down, a president of Ijaw extraction is presiding over the military and political pacification of the old north.  Its hegemony having been exposed as a pious fraud by a radical internal rebellion, the old northern establishment is in a shambles.

    To anybody who had lived in this country prior to June 12 1993, particularly before and after the annulment of the presidential election, the current development would appear strange and inexplicable, the stuff of the fictional subgenre known as magical realism. To a political Rip Van Winkle who has slept for the past 20 years waking up to the vastly altered political landscape of Nigeria, the situation would have been as bewildering as it is disorienting.  In ordinary political perception, it would have taken a major political earthquake to bring the mighty north so to heel.

    The irony is that the real earthquake occurred on June 23, 1993 when the military summarily annulled the freest and fairest election in the history of the nation thus setting the stage for prolonged and protracted national instability. The arbitrary decimation of the sovereign will of the fourteen million Nigerian electorate that performed their civic obligation 11 days earlier set the stage and opened the gate for radical and armed interrogation of the state which has proved very costly to the country’s dominant political structure.

    In retrospect then, perhaps the most significant lesson of June 12 is that those who cling to power in the name of privilege are destined to lose both power and privilege. If the establishment and enshrinement of the first principle of a level playing ground for all ethnic groups proved so costly to the nation, the second, which is the establishment of a level playing ground for all Nigerians irrespective of religion, creed or class, is about to prove even more costly.

    This is the second foundational principle that now has to be established, that all Nigerians irrespective of race, region or religion have a right to aspire to rule and preside over the affairs of Nigeria provided the electorate relinquish their sovereign authority by endorsing the aspiration. It is to be noted that while the first principle involves an inter-elite but intra-class struggle and contestation for power, the second involves an anti-elitist and inter-class struggle for power and hegemony. Nigeria cannot be said to be truly and fully democratic until the second principle has been established and the transition/transfer of power to the citizens has taken place.

    To our ultra-radical compatriots who pooh-poohed  the June 12 struggle as an elite affair, we say that it amounts to infantile radicalism to believe that in a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural nation with multifarious modes of political and economic production concurrently playing out, it is possible to crash the historic gear to the second stage without going through the first. If the dominant political elite of a nation can deny other members access to power based on narrow ethnic affiliations, one must shudder at the fate of the ordinary people. Struggle must flow from concrete and material reality and not from idealist constructs in the head.

    It is this second transition that must now take place under Jonathan’s watch. We can no longer rail about a feudal oligarchy. But the atmosphere is so fouled up that even normally liberal-minded Yoruba elite view the seeming chummy relationship between the dominant political tendency in their region and the old north with wary unease, wondering whether they are about to be sold to the “aulde enemy” all over again by a bewitched political leadership .

     If gold can thus rust, one can imagine the fate of iron.  The ironic reality of the nation today is that the ethnic injury and abiding trauma of the transition from military despotism to civil rule has made the next potentially more costly and ruinous. But this transition must now take place. Fortunately for Goodluck Jonathan, he has two more years to convince Nigerians that true democracy has finally berthed on their shores. Unfortunately for him, the ethnic sabre rattlers surrounding him are urging him to resort to anti-democratic self-help on the grounds that having suffered the yoke of oppression for so long, the Ijaws must also hold on to power for as long as possible.

    Evil is permanent but truth is also constant. There are some prominent Nigerians who have become permanent fixtures of evil, having fought against the restoration of Abiola’s mandate, even as they are currently urging  Jonathan on.  But there are also many patriots who fought against the annulment of Abiola’s mandate who are also involved in the current struggle to deepen democracy in Nigeria.  If Jonathan succumbs to the first mindset, he will most likely leave Aso Rock as a tragic failure, a principal beneficiary of a process who also became one of its principal casualties.

    We can now see why June 12 mattered and still matters. Perhaps the most significant lesson is that like human beings, nations also make history and progress but not under the circumstances of their choice. Societal evolution progresses by detours, diversions and digressions. It is often circuitous and mind-bending, but most of the time it is not without its own peculiar logic. May the noble soul of Moshood Abiola rest in peace.

  • June 12, sociopaths, and the many plagues of Nigeria

    June 12, sociopaths, and the many plagues of Nigeria

    The annulled June 12, 1993 election stands for many things to many people. To some people, the date is all about M.K.O. Abiola’s unrealised mandate. To others, the date is a reminder of loved ones lost and gone: the ones who died when news of Abiola’s win was being relayed, the ones who died when the tanks were rolled out on the streets in the protests that followed the annulment, and the ones who died when the resulting upheaval necessitated some travelling to ‘go home’. To the surviving relatives of all these departed ones, that date will continually bring sad memories. To many of us ‘others’, it stands as a continual beckon of ever receding hope, still there, still being chased but getting ever fainter and fainter. That fading light is no other than that Nigerians can manage to agree on something when they put their minds to it. That something could of course be an election candidate (like Abiola), a pet peeve (politicians), a favourite colour (food), or a ‘national’ dish (pounded yam I think).

    The trouble is that we have failed to move from the point at which June 12 met us. At that point, we were wondering who we were as a people, either just odious or plain ogres. Then, we killed and maimed each other recklessly in the name of God, and we starved ourselves of needed development for ethnic reasons. Life after that point has been no better; we are still wandering around our national sub consciousness as the Israelites of yore wandered over Palestine, only now without their shame and repentance. We are still killing and maiming each other, and still starving ourselves of much needed developments; the only reason for that now is that we have collectively adopted the psychology of sociopaths.

    A sociopath, says my dictionary, is a person with an antisocial personality disorder, exhibiting antisocial behaviour that usually is the result of social and environmental factors in the person’s early life. The only common factor I see in the early life of us Nigerians is this high level of ignorance mixed with a little bit of poverty. However, I don’t think poverty has much to do with the monumental waste by people in positions of authority that we are witnessing in Nigeria today; I think it’s all that very, very toxic ignorance that got mixed into our corn cereal when we were young. It has made us all sociopathic.

    That’s right; the nation has been seized by many sociopathic plagues, as it did Pharaoh’s Egypt. Shall I name them, or have you been reading the handwriting on the wall too? For exercise, oh do let me; I promise to make it more fun. Our first plague is the government that perpetually oscillates between somnambulism and somniloquism. It jerks its knees only when you hit it with a patella of criticism. Seriously, I know my medical subject, thank you very much.

    The problem is that everything revolves around good governance, and it is not coming from our government. Good governance interrupts evil instincts and directs us all to what is good for the sake of everyone. It insists that everyone tempers his/her sociopathic tendencies with something closely resembling good sense. Rather than slap my neighbour with a law suit for leaving his tree branches to shed leaves into my compound, therefore, I learn to grin, bear it and plant my own tree near the wall. When I find that the driver of the car in front of me has stopped to hold a meeting with his long lost friend coming in the opposite direction, I don’t ‘accidentally’ run into the said car from behind. If I do, I’m only giving way to my sociopathic tendencies. Instead, the government should help me to be able to point him to a law that says I deserve to get home early too after a hard day’s work without anyone stopping in front of me to talk about their village. So, please help us government to help ourselves because sociopathic tendencies have got us something terrible.

    The second plague is that this country is peopled with monkeys with fish brains who have absolutely no inkling of what it means to be real human beings. That includes me of course. Just the other day, I heard the story of how an Okada man hit a taxi and, rather than apologise, hid his fault behind the support of his fellow Okada riders who one by one stopped by to lend a hand in the quarrel. The union support was so much that another Okada rider was said to have pulled up on the opposite side of the road, jumped across and slapped the taxi driver before asking what happened. We have become that lawless.

    Can you also tell me why else someone would take a look at his parent’s house and set fire to it because his parents refused to give him a certain amount of money? Or, how can one explain why an individual would spend his section’s entire subvention on a car for a girlfriend? Yesterday, I heard a new one. A man, someone said, would even go so far as to buy an air-conditioned car for his girlfriend while he and his family would use a non-air-conditioned one. Now, I have heard the common saying that people give out only what they have but surely this is loving one’s neighbour more than oneself.

    My third plague? Take a look at the Nigeria Police Force. Why would our Nigeria Police perpetually confront unarmed protesting civilians with heavy artillery that are usually not available when armed robbers strike? Even though the University of Uyo incident is still not clear (no one seems to be able to tell with any certainty whether Mr. Kingsley was killed within or without the campus), it has happened too many times. It is certain though that there have been too many other loose-trigger incidents involving the police. Why, the Kwara State affair, in which a police bullet said to have been meant for a taxi driver who did not leave the way in time for a bullion van, found a Polytechnic student instead. I say that affair is still fresh in every one’s memory, and so is the young man’s wound for that matter. Now tell me, how much more sociopathic can we get?

    Shall I go on with the plagues? Try the (un)civil service… the (a)public service… teachers… students… politicians… Niger Delta… boko haram… and… Oh, what’s the use; it will just be one plague after another and we will be no wiser at the end of the day, like Pharaoh. We are in dire straits then, caught between the absence of good governance, and those plaguing plagues. A shucks to them things!

    Many of us have carried on as if this fourth republic democracy is built on the blood and sweat of June 12, and so it is. Actually, to claim otherwise would be hypocritical, and we get enough of that from our pastors and Imams and other religious pundits, thank you. Let us wise up. One would have thought such monumental losses of human resources as happened around the June 12 matter would sort of knock some sense into us and bring us, at least, to the edge of self-realisation instead of down this labyrinthine path of self-interest and self-gratification. Self-realisation as a people is the only way we can define who we are as a nation, a people and a kind. Hopefully, it would also assist us to determine our goals, purposes and place amidst this troubled brood of vipers and generations currently peopling this world.

  • June 12: IBB divides MKO Abiola’s family

    June 12: IBB divides MKO Abiola’s family

    Two younger brothers of the late Chief M.K.O. Abiola yesterday rubbished a statement by their sibling,Alhaji Mubasiru Abiola, in which he described former military president, General Ibrahim Babangida, as a pillar of the family since the demise of the winner of the June 12, 1993 presidential election.

    The larger Abiola family met yesterday on the issue with Alhaji Muritala Abiola and Engineer Sule Abiola, declaring that Mubasiru spoke for himself.

    The election, widely regarded as the fairest and freest in the nation’s history ,was annulled by Babangida.

    Babangida’s successor, the late General Sani Abacha, clamped Chief M.K.O.Abiola into detention after the politician publicly proclaimed himself president.

    He died in detention in 1998 moments before he was to be released by the General Abdulsalami Abubakar regime.

    Mubasiru had, in an interview in Abeokuta, to mark the 20th anniversary of the annulled election of his brother, said contrary to the view that Babangida should be held responsible for Abiola’s fate, the former military ruler had been kind to the family.

    But speaking to The Nation yesterday after a family meeting, Alhaji Muritala Abiola and Engineer Sule Abiola, secretary of the family said “there is no truth in Mubasiru’s statement.”

    Muritala, who is also the Baale of Agbado said: “Mubasiru has been claiming to be the head of the MKO Abiola family. I do not know how that is. But I know that he is not the head of the (Salaudeen) Abiola family which is the parent body of the MKO Abiola family. And I do not know where his claim of even being the head of the MKO Abiola family comes from.

    “All of us are learned. MKO was an accountant; I am an accountant, my younger brother is an engineer and our sister is a banker. Taju Abiola is an engineer too, and one of us holds a doctorate degree in Business Administration and works in a bank.

    “There never was a time that we appointed Mubasiru as the head of the entire Salaudeen Abiola family or the MKO Abiola family. So he is just making a jest of himself declaring and claiming to be the head of the family. Abiola family is not about me or anybody or any individual. It is a general body, not one person.

    “How could he declare IBB as the pillar of the family? I don’t know where that statement originated from. May be IBB is his own pillar.

    “I don’t know what Mubasiru means by that statement; may be IBB has a room at MKO Abiola’s house in Ikeja, Lagos, since Mubasiru has declared him the head and pillar of MKO Abiola family. I don’t know. But Mubasiru must have his own reasons for saying such. The family hereby disassociates itself from his June 12 20th anniversary celebration statement. I, therefore, say openly that Mubasiru is doing what he is doing for himself, not for the family.

    “What I know is that the Abiola family has never received any money from Mubasiru collected from any source on behalf of the family. Mubasiru has never declared any money to the Abiola family. We also heard that when President Obasanjo was in government, he gave money to the family. People said the money was over a million naira or so, but it was all hearsay.

    “When Kudi Abiola died, I was particular about IBB not coming for the burial. I made noise over the matter that I did not want to see him there, that I might even kill him if he came. I was very angry and I meant it. It was while I was attending to Bamaiyi that IBB sneaked in and sneaked out. I rushed down when I was told, but he had sneaked out. He did not stay for long at all.

    “During the government of Segun Osoba, the Abiola family was given money during June 12 celebration. For this, we decided to go and pay him a courtesy visit to show appreciation. It was there that Mubasiru jumped up to speak for the family. Since then, he started parading himself publicly as the head of the Abiola family.“

    Corroborating MurtaIa’s statement, Sule said: “Mubasiru is not the head of the family, and has never been the official head. Two heads cannot run a ship.

  • What June 12 means to students

    What June 12 means to students

    The Nation recently visited some schools in Lagos to get student’s view on the June 12, 1993 Presidential election . Sampson Unamka presents their views

    Jessica Dougherty a JSS student of Turning Point College Isolo said:

    “To my own understanding June 12 reminds me of a philanthropist, a great patriot and a politician M.K.O Abiola who fought and died for Democracy of Nigeria.”

     

    Shola Ayanlere, SS 2 student said:   “June 12 is a day that is declared public holiday and meant for children to celebrate.”
    Akintunde omokehinde, SS2 student of Queen’s college Akoka Lagos, said:  “June 12 is being recognized in Lagos state as a public holiday in remembrance of the late mogul chief MKO Abiola.”
    Adeyemi Dare, 17 years old student of Government College Lagos, said:
    “June 12 to my understanding came into being as a result of the struggle for democracy under military. The election held on that day was described as the best and most free election in the country up to
    date which Chief MKO Abiola won. June 12 is seen as a remembrance day for Abiola and democracy in Nigeria.”
    Abubakar Olawale, 20 years old student said:

    “June 12 is a day we were supposed to be celebrating democracy but turned sour because the election was annulled. It should not be celebrated because it’s a day we ought not to remember. Many lives were lost, many houses were burnt, we had to revert to army things, and Nigeria had to wait another 6 years to experience democracy under those who know nothing about ruling.”
    Obah Raymond Azubuike,  20,  applicant said:

    “June 12 is the true democracy day, but a legend MKO ABIOLA is being celebrated instead, because he offered his money, name and subsequently paid the supreme price for the entire nation to have a democracy.”
    Okolo Juliet, 19 years old student and ND holder said:

    “June 12 was the day that MKO Abiola ran for the position of the president in
    1993 and was presumed winner but was denied the position and the
    election I think was the first democratic election Nigeria ever had, I
    read it in a book.”
    Ohenhen Iyosayi, 17 years old student of Soundmind Group of schools, Iyana Ipaja, said:

    “June12, 1993 was the only election that has ever been conducted in Nigeria were all Nigerians picked Abiola of SDP, as winner of the elections And Abiola who was the winner was denied his mandate because Babaginda refused to declare the election result. The following year, Abiola fought for his right but still didn’t get it; then Shonekan later became the Head of State in 1994. From my own understanding June 12 was the only election ever that Nigerians came together as one and
    pick a Head of state. My teacher told us about June 12.”
    Rasheed Ojelab20 years old student of TASUED, said

    “June 12 was the day presidential election held between Abiola of SDP and Tofa of NRC. MKO Abiola of Social Democratic Party defeated Basiru Tofa of National Republican Convention. Surprisingly, the elections were later annulled by military government, Ibrahim Babangida, leading to a crisis that ended with Sani Abacha heading a coup later in the year. June 12 is a memorable day.”
    Opakunbi Rachel, 400 level student of Bowen University said

    “It is the freest and fairest election ever conducted in the history of this nation because the two contestants from NRC and SDP were both Muslim and nobody complained about it but
    went out en-mass to vote for their candidate of choice which happens to be Chief MKO Abiola.  Nigeria would have moved from where it is now to a greater height if Chief MKO had won, but because of the annulment we are still crawling. June 12 is like a plague on us in this country, it is a truthful thing that has ever happened but we tried to wave it off just because of certain reasons best known to those who did it.”
    Olojede Seyi Ebenezer, student of UNILAG said:

    “June 12 to the best of my knowledge is a day set aside for the remembrance of the winner of the 1993 election. A man who is nationally recognize as a democrat and a sport man. He is known as the father of democracy in Nigeria because he fought for true democracy, this man is no other
    person than late chief MKO Abiola.”
    Olayiwola Feyisayo, student of Lagos State Senior Model College Igbokuta said

    “On June 12 1993, millions of Nigerians voted in the best election ever conducted in the history of the
    country between Chief M.K.O Abiola and Alhaji Tofa. Nigerians voted massively in favour of Moshood Abiola and also Bashir Tofa (the opponent) was said to have sent congratulatory message to Chief MKO
    Abiola. There was happiness all over Nigeria, there was hope that a new damn had come. I heard of a story of a tailor during that period that refused to be paid for the services he rendered. He was so
    overjoyed that at last hope has come to the people and also bus conductor and driver were offering free ride, you didn’t have to pay for anything. That was the spirit and mood until Nigerians received a
    rude shock from the military led by Ibrahim Babagida. He announced the annulment of the result of the election without reasons. The fact was that MKO Abiola was supposed to win the election.”

  • Like June 12, like Biafra

    TOFA’S FICTIONAL JUNE 12: I was in a quandary as to how to open and manage the long, sad story of Biafra and June 12, 1993 in just about 1000 words until I read Alhaji Bashir Tofa’s comment on the issue. Recall that June 12 represents the day Nigerians voted for a certain MKO Abiola; the day they bonded and chose Nigeria for the first time in her life and for her sake. Remember June 12, the E-day that took the baton from the Biafra war on our relay race of infamy. And remember Tofa, the neophyte who was drafted to run against MKO on that day of history, a man whom the gods ensconced on the laps of history but who can’t figure out that phenomenon even 20 years after.

    What did Tofa say? He said that the June 12, 1993 election is fiction, a dead issue. If you thought he made a mistake, he didn’t, he repeated it a few days later in Daily Sun interview (Wednesday June 12, 2013, page37) thus: “I sincerely believe that it is an episode that we need to get over with and look forward to a better electoral process and, therefore, a better democracy.” Gee! This really is the real problem with Nigeria; we are so blessed with non-leader leaders. How could a former presidential candidate, a leader in every respect describe his country’s history as fiction and ask that it be forgotten? How can you manage today and shape tomorrow if you discard yesterday? Is it possible that Tofa cannot see the connection between yesterday and today or, is he simply shuffling the cards of perfidy that has been perfected by the average Nigeria elite? Can’t he see that for 20 years June 12 has not gone away and like an aggrieved ghost, it will not? It has to be atoned.

    JUNE 12 AS A SHORT CHAPTER IN THE BIAFRA BOOK: If Tofa cannot fathom a history in which he was an actor-observer, how can he decipher the mysteries and metaphysics of the Biafra war of 46 years ago? Of course he suffers a blurred vision (or no vision at all) like most Nigerians, and surely cannot see that June 12 is but a short, sad chapter in the Biafra-Nigeria story. Whereas June 12 is an injustice to MKO Abiola and Nigerians of goodwill, Biafra was injustice to the Igbo race and humanity. Whereas Abiola lost his mandate, his wife, his businesses; a few Nigerians died and we lost our resolve to reconstruct our mother land anew, Igbo race suffered genocide. Untrammeled genocide executed with licentious impunity. It was about the extinguishing of the lives of about one million people, yes 1000,000 people. It was the infamy of a brother gleefully slaughtering his brother man, woman and children by sword, by axe, by machete, mortars and by starvation. It was a cold calculation to exterminate.

    The Biafran injustice unlike June 12 is the story of vengeful hatred, of mass killing of a people on the streets of Nigeria, of beheading people and loading their torsos on Eastern region bound trains, of cutting open pregnant women and harvesting their fetuses, of forced digging of own graves and burying alive, of mass execution, and mass burials on shallow graves…of unspeakable blood-cuddling bestiality not known in modern history. To begin to talk of material losses of Ndigbo in that blight is to chase a rat when one’s house is blazing. Is it the malicious shrinking of Igboland into a potato-sized, landlocked area it currently occupies, the excising of the mineral rich areas, the seaports and worse, seizure of entire towns and cities built up by the Igbo. For instance, the entire Port Harcourt which built by Igbo was hijacked and to hide the infamy, a funny re-designation of the streets and neighbourhoods with quasi-Igbo names was enacted. Thus after the war, Umokoro (the children of Okoro) suddenly becomes Rumuokoro, a blatant rumour and national thievery that has remained unchallenged till today. Oh, what woeful national chicanery turned to state policy! And we have lived this lie for 46 years.

    The Biafran injustice, unlike June 12, is the orchestrated brigandage of seizing Igbo houses and estates across the country in the guise of abandoned property. If it is not coordinated stealing on a national scale, how could a man abandon his property in his country? And many are still keeping those stolen properties till today, suffering no pang of conscience, passing to their generations, accursed, bloody heritage. What about the stolen shares, voided insurance policies, lost cash balances in the banks, lost businesses and business debts? It was a holocaust by another means but unlike Hiroshima which has continued to enjoy physical, emotional and spiritual restitution, Biafra gets only snide remarks and Igbo have received no concessions, no reconstruction, no reconciliation and no sign of remorse from their traducers.

    THRIVING CULT OF VILLAINS: Tofa calls June 12 fiction because Nigeria too is fictional. He wants us to forget it because we are a people living in denial. All this means nothing to him because he is a part of the growing cult of villains leading us as we shamble through this journey to nowhere. They do as they like, they say what they would, they live in a heady, heedless world of their own. They invoked Biafra upon us, reaped the bounties and left us to nurse the wound and live the trauma. For them Biafra was fiction better forgotten and un-interrogated; same June 12 – fictional Nigerian history.

    But what might be the mindset of a man who participated in the history of a people and does not recognize it. Tofa did not see his duty as a leader in Nigeria in June 1993 to re-enact a robust democracy in Nigeria. The same way General Ibrahim Babangida could not see that history was handing him a gift as the maker of modern Nigeria. He was so enamoured by the immediate fropperies of power he couldn’t see it. Sadly, he still has not seen it as he still not reconciled to it. Chief Olusegun Obasanjo is MKO Abiola’s kinsman who suffered from acute case of sibling envy. He bad-mouthed Abiola even in his travails and in death, he would not acknowledge or recognize him notwithstanding that he was the chief beneficiary of June 12. His tragedy today however, is that even after enjoying the largesse of June 12 as a two-term president of Nigeria he remains a wee little personality under Abiola’s shadow.

    General Sani Abacha is gone, so ingloriously gone that he is better left well alone. Chief Ernest Shonekan who was a subterfuge president for a few unremarkable days is still around or is he? Same for Senator Arthur Nzeribe the master of no scruples, the old man who would leak the soup plate with his tongue as Igbo would throw their jibe. He who was in the vanguard of that mindless scheme called ABN; the very instrument for scuttling June12. Where on earth is he now? Name them: Chief Tony Anenih is still up and about, roaming the world seeking to fix things that are not broken. Anenih was the erstwhile chairman of Abiola’s party that won an historic election. We must not forget General David mark, reigning senate president. He was among the young Turks, the giddy ‘Babangida Boys’ in the Armed Forces Ruling Council (AFRC) whom Babangida said, said Abiola must not be president. Mark still has not said anything to Nigeria on June 12.

    Enough said. But a man who does not know where the rain started to beat him, will never know where it stopped beating him, that is vintage Chinua Achebe. If we do not know that our troubles started with Biafra and the Igbo question we will be long in the cold.