'Babangida Owes Nigerians Explanation on June 12'
When the acclaimed winner of June 12, 1993 presidential election, Chief MKO Abiola died in detention in 1998, a group known as Youth Vigil for Democracy (YVD) took over his Ikeja, Lagos residence for several days barring all persons considered as pro-military from entering the late politician's residence to pay condolence. The Co-ordinator of the group, Comrade Wale Okunniyi, who is now the Co-ordinating Secretary of the Citizens' Forum, a group led by Nobel Laureate Prof. Wole Soyinka, bares his mind to Tokunbo Adedoja on the state of the nation as Nigerians tomorrow mark the eleventh anniversary of the June 12 election
You were part of the group that protested vehemently the annulment of June 12, 1993 presidential election and the death of Chief M.K.O. Abiola. How would you see that event in the political landscape of Nigeria?
I think the annulment of the June 12 election was a great injury to the political history of the Nigerian state and it has created the very fundamental dislocation in our polity to the extent that today people whom we see as unworthy, people who naturally do not have any right to be in leadership are now occupying the position of leadership in the country. The June 12 annulment was a crime committed to the entire citizen of Nigeria, in fact, it was what I can call a crime against humanity in general and you'll see that the life of the country has never been the same again since that annulment, because the June 12 election was to take us to the next stage of development but certain elements, particularly Ibrahim Babangida scuttled all that and to that effect, I see it as a crime against the citizen of the Nigerian nation. For once, it has affected the position of upward movement of politics in Nigeria and that has also led to what I call dislocation of Nigerian economy. To that effect, I see the June 12 annulment in a dimension that has created a foundation of crisis which appears difficult to solve without resolving the issues tied to June 12 phenomenon. That is the way I view the annulment. I must say that we at that time, decided to mobilise Nigerian youth under my leadership then, to form Youth Vigil for Democracy (YVD) that I am co-ordinating today, as a matter of fact, it was that event, the annulment of June 12 and the detention of Chief M.K.O. Abiola that led to the formation of Youth Vigil for Democracy on the 14th of July 1998 where Nigerian youth decided that we must intervene positively to check criminally-minded elements from further manipulating the destiny of the Nigerian people.
Abiola is dead, we have achieved democracy, what else is left for Youth Vigil for Democracy in the present dispensation?
Not at all, we have not achieved anything, it is a misnormer to say we have democracy in what is happening. It's all about manipulation, one manipulation, leading to another. In fact, it was because the people of Nigeria wanted democracy by all means then that we allowed the kind of democratic experience we are having now, we just said that having discussed and contacted with other democratic forces realised that we needed to allow democracy, whichever way it is going to come, to be realised in Nigeria and that was what happened and if you look at the kind of democracy we have in Nigeria, you'll see that, it is a democracy that does not really translate into the welfare of the people, the democracy that is devoid of the kind of dividend that is supposed to come to you and to that extent we have all kinds of forces in Nigeria. You have a Nigerian democracy that is carting away so much of the resources of the common people out of their hands into the hands of some political elites, we have a democracy of people who have looted funds and still go about freely. You see, nobody is questioning them and to that extent, they have the courage to say they still want to rule us, even in 2007, people like IBB. So the kind of democracy we have is not that type they have in South Africa, where people ask questions. People actually brought people who have stolen in the past to book. People actually voted for leaders and people apologised. So in our own case, people did not even apologise, simple apology in Nigeria, people have not received. For instance, Nigerians need apology for the annulment of June 12, years after, the annulment of June 12 has dislocated development in the country and to that extent, the life of Nigerians have been badly affected such that we have been put in a position of hopelessness.
The man at the centre of the annulment is still alleged to be scheming to come back and like you are saying, we will need explanations on June 12. How do you think this will be possible, if he eventually comes to power in 2007?
This is what I'm saying, what I'm saying is that it will not be possible for anybody to do anything again about him, because he would have ascended into a position of Alpha and Omega and he will control the lives and manipulate mostly the destiny of Nigeria and that is why I'm saying from now there is need for an intervention of a formidable democratic force to check all that, so that Nigeria does not go to a state of anarchy. Nigeria does not go to a state of hopelessness, because the way it is going, if something urgent is not done about the electoral and democratic process in Nigeria, Nigeria will get to a state of anarchy and the kind of anarchy I'm talking about is that the people who are already dying instalmentally will certainly realise that they are going to die eventually and that will put them in a state of nothing more to lose than for all to die through massive shedding of blood and that is really better imagined than to be allowed to happen. Both the rich and the poor will have no place to hide again because in a crisis like that, there is a stampede you can't identify who is for the people, because the hungry man is an angry man. So, to that extent, well known people like Babangida need to be checked immediately. We need to put in place total strategy to check him, Nigeria must be saved from that kind of anarchy some of us are seeing now, we need to tell ourselves some concrete truth, that we will need to organise ourselves around actions that will make the kind of Nigerian politics unconducive for us because if we allow him (Babangida) I don't know how I can describe this. What I'm saying in a nutshell is that people need to put in place structures and organise around issues that check people who have manipulated us in the past, that have maltreated us in the past, that have stolen our common resources in the past.
Is your Youth Vigil all alone in this struggle or you are working with other pro-democracy groups?
Honestly, I can tell you the initiative is from the consultative forum of the democratic youth in Nigeria. I discovered that the Campaign for Democracy is working hard, that is good and even the foundation of Alao Aka-Bashorun has already built a structure around that and I have been consulted by others. But at our own level, we look at that issue and decided that we needed to do something about it and it is to that effect that we have decided to widen consultation, we've spoken to few other groups and they agreed that we need to form a coalition around the move and set a focus for ourselves or a vision to ensure that in Nigeria we have credible and popular leadership and electoral system.
11th anniversary of June 12 is around the corner, do you have any plan to bring up the issue of June 12 again, as a form of remembrance.
Definitely there is a plan we have, that on June 12, 2004, we are going to be marking the anniversary in a strategic manner. We are coming up with a coalition just as we've mentioned, it is likely to be June 12 coalition, we are going to invite leaders of the civil societies to make statements along the line that in Nigeria we want a credible and popular leadership and electoral system. We need survival of democracy in Nigeria. So, we have taken it upon ourselves to set agenda for the nation and to organise around this, particularly the Nigeria youth, to ensure that we begin to work on our electoral system in such a way that we can be able to produce credible, popular, legitimate leaders and also that we condemn the entire present Nigeria politics. So our plan is that we come out in a massive way this year, address a rally and define the structure of the coalition, especially the June 12 Coalition which will be made up of democratic youth organisations and the students movement, there have to be some student movements. At that level, we intend to make a lot of sacrifice, to take positive action, to commit a lot of our own personal resources to it, because it is only the youth of Nigeria that can save Nigeria, that can save the future generation from danger. We are going to ensure that people who have lied to us and deceived us before, those who have trampled upon our destiny, who have been treacherous to the Nigerian people, people who have stolen the wealth of the nation and made to be their own property our collective property, people who think they can only manipulate Nigerians, we are going to build this structure of coalition in all states of Nigeria against them. We've built the structure of June 12 Coalition here, as a matter of fact, we are discussing with Nigerian youth in Niger and we are flagging it off on June 12 but we are not ready to entertain any individual linked to the annulment of June 12 in power in Nigeria, so there is no place for IBB for instance, to say he wants to contest, contest what? To come and tell us lies or to come and manipulate us or to come and impress us? We are not ready, if he apologises to the nation, if he answers the questions satisfactorily, we can then forget, but in this case, we need to let IBB explain. Why? Because people need apology for that and even at that, what again is he coming to do? What has he forgotten in office that he is coming to take? So we have also been discussing with our leaders. We have been talking along that line, for instance, with Professor Wole Soyinka, Dr Beko Ransome-Kuti and co, we have been discussing this matter, that there are questions Babangida is going to answer and we need to address it otherwise we will not move from one lie to another and things will get worse and worse, so we have to go back and start up again. This Youth Vigil for Democracy was formed immediately we were given the responsibility to coordinate the affairs in the compound of late Chief M.K.O. Abiola then and it was coordinated in such a way that there was a rally in the compound, we all took a decision that people who are part of the annulment of June 12 should be declared persona-non-grata which we did and to that extent we didn't allow them to come near the residence of Chief M.K.O. Abiola, even some military administrators, we asked them to turn back at that time you will think that it's Youth Vigil for Democracy that conducted the burial.
In your words, you said IBB needs to answer some questions, but just of recent, Gen. Adisa said IBB will not answer any question concerning June 12, how will you take such a reaction?
It is so unfortunate for General Adisa to say all these, having gone through all he went through under Abacha, it shows that he has not learnt any lesson and these are the people that are working against the interests of Nigerians, IBB will answer questions, I'm saying this emphatically as a matter of fact and I'm confident that it will be impossible for him to manipulate the psyche of Nigerian people again. As for Adisa, let them continue what they are doing, they are fast getting to that stage, we will meet on the field, we will know who is who on the platform of the struggle.
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