Daily Independent Online.
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Friday, June 11, 2004.
Commemorating the undying spirit of June 12
By Ikechukwu Amaechi
Deputy
Editor, Politics
Like
the issues that gave rise to the controversy itself, the debate over which day
should be declared “Democracy Day” is not on the wane and there is
no sign that it will be in the nearest future. If anything, the contention promises
to outlive the presidency of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo who wittingly or
unwittingly stoked its smouldering embers. A fortnight ago, precisely on May
29, governments across the country led by the Federal Government itself rolled
out the drums in celebration of what it tagged “Democracy Day”.
That was the fourth consecutive celebration and it was with pomp and ceremony
and President Obasanjo was at his regal best exhorting one and all on the
virtues of democracy.
But
tomorrow, June 12, another set of activities have been lined up by the
pro-democracy and human rights community, mainly those who were at the
barricades during the days of the locusts when the military held the nation by
the strap of its jackboots, to commemorate what they refer to as the authentic
democracy day.
The
debate has assumed the egg and chicken dilemma since 2001 when Obasanjo who had
earlier turned down the campaign by human rights and pro-democracy activists to
declare June 12 a democracy day in appreciation of the supreme sacrifice made
by Chief MKO Abiola in the struggle to enthrone democracy in the country went
behind to proclaim May 29 of every year as democracy day in commemoration of
the day in 1999 when an elected civilian government took over power after 16
years of unbroken military rule.
Though
six long years stand between the two dates, June 12 faithfuls argue that
without June 12, 1993 there possibly couldn’t have been a May 29, 1999.
“June 12 is a date that has entered the annals of our history as a most
significant landmark in Nigeria’s chequered search for national unity and
justice. June 12 has become a spirit,” Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu,
governor of Lagos State said in 2002 at an event organized by his government at
the Onikan Stadium to commemorate the ninth anniversary.
A
year later, Tinubu was to reiterate the same sentiments at the Presidential
Lounge of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport Ikeja while waiting to
welcome the president who was on his way to his Ota Farm in Ogun State. Said
Tinubu: “Without the events of June 12, no doubt, it would have been
impossible for us to attain democracy, not to talk of successful civilian to
civilian transition”. According to him, “no matter how long it
takes, no matter the sacrifices it requires, I am resolved in my heart to
continue to propagate June 12 as the authentic democracy day in Nigeria and am
optimistic that it may take time but the whole country will still come to the
full realisation that that date cannot be wished away in the history of
Nigeria’s democracy.” And his conclusion: “Today is the only
democracy day we have. It is the mother, the father, the grandfather, the
harbinger of May 29. June 12 will never go away. It is the celebration of the
entire country.” These are sentiments which Senator Olorunimbe Mamora,
chairman, Senate Committee on Ethics, Code of Conduct and Public Petitions and
immediate past Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly share. In a recent
interview with Daily Independent, the distinguished senator retorted,
“don’t forget that in Lagos, we don’t regard May 29 as
democracy day; the real democracy day is June 12,” when he was asked to
make an appraisal of the five years of democracy in the light of the declaration
of public holiday on May 29 by the Federal Government.
But
the Senate President, Chief Adolphus Wabara, sharply disagrees with Tinubu and
Mamora. Fielding questions from Saturday Punch reporters in Abuja shortly after
democracy day celebration in Abuja on May 29, Wabara said: “Frankly,
there was no democracy in place then, it was just make belief that we had. So,
you couldn’t justify June 12 per se as democracy day. If Abiola was sworn
in and on the same day maybe removed, then one could reasonably say that that
was democracy day. We didn’t complete the process, so from my own
estimation, you couldn’t really call it democracy day.”
But
not a few Nigerians are surprised that eleven years after that momentous event
which redefined politics and democracy in Nigeria, President Obasanjo has
exhibited at best indifference and at worst contempt not only for the event but
also the major dramatis personae that has come symbolize the struggle for
democracy, Chief Abiola. The president has vehemently refused to acknowledge
the date and to immortalise him. In fact, many will accused him of going out of
his way to ensure that the memory of the man and the event are buried in the
dustbin of history. Even the plea by some well meaning Nigerians that the Abuja
Stadium be named after the winner of the June 12, 1993 presidential election,
at least, if for nothing else, for his immense contribution to the development
of sports not only in Nigeria but the whole of Africa have fallen on deaf ears.
But Abiola’s son, Olalekan who was orphaned by the June 12 struggle
following the gruesome murder of his mother Kudirat and eventual demise of
Abiola himself told The Guardian two
years ago that whatever may be the official stand of the government of the day,
those who wish to immortalise his father for his unmatchable sacrifice had
already done so. “You know immortalisation of any human being is not in
the hands of any particular human being. Whoever deserves to be immortalised
will be no matter what any individual thinks about it. The Federal Government’s
position on the issue or their lack of recognition shows them in a bad light
and it is ridiculous. But there is no problem. Those who will immortalise my
father if he deserved to be immortalised will immortalise him regardless of
what any human being does.”
Abiola, an unlikely
demcoracy matyr
Before
the June 12, 1993 presidential election, Abiola would have been the most
unlikely Nigerian to be martyred for the sake of democracy and the reasons were
quite obvious. He was a friend of the military establishment that had held
Nigeria by the jugular since that fateful morning of January 15, 1966 when the
first coup was executed by the five majors led by Major Chukwuma Kaduna
Nzeogwu. General Murtala Muhammed who succeeded General Yakubu Gowon reportedly
gave Abiola his biggest break in life and General Ibrahim Babangida’s
eight-year rule became an icing on his socio-economic and even political cake.
When
Abiola emerged the presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Party (PDP),
defeating such political heavyweights as Alhaji Baba Gana Kingibe who was a
former chairman of the party at their Jos convention, many came to the
inevitable conclusion that it was all a ploy by Babangida to hand over power to
his friend, Abiola.
Ironically,
it was Babangida that annulled an election acclaimed to be the “freest
and fairest” in the annals of elections in Nigeria, an election which
Abiola, his friend had won. It was a victory that threw to the dustbin some
age-long assumptions in the country. For the first time, a Moslem-moslem ticket
won a presidential election in a country where the issue of religion is touchy
and quite combustible. Abiola, a Southern Moslem irredentist picked as his
running mate, a Moslem from the Northeast zone. Ordinarily, in a religiously
stratified country like Nigeria, that was enough to take the electoral shine
off the ticket. But Abiola not only got the mandate of over 14 million
Nigerians, he defeated his opponent, Alhaji Bashir Tofa, a Moslem and the
presidential candidate of the now defunct National Republican Convention (NRC)
in his home state of Kano.
Many
political pundits attributed Abiola’s victory to his person and his
unmatchable philanthropic predilection. In other words, Nigerians
overwhelmingly gave him their mandate on personal recognition. Before he joined
the presidential fray in 1993, he had become a cult figure of sorts. After his
short lived stint with the Second Republic National Party of Nigeria (NPN)
where his presidential ambition was frustrated by the NPN hawks led by Alhaji
Umaru Dikko who told him that the presidency of Nigeria was not for sale,
Abiola went into his political cocoon, operating, as it were, from the
background.
But
that was to change when he sought and got assurance from Babangida who had just
banned 23 of the most influential and powerful politicians in the country from
the presidential fray that the 1993 election was for real.
As
he is wont to do, Abiola entered the race in a grand style, bulldozing his way
and running a breathtaking campaign not yet seen in the country. There was
enough money to oil the wheels of his presidential ambition. His campaign
became a media blitz and his “Nigerians on the March again” jingle
became and instant hit.
But
above all, Nigerians particularly the masses saw him as a man they could trust.
Having come from a very lowly background to reach the height of socio-economic
power, Abiola could relate with both the rich and the poor. He had transversed
both worlds. His philanthropy which knew
no barriers also endeared him to many. The consequence was that not a
few believed that he had the ability and will to push through policies which
could make life more meaningful for the hapless majority who have been made to
plumb the depths of poverty over the years.
Abiola
himself gave vent to this perception. Long before he had the opportunity to
contest the presidency, he had unambiguously articulated his vision. On one
occasion, he agonised, “There isn’t a business like approach to the
running of government… There isn’t any coherence in what we have
been trying to do. We can’t say this is where we are going, this is how
far we have gone and this is how we are going to get there except in a tortuous
type of way. There isn’t anything that would make the ordinary man say
this is where he is.
“Elementary
things that people should take for granted, like turning the tap to find water
is a mirage. Electricity, you put on your switch and nothing will happen for
days. These things need not continue. There are some who just must be in
politics in one form or the other to earn their living. I am not in that
category. The politics I believe in is not the politics of name, which by the
grace of God I had made. It is not the politics of money, which by the grace of
God I have had before there was any politics. But (mine) is the politics of
service of ideas. Ideas of improvement of the lives of our children far better
than our own, for ensuring that young people do not suffer the type of things I
had suffered as a young man.
“In
a country like ours, we need somebody who has done something directly before,
who has cut out his own place and really has a very clear-cut idea as to what
he wants to be remembered for.”
It
was a socio-economic and political gospel according to Abiola and it was very
convincing. Nigerians invested in the hope which he not only offered but also
epitomised. His campaign promises were articulated in his famous “Goodbye
to Poverty” manifesto of his Hope ’93 Campaign Organisation. In
addition to fighting the pangs of poverty and corruption, he enunciated in the
manner of the political icon of the Southwest, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, his
programmes under the four inclusive issues of health, housing, transport and
communication.
On
his determination to banish poverty, Abiola rhapsodised with a rather
infectious optimism: “The majority of our country men and women have
begun to express doubts about the future of our dear country. We are determined
to replace doubt with optimism. We are stepping forward with a promise to renew
hope in the Nigerian dream through the articulation and pursuit of a new vision
of a great Nigeria. We are stepping out to cast away the jinx of poverty and
underdevelopment in the shortest possible time.”
Such
promises are uncommon in Nigeria’s political terrain, so it was not quite
difficult for a people long starved of an issue oriented politics to identify
and latch onto it. The result was the landslide victory which Abiola recorded.
Before the annulment of the election via a terse statement from the office of
Honourable Nduka Irabor, the then Chief Press Secretary to the military vice
president, Admiral Augustus Aikhomu on June 23, 1993, Tofa had already conceded
defeat while pledging his unwavering support to the winner. Speaking to newsmen
in his office at Gwanda Albasa area of Kano State on the day of the election,
Tofa pledged: “If Abiola wins as the president of this country, he would
have my support to enable him function effectively and this support could be
material or in kind.”
But
that was before the military junta threw the spanner into the works of the
emerging democracy. Not only was the election annulled, Babangida who was
forced to step aside from power on August 26, 1993, rather than handing over
power to the man who won the election, created the Interim National Government
(ING) contraption headed by Chief Ernest Shonekan which was in turn pushed
aside by General Sani Abacha on November 17 of the same year. Thus began the
long sojourn in the winter of democracy. Abiola himself was arrested a year
after the annulment of the election, precisely on June 23, 1994 after he
proclaimed himself President and Commander-in-Chief of the Federal Republic of
Nigeria in the momentous “Epetedo Declaration”. It was a detention
he was never to walk out from alive as he died in mysterious circumstances
under the military on Tuesday July 7, 1998 barely one month after the death of
Abacha himself in equally mysterious circumstance on June 8, 1998.
Not
a few Nigerians rue that in the June 12 debacle, Nigeria lost a great moment that
could have catapulted it from a country of disparate ethnic tendencies to a
nation. “June 12 symbolises true federalism, equality and just sharing of
resources,” reminiscened Admiral Ndubuisi Kanu, former military governor
of Lagos and Imo states during the ninth anniversary of the event. Dr. Olufemi
Akintan, a Lagos-based political scientist told Daily Independent that Nigeria
lost its innocence through the annulment. “Not even the outcome of the
January 1966 coup and even the three-year civil war had as much negative impact
on the unity and progress of this country than the annulment of the election
and the subsequent killing of Abiola in detention by the military. The day that
election was annulled was the day Nigeria lost its innocence not because it was
adjudged the fairest and freest election ever held in Nigeria but primarily
because it was a day Nigerians in unison transcended ethnic, religious and
political barriers, primordial cleavages that have held the country down for so
many years. The Moslem in Kano
rejected his brother at the polls and voted for Abiola just as the Christian in
Abia voted for a Moslem, Moslem ticket. It has never happened before. I doubt
if it will ever happen again. That was a golden opportunity, which an invidious
and highly dubious elite allowed to slip off our fingers,” he said.
June 12 and the
prevailing democracy
Though
the great opportunities offered by June 12 may have been wasted, yet discerning
political observers aver that there is a direct linkage between the ill-fated
election and Abiola’s personal tragedy and May 29, 1999. To such people,
it was the army of opposition, which the annulment unwittingly unleashed on the
polity that finally forced the hands of a highly reluctant military which had
more or less become an army of occupation to relinquish power to a
democratically elected civilian government in 1999. But more than that, many
believe that Obasanjo’s presidency is a direct consequence of the angst
which the annulment precipitated.
In
an attempt to assuage the anxiety of the Southwest which by virtue of the fact
that Abiola was a Yoruba was the most hurt by the reckless and ill-advised
annulment, it was agreed by consensus that the Yoruba should take the first
shot at the presidency in 1999.
So,
if Obasanjo’s presidency is
a consequence of the June 12 impasse, why has Obasanjo exhibited so much
animosity even to the memory of the man who made his presidency a reality?
Akintan says “only the man Obasanjo is in a position to give an answer to
that question. But if I may hazard a guess, Obasanjo is suffering from a
complex. Even in death, Abiola has a larger-than-life image and Obasanjo wants
to be the only star in the Yoruba, and indeed the Nigerian firmament. It is a
pity. It is all about ego and woe betide that country where state policies are
informed by the ego of the leader.”
On
why it became imperative that a Yoruba must be president in 1999, he said that
was the only way Nigeria’s unity could have been preserved.
“Obasanjo was only lucky. He reaped from where he did not sow. But it was
apparent to even those that were wielding the instruments of coercion that the
Yoruba were poised to secede from the country. The decision to cede the
presidency to them was a political masterstroke”.
June 12 and the
2007 election
Just
as it happened in 1999, the spirit of June 12 will have a lot to do with who
succeeds Obasanjo in 2007 particularly if the rumoured presidential ambition of
Babangida turns out to be true. Many, particularly, Abiola’s kinsmen have
neither forgotten nor forgiven him for the annulment. Babangida himself has not
helped matters. Apart from the rather insulting platitudes of accepting
responsibility for the annulment because the bulk stopped on his table, the
former military leader has not had the humility to explain to Nigerians why
such a far-reaching action with disastrous consequences for the polity was
taken. While his lieutenants like Col. Abubakar Danjiwa Umar have tried to shed
some light on the rather dark events of the days that led to the annulment,
everybody had expected Babangida to open up. But that he has refused to do and
in a most haughty manner. To many, such hubris is like adding insult to an
injury that is still bleeding. So while the emergent Yoruba leadership may be
more flexible in their response to a possible Babangida candidacy, it remains
to be seen how the more entrenched and traditional Yoruba leadership as
represented by Afenifere may react when the time comes. Unlike the 2003
presidential election where the twin issues of incumbency and money determined
the outcome of the polls, the 2007 election promises to be more issue oriented
no matter how marginally and past political antecedents are bound to be raked
up as campaign issues for and or against the presidential gladiators.
Can June 12 be wished
away?
It
is obvious that nothing would gladden President Obasanjo’s heart as much
as that the phoenix that is the spirit of June 12 is finally exorcised. But it
has become obvious that such hopes may continue to remain forlorn.
Granted,
the taking over of the five
Alliance for Democracy (AD) states of Ekiti, Ogun, Ondo, Oyo and Osun by
the PDP in the April 12, 2003 gubernatorial election no doubt has shrunk the
support base of the pro-June 12 activists, yet it has not buried it. Before
their surprise defeat at the polls last year, all the AD governors in the
Southwest had passed a proclamation, declaring June 12 a public holiday in
their states.
As
it is, only Lagos will be observing tomorrow as public holiday. That no doubt
is a major setback in terms of the financial muscle which the governors could
bring to bear on such an occasion. But a school of thought believes that June
12 has become a movement which makes it more difficult to wish away.
There
are also others that believe that the mere fact of its occurrence makes it a
landmark in the nation’s political landscape. Dr. Chukwuemeka Ezeife,
former civilian governor of old Anambra State is one of such men. “June
12 happened in Nigeria. So, it cannot be unhappened. In all its ramifications,
June 12 is a landmark in Nigeria's political history, there is no way it can be
wished away,” he said.
A
chieftain of the PDP in Lagos who spoke with Daily Independent on condition of
anonymity concurs. “Many of us are not happy with the efforts of Obasanjo
to diminish the role of Abiola in our democratic struggle and the significance
of June 12 but you will agree that it is politically expedient if one must
survive not to be seen to have any sympathy for either the person of Abiola and
the supreme political sacrifice he made or even June 12. But I know all that
must change, if not now, then when Obasanjo quits power. After all, he
won’t be there forever,” he said.
So,
will the spirit of June 12 endure? The answer is ensconced in the womb of time,
but come tomorrow June 12, 2004, the eleventh anniversary of the “fairest
and freest” election in Nigeria, the pro-democracy and human rights
community which no doubt has lost some of its vibrancy in the past five years
will strive to keep hope alive.
