June 12: Again, Activists Brainstorm On Way Forward
Discourse
By Ndubuisi Ugah
It is exactly 11 years since what has remained Nigeria's freest and fairest election was annulled by General Ibrahim Babangida in 1993.
As Speaker after speaker spoke, it became clear that it was truly a day for sober reflection and mourning for the country. The June 12 struggle arguably turned out to be a struggle which represented the very pinnacle and summit of the struggle against military rule and autocracy in the country.
While the struggle has intensified on all fronts in the last couple of years, pro-democracy activism appears reinvigorated in this latest renewed fight to have June 12 revalidated.
It was also advocated that the SNC should be understood as a means to and not an end itself.
With this in mind, and backed by a theme: "Democracy In Nigeria : Imperative Of A National Conference", the Democracy Sustenance Initiative (DSI), a pro-democracy group, the launch of which coincided with the 11th anniversary celebration of the annulment of the June 12 presidential election invariably set the stage for the battle royale among the activists.
While the speakers took their turns to align with the on-going clamour for the convocation of a SNC, the Chairman of the Conference of Nigerian Political Parties, Alhaji Balarabe Musa, expressed an opposingly different view. His argument differed with that of the former chieftains of NADECO over the shape and form the SNC, being canvassed by various interest groups in the country, should take.
While some of the speakers restated their call for the convocation of the conference by the present government, Musa said it would be improper for the Obasanjo administration to mid-wife it.
The NADECO chieftains, at the end of their delibrations, insisted that the SNC would address the various socio-political and economic problems facing the country, especially President Olusegun Obasanjo's dictatorship.
The CNPP chairman said President Obasanjo's administration lacked the moral rectitude to convoke the SNC, since, according to him, he (Obasanjo) was comfortable in the annulment of the June 12 election.
Apparently irked by Obasanjo's indifference to the de-annulment of the June 12 election, Musa said "Obasanjo's convocation of SNC was unacceptable."
He pointed out that the President did not play any significant role in helping to de-annul June 12, stating that instead "Obasanjo ridiculed late Chief MKO Abiola in the process."
He added: "after the annulment of June 12, 1993 presidential election, Obasanjo rather than support the cause for the revalidation of results ridiculed (MKO) Abiola and even canvassed for the continuation of the June 12 annulment."
Musa, who maintained that it was the annulment of the presidential election that shaped his (Obasanjo) metamorphoses to power today as a benefactor, however said, for Nigerians to clamour for the present administration under Obasanjo to organise SNC was totally unacceptable.
He noted that in consonance to that, the CNPP had continually called for his (Obasanjo's) resignation as that was the only way Nigerians could enjoy the dividends of democracy as well as address the issues that have made the convocation of SNC an imperative.
According to him, Obasanjo's administration has brought untold hardship to the people with the country's image at zero point before the outside world.
Musa said he was one of those that objected to the convocation of SNC before 1999 adding however that he was compelled to rescind his stance following developments in the country which pointed to the fact that the country was nearing collapse if something urgent was not done to save it.
The CNPP chairman explained that in their drive to achieve the objective, a committee made up of 16 eminent Nigerians of which he is the chairman was constituted to work out modalities that would ensure the realisation of the objective.
He said one of the fallout to the committee's recommendations was the May 3 mass rally of Lagos and Abuja which the Obasanjo administration kicked against.
"Obasanjo was not prepared to solve our problems. He brought untold harship to the country. I did not support SNC before 1999 but soon after he was sworn-in, the need for SNC became imperative. The United Alliance for Democracy (UAD) was compelled to constitute a committee of 16 persons to look into the convocation of SNC, which should be by Nigerians to take over the reins of governance from Obasanjo via a transition government" ,he declared.
Speaking further, Musa said "look at what happened in Abuja and Lagos on the mass rally just because we wanted to express ourselves? That is why I said that if Obasanjo should organise SNC, it wont work except if we want to deceive ourselves".
Expressing regret that most people who never knew anything about the June 12 saga have capitalised on it without really understanding the driving force, Musa emphasised that June 12 was never a regional issue as some would want to label it today but a national phenomenon.
"So there was need to make Nigerians understand that June 12 was not a regional issue but a national affair. There were some elements who had ethnic bias in the struggle for the revalidation of the June 12", he asserted.
While encouraging Nigerians to be dogged in the fight for the revalidation of the June 12 election, Musa said "if we want an SNC, we should be prepared to make sacrifice. Late MKO Abiola, his wife Kudirat, Pa Alfred Rewane, Ken Saro-Wiwa, all made sacrifices with their lives. So if there are people who can not make sacrifice, they should leave the scene for those who can make the sacrifices for the revalidation of the June 12 presidential election."
However, in their separate papers, Nwankwo, Ransome-Kuti, Olanipekun, Gana and Executive Director, DSI, Dr. Teju Abiola canvassed for the convocation of the SNC.
In a paper entitled "Sustaining Our Gains", Nwankwo said any society that does not make use of historical compass ran the risk of ruination and will in the final analysis, suffer the pains of collective immolation.
He posited that while many countries of the world were busy strengthning their fledging democractic institutions and humanising the principal pillars of their existence, a few others including Nigeria were pursuing shadows instead of the substance.
He said guided by a sense of history and the shameful fate that awaited Nigeria during its dark days of military dictatorship, himself alongside other crusaders of democracy having known the penalty of being caught, ran the risk of death or imprisonment, a situation, he lamented, today have left little or nothing in doubt of the present regime's sincerity to uphold the tenets of democracy.
"Today, what confronts us is how to protect our hard won democracy. It is really disheartening that today, some self-appointed agents of history and TV superstars who never went through the popular struggle, who instead, encouraged the infamous Abacha dictatorship to continue and even those who miffed at our battle for democracy have now hijacked and endangered our nascent democracy.
"A look at Nigeria's performance sheet is like a list of mindless iniquities-strut with problems, ethno-centric forces that favour ethnic conflicts, burgeoning prison intake, double-digit inflation, collapse of public utilities, etc. These, as I have always said, are maladies inflicted upon Nigeria by some mysterious or supernatural force", Nwakwo lamented.
|
