On Wednesday, when some Nigerians marked the 20th anniversary of
the June 12, 1993 presidential, which was conducted and annulled by the
military government of General Ibrahim Babangida, it was obvious that
the fire that, hitherto, characterised such celebration was gone.
In all the events organised to commemorate that epic election, there was nothing earth-shaking, as it used to be some years ago. I did not hear that legendary declaration: On June 12 we stand.
From what happened, it’s obvious that nobody is “standing” on June 12. Those who insisted that June 12 must be validated then are now singing a new song. They are no longer saying that the late Chief Moshood Kashimawo Olawole (MKO) Abiola should be declared the winner of the election or inaugurated as president.
They are now more interested in the Federal Government naming something after Abiola, in recognition of the sacrifice he made for democracy. I am not surprised that the June 12 agitation has died a natural death.
It was bound to, for obvious reasons. For one, the country is under democracy and has experienced it for 14 uninterrupted years. Again, General Olusegun Obasanjo, a Yoruba man, was elected president, after the military ended its iron-clad rule in 1999 and he served for eight years.
However, the question remains: Did June 12 agitation die because the country now has democracy? Did the agitation die because the Yoruba eventually got a president in the person of Obasanjo? Yes, June 12, 1993 presidential election was meant to institute democracy. And if June 12, 1993 election had not been cancelled, Abiola, a Yoruba man, would have been president.
It could, therefore, be argued that the goal been attained. However, I must say that June 12 agitation did not die with the coming of democracy or the emergence of Obasanjo as president. The agitation died when the South West domesticated it, believing that since Abiola was from the zone, the annulment of the election only affected them. For the avoidance of doubt, June 12, 1993 election was a Nigerian tragedy.
It had nothing to do with tribe or religion. It was a pan-Nigerian thing, as Nigerians, from across the country, voted for Abiola. The people, who voted for Abiola were made up of Christians, Muslims, Igbo, Hausa, Yoruba, Tiv, Ibibio, Ijaw, Beron and others.
They voted for Abiola because they believed that he was more popular than Alhaji Bashir Tofa, his opponent in the election.
That was when Nigeria was Nigeria, when Nigerians affirmed, through their votes, that “though tribes and tongues may differ, in brotherhood we stand.” Today, owing to what is happening in the polity, one can say, “worthy men are no more.”
Nigeria has sunk from the height, where the citizenry did not mind a Muslim-Muslim ticket for the Presidency to a low level, where politicians are now insisting that their zones must produce the president.
We have dropped from the high level, where one Nigerian presidential candidate appealed to not only voters from his geopolitical zone but also people from other zones, to the lower level, where candidates’ popularity are only pronounced in the zone they come from.
What this tells me is that the lesson of June 12, 1993 presidential election are lost. Indeed, it is tragic that 20 years after the majority of Nigerians supported Abiola, seeing him as a Nigerian, not a Yorubaman, in a unique election, where the candidates gunned for their tickets right from the local government to the national convention, and where Option A4 was used as the voting system, the same Nigerians are seeing those who vie for the same office, as Abiola, from the prism of ethnicity.
To be sure, with 2015 elections less than two years away, the controversy as to who should be president has already reached the crescendo.
Now, the Ijaw and, indeed, the South South insist that President Goodluck Jonathan must get a second term, while some northerners have said that power must return to the North in 2015. With this kind of development, June 12 spirit is dead. Indeed, June 12 is not only dead but the spirit of June 12 is also crying in the wilderness. The spirit of June 12 was not just murdered because the Yoruba people, perhaps, feeling that with the ceding of the presidency to the zone in 1999, which caused the election of Obasanjo, they have been compensated and that the country now has democracy. It was murdered because some practices, which make a mockery of democracy are still in place in the country. When members of a political party are saying that incumbents, who are seeking reelection for the offices they occupy, must get automatic ticket, to save them the trouble of being subjected to primary elections, where they would vie for the ticket with others, as in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), it’s obvious that the spirit of June 12 is crying in the wilderness. Also, when a few members of political parties decide who should be candidates in elections, without allowing the majority of the members to so decide, in a properly organised primaries, and thereby impose candidates on the people, as it happened in the Action Congress (ACN) and the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) in past elections, the spirit of June 12 cries in the wilderness. When those in government use the instrumentality of office, like the military and other security agents, to harass and intimidate people during election, the spirit of June 12 cries in the wilderness. Of course, when election results are written and declared, while ignoring the votes of the electorate, as it happens in elections in the country, the spirit of June 12 cries in the wilderness. In all the talks and noise about June 12, 1993 presidential election, the person I pity most is the late Abiola. He’s the ultimate loser. No matter how many years people talk about June 12, no matter the events organised to remember the June 12 election, Abiola lost everything. This is a man who spent his money seeking the position of president. This is a man, who moved round the country campaigning. He won an election, whose results were not eventually fully declared. He declared himself president. He was arrested and clamped into jail. He died in jail. His wife, Kudirat, was also murdered, while he was in jail. His businesses have crumbled. With this tragedy, the legacies, in business and others, which Abiola left, have disappeared. There’s no longer much to show for a man who, with his wealth, touched the lives of many people and whose chains of business gave many people employment. What a tragedy! I believe that no matter what the government does to immotalise Abiola, no matter what monument or institution eventually named after him, no matter the martyr appalation to Abiola’s name over June 12, this astute philanthropist may have died in vain. He may have died in vain because, though democracy has been entrenched, following the struggle arising from the cancellation of the election, those who eventually reaped the benefits of June 12 were people, who never “stood” for it or agitated for its validation or the release of Abiola, when he was incarcerated. For instance, Obasanjo, the ultimate beneficiary, never believed in the June 12 agitation, but he ended as president, in the arrangement to appease Yoruba people over Abiola’s loss. Also, most of the people, who found themselves in elective offices, especially in 1999, did not fight for the validation of June 12. They reaped where they did not sow. Apart from Abiola, others losers, in the June 12 tragedy, are all Nigerians, who died in the streets of Lagos. Today, nobody is talking about the Igbo, for example, who were murdered in Lagos, and whose shops were looted and set ablaze during the June 12 agitation. Also, nobody talks about the Hausa and people from other tribes killed during the June 12 agitation. Nobody talks about the Yoruba people shot and killed in Lagos streets by soldiers during the June 12 agitation. The families of these unfortunate ones are the losers of June 12. However, be that as it may, June 12 presidential election opened our eyes, to the fact that Nigerians could rise up, collectively, in support of a candidate for presidency. If it happened for Abiola, it means there’s something about him, which today’s politicians are lacking. I hope that another Abiola would rise, for the spirit of June 12 to live once again.
In all the events organised to commemorate that epic election, there was nothing earth-shaking, as it used to be some years ago. I did not hear that legendary declaration: On June 12 we stand.
From what happened, it’s obvious that nobody is “standing” on June 12. Those who insisted that June 12 must be validated then are now singing a new song. They are no longer saying that the late Chief Moshood Kashimawo Olawole (MKO) Abiola should be declared the winner of the election or inaugurated as president.
They are now more interested in the Federal Government naming something after Abiola, in recognition of the sacrifice he made for democracy. I am not surprised that the June 12 agitation has died a natural death.
It was bound to, for obvious reasons. For one, the country is under democracy and has experienced it for 14 uninterrupted years. Again, General Olusegun Obasanjo, a Yoruba man, was elected president, after the military ended its iron-clad rule in 1999 and he served for eight years.
However, the question remains: Did June 12 agitation die because the country now has democracy? Did the agitation die because the Yoruba eventually got a president in the person of Obasanjo? Yes, June 12, 1993 presidential election was meant to institute democracy. And if June 12, 1993 election had not been cancelled, Abiola, a Yoruba man, would have been president.
It could, therefore, be argued that the goal been attained. However, I must say that June 12 agitation did not die with the coming of democracy or the emergence of Obasanjo as president. The agitation died when the South West domesticated it, believing that since Abiola was from the zone, the annulment of the election only affected them. For the avoidance of doubt, June 12, 1993 election was a Nigerian tragedy.
It had nothing to do with tribe or religion. It was a pan-Nigerian thing, as Nigerians, from across the country, voted for Abiola. The people, who voted for Abiola were made up of Christians, Muslims, Igbo, Hausa, Yoruba, Tiv, Ibibio, Ijaw, Beron and others.
They voted for Abiola because they believed that he was more popular than Alhaji Bashir Tofa, his opponent in the election.
That was when Nigeria was Nigeria, when Nigerians affirmed, through their votes, that “though tribes and tongues may differ, in brotherhood we stand.” Today, owing to what is happening in the polity, one can say, “worthy men are no more.”
Nigeria has sunk from the height, where the citizenry did not mind a Muslim-Muslim ticket for the Presidency to a low level, where politicians are now insisting that their zones must produce the president.
We have dropped from the high level, where one Nigerian presidential candidate appealed to not only voters from his geopolitical zone but also people from other zones, to the lower level, where candidates’ popularity are only pronounced in the zone they come from.
What this tells me is that the lesson of June 12, 1993 presidential election are lost. Indeed, it is tragic that 20 years after the majority of Nigerians supported Abiola, seeing him as a Nigerian, not a Yorubaman, in a unique election, where the candidates gunned for their tickets right from the local government to the national convention, and where Option A4 was used as the voting system, the same Nigerians are seeing those who vie for the same office, as Abiola, from the prism of ethnicity.
To be sure, with 2015 elections less than two years away, the controversy as to who should be president has already reached the crescendo.
Now, the Ijaw and, indeed, the South South insist that President Goodluck Jonathan must get a second term, while some northerners have said that power must return to the North in 2015. With this kind of development, June 12 spirit is dead. Indeed, June 12 is not only dead but the spirit of June 12 is also crying in the wilderness. The spirit of June 12 was not just murdered because the Yoruba people, perhaps, feeling that with the ceding of the presidency to the zone in 1999, which caused the election of Obasanjo, they have been compensated and that the country now has democracy. It was murdered because some practices, which make a mockery of democracy are still in place in the country. When members of a political party are saying that incumbents, who are seeking reelection for the offices they occupy, must get automatic ticket, to save them the trouble of being subjected to primary elections, where they would vie for the ticket with others, as in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), it’s obvious that the spirit of June 12 is crying in the wilderness. Also, when a few members of political parties decide who should be candidates in elections, without allowing the majority of the members to so decide, in a properly organised primaries, and thereby impose candidates on the people, as it happened in the Action Congress (ACN) and the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) in past elections, the spirit of June 12 cries in the wilderness. When those in government use the instrumentality of office, like the military and other security agents, to harass and intimidate people during election, the spirit of June 12 cries in the wilderness. Of course, when election results are written and declared, while ignoring the votes of the electorate, as it happens in elections in the country, the spirit of June 12 cries in the wilderness. In all the talks and noise about June 12, 1993 presidential election, the person I pity most is the late Abiola. He’s the ultimate loser. No matter how many years people talk about June 12, no matter the events organised to remember the June 12 election, Abiola lost everything. This is a man who spent his money seeking the position of president. This is a man, who moved round the country campaigning. He won an election, whose results were not eventually fully declared. He declared himself president. He was arrested and clamped into jail. He died in jail. His wife, Kudirat, was also murdered, while he was in jail. His businesses have crumbled. With this tragedy, the legacies, in business and others, which Abiola left, have disappeared. There’s no longer much to show for a man who, with his wealth, touched the lives of many people and whose chains of business gave many people employment. What a tragedy! I believe that no matter what the government does to immotalise Abiola, no matter what monument or institution eventually named after him, no matter the martyr appalation to Abiola’s name over June 12, this astute philanthropist may have died in vain. He may have died in vain because, though democracy has been entrenched, following the struggle arising from the cancellation of the election, those who eventually reaped the benefits of June 12 were people, who never “stood” for it or agitated for its validation or the release of Abiola, when he was incarcerated. For instance, Obasanjo, the ultimate beneficiary, never believed in the June 12 agitation, but he ended as president, in the arrangement to appease Yoruba people over Abiola’s loss. Also, most of the people, who found themselves in elective offices, especially in 1999, did not fight for the validation of June 12. They reaped where they did not sow. Apart from Abiola, others losers, in the June 12 tragedy, are all Nigerians, who died in the streets of Lagos. Today, nobody is talking about the Igbo, for example, who were murdered in Lagos, and whose shops were looted and set ablaze during the June 12 agitation. Also, nobody talks about the Hausa and people from other tribes killed during the June 12 agitation. Nobody talks about the Yoruba people shot and killed in Lagos streets by soldiers during the June 12 agitation. The families of these unfortunate ones are the losers of June 12. However, be that as it may, June 12 presidential election opened our eyes, to the fact that Nigerians could rise up, collectively, in support of a candidate for presidency. If it happened for Abiola, it means there’s something about him, which today’s politicians are lacking. I hope that another Abiola would rise, for the spirit of June 12 to live once again.
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