June 12 will remain indelible in the annals of our history, not because it’s the day democracy was born in Nigeria, but it was the day democracy was murdered. I really marvel why June 12 is being celebrated as democracy day. This day should rightly be celebrated as a day of atonement. A day when Nigerians happily went out to vote for a president of their choice in a free, fair election throughout Nigeria. Their votes were counted but did not count. Their freedom to choose their leaders robbed from them. For no reasons known to any human being, the election was annulled by General Ibrahim Babangida.
The winner of the election, MKO Abiola, declared himself president, and was arrested by General Sani Abacha, the Head of State, who usurped Abiola’s position. Abacha detained Abiola for about four years. The man who was supposed to be in the presidency was put in prison, and the military junta who was supposed to be in prison for treason was put in the presidency. Abiola remained in jail until Abacha died. Abiola remained in jail until he died after Abacha’s death. This embarrassing situation successfully aborted the Third Republic. How then do we celebrate democracy day on a day Nigeria failed Nigerians in general and Abiola in particular. This is a day we should have set apart to atone for the sins of Nigeria and plead with God to forgive our sins.
May 29 is our handover date. Thank goodness that it was still a Yoruba man that inherited the presidency of the Fourth Republic. This makes it meaningless to argue that not celebrating democracy day on June 12 is targeted against any person or group. The difference between May 29 and June 12 is about two weeks. On May 29, in an election year, the whole nation is shut down owing to handover ceremonies across the entire country, yet it’s not a public holiday. Nigerians celebrate handover anniversaries of the elected executives and legislature throughout Nigeria on May 29 each year, yet it is not a public holiday. What this means is that whether you declare May 29 public holiday or not, no meaningful work will take place that day.
There’s no reason Nigeria should not have its democracy day on May 29, and there’s no reason June 12 should not be marked yearly to teach Nigerians the virtue of respecting the wish and will of the people and the consequences of not respecting the will of the people. It’s not a secret that from the day the presidential election of MKO Abiola was annulled in 1993 to May 1999, Nigeria didn’t have genuine peace and rest. June 12 marked the beginning of the crisis, while May 29 marked the beginning of joy for the Yoruba in particular, and for Nigeria in general. I will rather celebrate democracy day on May 29 and celebrate atonement day on June 12. Successive presidents rejoicing on June 12 day will seem to me as dancing on Abiola’s grave.
After May 29, 1999, can we in all honesty proclaim that we are in a democracy? The most important and basic pillar of democracy is free, fair, credible, verifiable and periodic elections. This is the only thing that would have ensured the success of June 12 and every other successive election after June 12. Unfortunately, from June 12 till date, there’s no presidential election that has been adjudged to be free, fair, credible and verifiable election. Not even the 2015 presidential election won by the All Progressives Congress (APC) can be described as such. Certainly not with more than 1,500,000 votes for one candidate in Rivers State and about almost three million votes for one candidate in Kano State. The best anyone can say about some elections may be that it reflected the wish of the people, not that it met the standard of free, fair, credible and verifiable election. It is certainly not credible that in 2015, a presidential candidate in Rivers State can garner 1,500,000 votes and in 2023, the highest scorer in the same election got 200000 votes. So also in other states.
The worst thing that happened to June 12 was that it was annulled. Unfortunately, Tinubu’s government just annulled the gubernatorial election won by Gov Siminalayi Fubara in Rivers State. Someone may say temporarily for six months. Question is what if what happened to Abiola, happens to Fubara within the six months, God forbid? Has it not amounted to another June 12 in Rivers State? We are all human beings and anything can happen to anyone any time. This government is simply not a democratic government. Tinubu is the same with Babangida in annulling an election won by a federating unit. There’s no difference between the annulment of June 12 and the annulment of Fubara election.
From inception, Tinubu publicly declared that power is not served a la carte, you fight for it, grab it, snatch it, and run away with it. That was exactly what happened with the February 25, 2023 presidential election in which the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) refused, failed, and neglected to electronically transmit the polling units results as required by law. It declared a phony technical glitch which the company its server is domiciled had rebutted. Yet it went ahead to declare cooked up results which it declared at the dead of the night and Tinubu ran away with it.
Democracy without free and fair elections is a civilian dictatorship. There are three legs of democracy. Government of the people, by the people, and for the people. The leg of democracy which describes it as the government by the people does not exist in Nigeria since we don’t have free and fair elections. The other leg which describes it as the government for the people also does not exist. This government of Tinubu is government of himself, his family, his loyalists, and his sycophants. Certainly, not the government for the people.
On coming into office, Tinubu removed fuel subsidy without recourse to the Petroleum Act that stipulated that it should be removed by June 30, 2023. No government that is directed to the welfare of the people will commence its administration with punishing the people it’s meant to serve. When this government claims that with the removal of fuel subsidy, it has more money to provide the infrastructures for the people, I really feel sorry for Nigerians. A government is robbing people of their money and using same money to satisfy its bogus appetite and is telling the people that it’s making progress.
The only thing Tinubu is doing with the money realised from the fuel subsidy is to refurbish existing infrastructures at exorbitant prices and rename such infrastructures after himself. This is despite the fact that it’s absolutely unethical for any incumbent president to name any infrastructure after himself while in office. If every former President had named the infrastructure it built after themselves, no infrastructure will be named after Tinubu because he has not built and completed any new infrastructure. This is the only government in history that will commission a 30 km road out of 700km road awarded at the cost of about N15 trillion to a company in which the family of the president has interest. Thirty kilometres out of 700km is just about four percent of the job and President Tinubu rolled out drums to commission the project. A lot of people alleged that this is a scheme to amass wealth for the 2027 election.
There are more malnourished children in Nigeria today than in war-torn Sudan. Yet some sycophants of this government said reforms are yielding positive results. The World Bank reported that Nigerians are going to get poorer with Tinubu in power till 2027. Of course there’s nothing surprising about this. Farmers cannot go to their farms because they will be killed by armed herdsmen and terrorists. Petty traders cannot go about their businesses because they cannot afford transport fares. Workers cannot feed their families because of the devaluation of the naira from about N460 per dollar when Tinubu came in to about N1,600 per dollar today which reduced their minimum wage from $60 a month at N30,000 minimum wage when Tinubu came in to about $45 per month at N70,000 presently.
This has been the worst two years for Nigerians in history. Tinubu’s regime has yielded only hunger and hardship, deprivation and degradation, throughout Nigeria. It’s important to note that what is failing Nigerians is not democracy, but the non-application of democracy. A country that cannot guarantee free and fair elections is not democratic. A nation lacking in rule of law is undemocratic. A country where the fundamental human rights of Nigerians are not respected is a pretender to democracy. A people whose press is not free to cast news without apprehension to their safety is not democratic. A community without assurance of justice from an independent and impartial judiciary has not smelt democracy. A nation where a June 12 can happen, and is still happening, is obviously non-democratic. All these vices are present in Nigeria, so Nigeria cannot presently be said to be democratic. Let us stop celebrating tragedies and misfortunes and celebrate successes.