Today is another day for them. A rare opportunity to insult our psyche. And distort our thought process with empty rhetoric. They will haul heavy falsehoods on our senses. And make us look stupid, even guilty, with their fibs.
Today is June 12. Their democrazy day. Not at all ours. These counterfeit will exert absolute control on us as usual. They will grandstand and gallivant. They will be in their best horror elements. It’s their privilege to fool us one more time.
Watch-out! They will feed us with heavily garnished concoctions. Laced with obnoxious and patent lies. They will stand on our fragile necks. Insisting we must eat, drink and swallow falsities to our fill. That’s the unpleasant lot they intend for us today.
With determined resolution. They will fiercely occupy our space. Make frantic attempts to wear us out, bore us down with emptiness. They will activate all media platforms. Churn out in large quantities. Their inanities in various ridiculous shapes, sizes, colours, modes, models and moulds.
Their motives notwithstanding. We will survive the onslaught and assault. We made it through May 29. Their propaganda had no meaningful effect on us. Their scores were all negative. We were not moved an inch.
Today’s bombardments won’t be any different. We have developed a thick skin to their media banditry and terrorism. They can’t remove a hair from us. That’s how resolute we’ve become.
We have known the gospel truth. The truth will always set us free. It did so beautifully on May 29. It will do today, June 12. Even more for us in times to come. We’re expectant of these charlatans. We can’t wait to have them. We are waiting with bated breath.
We know them well. They will pour out like torrents. And turn our earpieces to floods and flooding. But, we can assure them for a factual fact. We won’t be consumed, swallowed or submerged. We will come out with our heads high up. It’s a promise.
Today, they will be restless, restive and fidgeting. Yes, unsettled and unsecured. They will strive to be in control. Sing their own encomiums themselves; beat their fleshy chests. And roll out how they’re shepherding democracy to its slaughter. “Elevating” it down the path of one-party state or system. Whatever is applicable to their insatiable desires.
Then, they will drag their huge drum into the open. Beat it with all the strength they can muster. Clapping, yelling, dancing their crooked hearts out. They will celebrate themselves, by themselves and for themselves.
It was obvious. They would want to hijack June 12 and maximally utilise it to boost their greed. It turned out not only to be candidly so. But, even more than what we thought or expected.
Former President Muhammadu Buhari did it in June 2018. He shifted May 29 to June 12. And re-christened it Democracy Day. Forcefully impressing it on us that May 29 was a fruitful fruit of June 12. June 12 happened in 1993. May 29 came nine years later in 1999.
That was a failed decoy. They wanted to reap bountifully where they never sowed. Not even sparingly. Theirs is power and nothing else. And it can come through whatever means.
We were not unaware of all of this. We read their minds and lips appropriately. And we were right. The re-naming of June 12 was strategically targeted. It was well positioned.
It came precisely a year to Buhari’s re-election bid in 2019. Don’t you sense a despicable synergy there? It was to be a game changer at the polls. They were right. It worked wonders for their avarice. That move was a masterstroke to their winning the 2019 polls.
They tag theirs democracy day. But we elect to remain original: June 12! It’s the authentic. And we’re sincere about it. Those who retooled June 12 are themselves complete strangers to democracy: Bodies, souls and spirits.
You can’t just mouth democracy loudly, lousily and noisily. Believing yourself that you’re democrats and democratic. Worst still, you carry your shoulders high behaving as such. That is gross deceit.
It doesn’t work smoothly like that. Up to the time Buhari commandeered and expropriated June 12. Even after his eight-year ruins. He’s yet to be known as a democratic. He remains unrepentantly autocratic in every department of the word.
They knew they were not genuine democrats. They never behaved like one. They were only desperate to make their so-called democracy look real. No matter their efforts. Once it’s not actuality, it remains fake eternally.
These characters! They knew next to nothing about democracy, much less June 12. Yet they drank from its fountain of immense dividends. They even came forward to claim it. Appropriated it and imposed it on us as democracy day.
We would have preferred it remains what it is; what God destined to be: June 12. It never needed colouration. It’s divine. No borrowed robe is better than that. Honest. We won’t mind a reversal. That’s the most pleasing to our ears.
Chief Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola won his election clean, fair and square on June 12, 1993. Incontestable, indisputable and irrefutable. No traces of ethnicity or tribalism sighted.
He didn’t grab it violently. He couldn’t have run with it. It was a genuine mandate voluntarily given to him. It was served a la carte. He cherished it. The reason he was liquidated.
Nigerians didn’t make issues out of his Muslim-Muslim ticket. It was barely noticed. We were comfortable with it. We saw a perfect tag team in it. And we sincerely believed it would work for our ultimate good.
We trusted MKO and entrusted our lives to him. We had unwavering confidence in his ability and sincerity. We never doubted him for a second.
We massively invested our votes in his Hope ‘93. We knew our votes would count. MKO walked on our belief and trust. He never disappointed throughout his electioneering.
He never contemplated walking his Hope ‘93 on its head. He lived up to our billing strictly. He surrendered his comfort for us to have comfort. And he meant every word of the promises he pronounced. He didn’t hide anything from us.
Issues and not personalities were robustly discussed. He was interrogated, drilled and grilled. He was not shielded away from open debates. He made himself adequately available for questioning. He acknowledged his weaknesses. No human is perfect. Not even one. He knew the seriousness of government business.
All these happen in the exact opposite of our present dispensation. The unthinkable are our lots. We are speedily losing it by the day. See what these weird characters have made out of democracy! Imagine the manner we are sliding down the drain. And our rulers feigning ignorance. They insist nothing is amiss. That we are on course but cursed.
All our hitherto strong institutions have collapsed, utterly destroyed. None is viable enough to withstand these shenanigans. The biggest casualties are the Legislature and Judiciary. They have succumbed to the superior powers of the Presidency. They are more like appendages of some strange sort. They are afraid to assert their check-and-balance role. They dare not.
What about the systemic rot? Nothing is normal anymore in our abnormal clime. We obey laws in outright disobedience. Government is daily building nothing on nothingness. And insists all must be well.
The cause of all these: Offenders never get punished for offences. No penalties for wrongdoings. Criminals, rouges, fraudsters, dupes, et al, have become our heroes and heroines. We worship them and hail their devilish deeds. And we have them in reckless abundance.
Without mincing words, the leadership crop is in the forefront of these evils. When the head is rotten and rotting, what do you expect of the body?
One fearful thing has come out of these. It has become a frightening norm. Perhaps strangely peculiar to us. It’s scary and eerie. And it is getting messier with every succeeding government.
Before and during electioneering. Our aspiring leaders put up their most humble element. They behave, act their real selves. You see human beings in them. They listen, ask questions and discern rightly. They submit themselves to corrections.
After getting what they long for at the polls, they change it for us. From day one in office. They wear the garments of semi-gods. They become rulers and turn us to their subjects, not citizens. With that in mind, they ruin us without mercy.
By deliberate intention. They create a gulf to keep us at more than their arm’s length. They are high up there. And we’re down below here. It wasn’t so in the days of old.
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo sold us that absurd dummy. He certainly kick-started that trend. Summoning elected governors to Abuja? You were both duly elected. That’s alien to democracy and true federation. The beginning of unitary democracy!
It scarcely played out in Umaru Yar’Adua’s government. Ditto also Goodluck Jonathan’s. If at all it happened. It was with guarded moderation. It wasn’t loud and lousy.
Buhari’s regime not only revived the shenanigans. He upped it to an unpleasant scale. The anomaly became the standard. And the deviation became the ethics and ethos.
Oh, President Bola Tinubu! He grabbed it, owned it. He has been running with it since May 29, 2023. His is fastest and best. He excelled all his predecessors put together. He keeps improving on it by the second.
So? Whatever talk they choose to talk today. Whatever claims they claim. Whatever assertions they may assert. If they do not align with the stark realities that confront us daily. If they do not speak to our plight. If they opt to continue to ignore our feelings and aspirations.
If they remain adamant, arrogant, cocky and conceited. If their body language, actions and inactions are not in perfect synergy with ours. Then, let their talks, claims and assertions remain with them forever. We reject them in absolute totality. Let them have their “democrazy” to the fullest. We stick to our June 12. We don’t care a hoot whose ox is gored.
But we are not helpless. Our help is in the hands of our Creator. The Maker of heaven and earth. Our new song: Today is our day. It’s the Day the Lord has made. And we will rejoice and be exceedingly glad in it.
Forever!
…For the ‘Prisoners of War’
On every May 1 and June 12. This story will always be told in remembrance of us. We, the “Prisoners of War” (PoW). We’re the victims of May Day riots in Ibadan, Oyo State, on May 1, 1998. A natural spill over from June 12.
The riots were to checkmate the maximum ruler of our time, General Sani Abacha. He was ruthless in transmuting from military to elected president. Many of us never knew one another until they claimed they captured us at the “war front.” Some didn’t even know the reason for their capture until they were told.
Yes. It was that ridiculous. But, in detention, we bonded. And accepted our collective fate dropped on our laps by destiny. With an unshaken determination, we trod the bumpy path together.
The 40 of us came out alive, unhurt. But many have since gone back to their Creator. It was a gracious privilege to be so counted. And listed as PoW! Our team was by no means formidable. It included, but not limited to:
Chief Bola Ige, former governor Lam Adesina (deceased) of Oyo State; Comrade Ola Oni (deceased), the legendary rights activist; Femi Adeoti (my humble self); Alhaji Lateef Akinsola, a.k.a Tokyo (deceased), former chairman, Oyo State National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW); Alhaji Billy Akanji, aka Baba 70 (deceased); Kehinde Adesina; Mrs. Jayeola; J. J. Agboola and Sunday Morenikeji, aka Baba Blessing (deceased).
Some were picked from their workshops. Others in their offices. Many more in their homes. Some others on the streets. None was captured at the frontline. The only female PoW, Jayeola, was forced out of her hospital bed at Oke-Ado, Ibadan. She was separated from her one-week old baby.
I was Editor, Sunday Tribune. We carried the story. The riots happened the previous Friday. I hunted for three days by the then dreaded State Security Service (SSS) operatives. They claimed the story instigated the riots. We didn’t speculate the riots. We ran the story three days after the riots.
Anyway, I walked into the SSS den, Alalubosa, Aleshinloye, Ibadan, the fourth day, a Tuesday. It was so daring. I was seized and “captured.” Some were scattered in police stations in Ibadan.
However, we converged on the parade grounds, Iyagangu Police Station. We were hurriedly charged to the nearby Chief Magistrate Court on a Monday morning. Bail jointly denied.
We were herded into the dreaded Agodi Prisons, Ibadan, at exactly 7:30pm same Monday. It was a tough one. Hard and harsh day.
Captivating details of this account are contained in my book. It’s imminent. It’s booting and loading at the same speed!