June 12: The Road Not Taken

Recently, Nigeria celebrated June 12 as a national holiday. Our editor Steve Aya takes a look at the current happenings as well as the celebrations concluding that Without free, fair and non-violence election in Nigeria as well as a total change in leadership and character, the  annual remembrance of June 12 popular mandate won by late Chief MKO Abiola but criminally  annulled by Gen. Ibrahim Babangida and his military supporters, will remain a  mere anachronistic symbolism of an important  historical  event and exhibition of multidimensional hypocrisy by the nation's bourgeois political class and their enablers 

 

In the year 1993, the military government of Nigeria under the leadership of the then dictator Gen. Ibrahim Babangida informed Nigerians of it plans to conduct the presidential election, which according to the will be the final phase of a long transition programs/ elections. The two acceptable or rather selected political parties quickly it candidates for the elections, the late Chief MKO Abiola was the flag bearer of SDP and Alhaji Bashiru Tofa was the flag bearer for NRC and the election was fixed for June 12.

On that day, Nigerians spoke with one voice, one vote. That election was free, fair with no violence in any form. It has since been describe as the best election in Nigeria’s history of organise politics. However, the elections were annulled by Gen. Babangida military dictatorship. Nigerians were jolted by this action as the country was on a knife-edge following the cancellation of the Presidential election, thus June 12 became an important historical day in Nigeria worth celebrating because events that followed that election and day midwife and also gave birth to the present day fourth republic and democracy.

The significance of June 12 election was beyond MKO as an elected president who was not allowed to govern for reasons unknown and may never be disclosed by those who annulled it. Rather it was all about the resolute determination of Nigerians to exercise their franchise to freely choose their leaders without fear or intimidation. It was a watershed that displayed our unity in diversity as a nation and put to shame the antics of the ruling class to divide Nigerian masses along with primordial ethnic, tribal and religious sentiments as Nigerians came out en masse to vote for the candidates of their choice based on campaign promises.

Sadly, these national fault lines have now become more pronounced than ever known, electoral violence has become more unleashed with impunity without sanctions and mass poverty more entrenched since the country returned to civil rule in 1999. Now, Nigeria is the poverty capital of the world, this was not the country MKO dreamed of and certainly cannot be the best way to remember MKO Abiola whose campaign mantra was: "Farewell to Poverty" the basis of which he got the massive votes.

When election riggers, do or die, politicians, ethnic chauvinists, political thugs, vote buyers and sellers celebrate June 12, it is akin to armed robbers, rapists and kidnappers attending the memorial program of their victims annually with pomp without conscience. Nothing can be more criminally pretentious, disdainful and disgusting.

Governors and local government chairmen who were said to be elected, now govern their states and councils like captured territories by manipulating everything from the top down to their state local government polls, circumventing free and fair elections, giving themselves the role of mini godfathers with powers to do and undo, at the same time giving their parties undue advantage. These are the enemies of June 12 and a big threat to democracy and popular participation.

Impunity is indeed the order of the day; Party leaders see themselves as mini gods using the power of their office to intimidate party members, aspirants and political office holders including those who were elected into office by Nigerians, this was the order of the day in the PDP era. Many Nigerians had thought that such practices will be checkmated when they massively voted for the APC in the 2015 elections who were campaigning under the “CHANGE” mantra with a firm promise to turn the country around with Nigerians saying farewell to poverty just like MKO did on his way to victory. But we all know better now that the nation has become the poverty capital of the world.

A good example of this impunity,  is the Oshiomole, Obaseki sage that almost set Edo state on fire. Everything Oshiomole and the APC committee accused Obaseki of, Oshiomole was also guilty of during his first and Second elections yet nobody disqualified him. He had issues with his name too, he is Adams Aliyu Oshiomole in some credentials and Adams Aliu Oshiomole in others. He also had issues with his academic qualifications, some claimed he is just a tailor without even a primary school leaving certificate! But he was never disqualified even though his party wasn't the ruling party at the federal level in his first term.

He uses the instrumentality of the media and courts to defend and clear himself. PMB also had the same issues. He had "Mohammed" in some cases and "Muhammadu" in others. There were also doubts about his academic qualifications but, he was never disqualified based on these. This is what Oshiomole is denying Obaseki now and there are many such examples evenly spread in both the APC and PDP.  It is very obvious, that our current sets of leaders are not in the same page with Nigerians when it comes to democracy.

It is a well-known fact that Nigeria politics is all about interest and it has been so right from the first republic. As they say, there is no permanent friend in politics, but permanent interest. About 60% percent of our current politicians started with the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) but, ended up with the governing All Progressives Congress (APC) just because they needed to be accommodated, recognised and "settled". Of course, there are politicians who also moved from other opposition parties or the APC just like the Ondo state deputy governor and Obaseki did to the PDP.

Majority of those in APC today started either with Alliance for Democracy (AD) which changed it name to Action Congress (AC) and later metamorphosed into Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) before forming a tag-team with Congress for Progressives Change (CPC) which was an offshoot of All Nigerian Peoples Party (ANPP). All these movements also happen in develop democracy and it is not for self-interest but in order to serve their nation better. Let’s face the facts here, Nobody knows the National Chairman or whatever they call themselves of either the republican party or the democratic party of United States of America, but the world knows candidate Joe Biden and Donald Trump

Today, Gov. Godwin Obaseki has moved over to PDP to further his political ambition of becoming a two-term governor. His action is being condemned by those with short memory or a poor sense of history or even those seen as loyal to the APC. On the other hand, he is been celebrated by loyal PDP members and those that felt for him given the way he was treated by his former party. Now If our political leaders don't have principles, how on earth can they steer this nation to progress? Quite frankly, this is not the dream of our founding fathers, this is not democracy  and this is not what June 12 stands for; it’s impossible for a nation to develop this way. Meanwhile, they have mentored and are still mentoring young politicians that will be tomorrow’s leaders.

The recent event have also exposed the much said point of no Justice for the poor as the Judiciary has been box into a corner by our ruling political class. In the name of fighting corruption, the nation’s top and best Judges were not only intimidated but chased out of the office leaving us with political parties card-carrying Judges. While the same may be said of other democracy’s around the world, these Judges are not the only fare in their judgments but they are highly principle.

Obaseki may not or may retain his position as governor. It all depends on what Edo people want and how they view the political situation in the state and their political leaders. There may be legal or court battles ahead if Edo people back Obaseki. It may end up in the Supreme Court where anything can happen, Yes just anything can happen. This is the life of the Nigerian politician, winning at all costs. This is not democracy and this was certainly not the dream of those Nigerians who voted in that election of June 12, 1993.

When the struggle for the June 12 mandate stated, many Nigerians had a dream of good things to come. Many have called the then ruling military leaders bad names, many lost their lives, basic income, love ones, all sorts of personal and collective sacrifices were made just to move the nation into a democracy.

However, after 21 years of uninterrupted democracy, is this how we now measure progress in our great nation? Popularity with thugs and cultists?, Poverty now the new order of the day? A nation where the nature of our politics is that performance is secondary to patronage and corruption, impunity is openly celebrated. Yet we are quick to celebrate June 12, as our democracy day. Is this the dream of our fathers?

I am sure the answer to these questions and many others is a big No, we have missed the mark, we have missed the turn and this is certainly not the road we were supposed to follow. We have taken the wrong Road. We must collectively trace the missed road or we are deceiving ourselves with our continuous celebrations of June 12.