Re-Enacting June 12

Last Wednesday, pro-democracy and civil society groups in different parts of the country recalled with disgust one of the darkest chapters in the  political evolution of the Nigerian state- the annulment of the June 12, 1993 presidential election.

That election was adjudged the freest and fairest in the history of the country and was widely believed to have been won by the presidential candidate of the defunct Social Democratic Party (SDP), Late Chief Moshood  Kashimawo  Olawole  Abiola.

Trouble started when a group known as Association for Better Nigeria (ABN) under the leadership of Senator Arthur  Nzeribe approached a Federal High Court in Abuja seeking for an injunction to restrain the National Electoral Commission (NEC) from conducting the election on the premise that 25 million Nigerians wanted the military president, Gen. Ibrahim Badamasi Babaginda to continue to rule the country in the next four years.

While most Nigerians dismissed Nzeribe and his co-travellers as political jesters and rabble-rousers, the presiding judge, Justice Bassey Ikpeme was of the view that the matter was justiceable and  the litigants must be given fair hearing. After all said and done she delivered a rulling that the election should not hold, thus throwing the nation into fits of delirium.

However, respite came when NEC  re-assured Nigerians that the election would hold as scheduled. NEC’s announcement also disabused the minds of those who alluded the happenings to a ploy by the military junta to hold on to power.

To demonstrate their discontent for the prolonged military rule in the country, Nigerians for the first  time in the history of the country jettisoned their tribal cleavages religious beliefs and political affiliations and voted for the candidates of their choice.

The following day results from 30 states of the country and the Federal Capital Territory were in the public  domain. Chief   M.K.O   Abiola had a clean sweep of the poll, waiting for NEC to formally declare him the winner of the most credible election in the country.

Surprisingly, there was a miserable development as ABN in furtherance of its diabolical plot against the Nigerian state and its people secured injunction from a Federal High Court in Abuja presided over by Justice Dahiru Saleh ordering NEC to stop further announcement of the results. NEC therefore, was compelled by the federal military government to comply with the court order. Few days later, Gen. Babaginda hit the nail into the coffin by announcing the annulment of the election for spurious reasons.

Angered by the truncation of the democratic process in the country, pro-democracy  and civil society groups as well as the Nigerian press decided to wage a bloodless war against anti-democratic forces which the military junta and its hirelings symbolised.

As a renowned military officer and coupist, Gen. Babaginda knew when to beat a retreat to save himself from imminent danger. For a man who had ruled one of the “richest” black nations in the world for eight years, he knew it was time to step aside in the comfort of his personal abode to enable him count his blessings. So, he stepped aside.

But Chief Abiola was not one to be cowed by the military junta to forgo the mandate that was freely given to him by Nigerians to liberate them from the state of hopelessness and helplessness as encapsulated in his campaign slogan “Hope 93.” He fought and paid the supreme price for democracy to be institutionalised in Nigeria.

Regrettably, twenty years after the annulment of June 12 election, Nigeria is returning to the path of insanity and ignominy that led to the painful death of many citizens of self-styled giant of Africa, because of selfish, unpatriotic and mindless actions of our past leaders.

What is happening in the Nigeria Governors Forum is a harbinger of what the world should expect from the so-called leaders in 2015. Since May 24, when the governors conducted election to choose their leaders, the NGF has been polarized, because the preferred candidate of the presidency and the leadership of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) was defeated by a popular candidate who secured majority of the votes. Governor Chibuike Rotimi  Amaechi of Rivers State was re-elected, having polled 19 votes against Jonah Jang’s 16 in an election that was acknowledged by many Nigerians who watched the video recording both in social and national media as free and fair.

This was against the backdrop of alleged irregularity by anti-Amaechi  governors. The plank of their argument was that Governor Jang was endorsed by 19 governors  poior to the election and wondered why his endorsement should not take precedence over electoral process in a democratic setting.

Election is part and pareel of a democratic culture. A situation where some of the political leaders declare a winner in an electoral contest before the election proper bespeak of evil days ahead.

A situation where the actual winner in an electoral contest and his supporters are persecuted by the powers-that-be for exercising their constitutional rights is not healthy for the nation’s democracy.

A situation where flimsy reasons were given to decredit a transparent electoral process that returned Governor Amaechi to power as chairman of NGF reminds one of the spurious reasons adduced by the military junta in the annulment of the June 12 election. Nigeria cannot walk that path again. Our votes must count.