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And fromnowhere, June 12 that has assumed the form of abiku, shot up last
week to victory in quite an unexpected formwhen President Muhammadu Buhari
issued a presidential order, not only givingthat historic date its proper
and long-agitated place but also canonize thesymbol of that epic struggle,
late Chief MKO Abiola. This was after twenty-fiveyears of ardent struggle
that has been thinning down with the years to Abiola’sardent supporters
and his kinsmen. This erosion least represents the essenceand form of June
12 but in a nation that relishes living in denial. The
cosmeticemasculation of the importance of June 12 served to enhance the
pleasure of theantagonists, the enablers and supporters of that callous
decision to throwspanner on a nation’s progressive march, set the country
several decades backand cause untold pain and damage to the wellbeing and
progress of the country.June 12 is so back and alive that this year’s
celebration is not limited toLagos and some South West States but will be
celebrated right inside Aso Rock,going by the President’s decision to
honour some leading lights that procuredthat procured that historic event.
Like theBiblical resurrection story, just when the nihilists thought they
have achievedvictory over June 12 and all what it stands for, the date
sprung up triumphantlike a sphinx that refused to be interred and shot
into the height of ournational calendar as the day Nigerians attained
democratic satiation. June 12,from a state of near-death, rose to shame
all those that have ensured it issnuffed and suppressed. June 12 rose last
week to mock at all those thatachieved cosmetic victory over it by
annulling a historic electoral victory,killing the owner of the mandate
and his supporters and who conspired tosuppress the date and its values
for a whole twenty-five years. Yes, those whoprocured, supported and
approved the annulment of the June 12 election hadthought that they had
achieved victory over the many Nigerians that wereagainst their evil
deeds. They believed that June 12 had been permanentlyinterred and buried
in the nation’s rich cemetery. They believed they had hadtheir ways
against other Nigerians and against what is right and proper. I knowthat
before last week, any mention of June 12 would have drawn the kind
ofderision and scorn with which they had, for the past 25 years, reacted
to thatdate. But as is assured, evil can run for a millennium but it will
take just aday for good to catch up with it. This evil against June 12 and
againstNigerians ran for 25 years and just last week, it was caught up and
vanquishedby the good only last week.
The creditto this sweet victory of good over evil goes to President
Muhammadu Buhari whohas etched his solid feet on the sands of time as a
man of history. Hate him orlove him, President Buhari has shown he is
alive to the tenets of good and thatno matter how long injustice runs, a
dose of justice will surely serve as anantidote for its long epoch. He has
shown honour, character and goodwill, whichare material ingredients of
good leadership. He is the Daniel that has come tojudgment and his
judgment resonates in a happy manner with majority ofNigerians who saw the
crude annulment of the June 12 1993 election as a crudesin and assault on
Nigerians. Buhari has given justice to Nigerians who refusedto succumb to
the deft and extreme efforts taken by Babangida government toannul the
election and the subsequent efforts of other governments for the past25
years to inter the historicity of that date. By this historical righting
ofthe wrongs of June 12, President Buhari has entered his own name into
history’sgolden urn and generations yet unborn will honour him for this
wonderfulmid-year gift to all Nigerians. Yes, those fixated scoffers who
gloated overthe annulment of June 12 are the ones accusing him of having
political intentsin doing this good deed but they spent a whole 25 years
of their own politicalheritage interring and marching on June 12. They are
still at a shock that thetruth they thought they had comfortably buried
for a whole 25 years has beenresurrected to hunt their own seedy
conscience and peace.
I discussJune 12 with a passion because I was involved. I am an
active-narrator of theevents of June 12 because I was in the critical
field of the social fightbackto that annulment that exerted huge costs on
Nigeria. I am an active soldier ofthe June 12 struggle and I was there
from the start to this day when victoryhas been achieved. As a ranking
students Union leader of the University ofLagos at the time the event took
place, I participated actively in the grittycrusade to revalidate June 12.
Even out of school, I was in the thick of thestruggle as the event and the
negative prospects the insensate annulment bodesfor the country shaped my
life in no mean way as I was a leading pro-democracyactivist through the
entire length of the June 12 battle. I harbor afirst-person impression of
what happened then and I can state, withoutequivocation, the critical
crisis of nationhood we have faced since theannulment have their roots
deeply embedded in the annulment.
I recallthat on July 4, 1993, the day the massive demonstration against
the annulmenttook place, we led Unilag students to form the arrowhead of
the huge streetprotest that happened that day. Later in that day, our
student leaders with ahandful of students, drove to Chief Abiola’s house
in Opebi, Ikeja to show oursolidarity and urge him not to give up. On
reaching his house, it was a beehiveof activities as various politicians
and activists were there too to showsolidarity. The students insisted on
driving into the heavily-guarded compoundbut the security men that manned
the gate refused us entry. We were ready for ashowdown and caused quite a
scene. Deji, Abiola’s second son came out and waspacifying us, telling us
that we would see Chief Abiola after his meeting withsome people. While
this was going on, a blue Volvo 760 drove out of thecompound and behind
the steering was former President Olusegun Obasanjo. He wasalone and was
bearing his palm frond which the few cars that were allowed toply Lagos
roads that day, must bear. Obasanjo drew some derisive hoots from
thestudents. He stopped just at the gate, wound down his glasses and told
Deji togo inside the compound. This drew more jeers from the students who
never likedObasanjo. He drove off.
OmoyeleSowore, a first grade fighter of June 12, now a presidential
aspirant, who wasthen the President and I, the Speaker, with two other
students were soonallowed to meet Chief Abiola who was with many other
politicians including lateChief Anthony Enahoro. Chief Abiola rose up to
embrace us and assured us hewould not surrender his mandate. He was
profusely grateful to the students’role in the struggle to revalidate the
mandate, annulled by Babangida on thenight of June 23, 1993. He revealed
to us that he knew the deep role andinvolvement of Unilag Students in the
struggle and asked us to take his words,commitment and appreciation back
to the generality of the students. We tookpictures with him and left.
We werewondering what Obasanjo, with his multiple personality, was doing
at Abiola’shouse on this day but knowing Obasanjo for who is, we were not
in doubt that hewas on one of his fortune-hunting expeditions. Few weeks
later, Obasanjo washeard telling the whole world that Abiola was not the
messiah Nigerians neededand that guided his scorn and contemptible
attitude to June 12 till date. Didwe miss that two days after this
historic validation of June 12 by PresidentBuhari, and with Obasanjo
facing particular national opprobrium for activelyworking to inter June 12
for the eight years he was in power, the same Obasanjowas to raise what is
certainly a hoax about the present government’s plot toeliminate him? Even
after the victory of June 12, Obasanjo still thinks he candivert attention
from the momentous revalidation and clog our sensibilitieswith a silly
story of a plot to eliminate him thereby blighting the euphoria ofthe June
12 celebration.
It is evenmore worthy to note that President Buhari equally announced the
rightful enthronementof June 12 as Democracy Day, with the posthumous
conferment of the highesthonour in Nigeria, the Grand Commander of the
Federal Republic (GCFR) on ChiefAbiola as well as the conferment of the
second highest honour to his erstwhiledeputy, Baba Gana Kingibe as well as
the irreplaceable human rights activistwho stridently fought against the
annulment of June 12, Chief Gani Fawehinmi.Thus, he sort of declared Chief
Abiola a democratically elected President,which is the intendment his
Executive Order. The president’s action wasunbelievable because many
Nigerians have forgotten June 12. Of course, the onlysemblance of June 12
that was alive was the yearly declaration of June 12 aspublic holiday by
some South West states and the series of lectures and colloquiumsheld
yearly to recall the date. By the time President Buhari acted, the
demandsof the June 12 proponents which are summed in what the President
granted, werehushed up and gradually swept down our leaky memories.
It is not asif President Buhari granted anything new. What he granted last
week were thesame demands the agitators for June 12 drew some 25 whole
years ago. They hadbeen there and formed the theme of unending agitations
all these years.Previous governments since June 12; Shonekan’s illegal
ING, Abacha’s, Abdulsalami’s,Obasanjo’s, Yar’Adua’s, and Jonathan’s simply
decided not to do anything intheir scorn of the feelings of Nigerians’
their disregard for justice and theirown deep-buried sentiments against
June 12 and what it stands for. They ignoredthe vociferous demands and
pretended the event never took place. Particularlyvexatious was Obasanjo,
who fortune-hunted into Abiola’s house but quicklyjumped ship to align
with the conspirators and to whom the conspirators gavethe full benefits
of June 12. When he became President, he decreed May 29, whenhe was handed
over power to as Democracy Day and pretended there were neitherany June 12
nor Abiola. For the eight years he was in power, he never evenmentioned
June 12 in passing as having any effect on his eventual reaping ofthe
fruits of the June 12 struggle. What he pretended was dead, in
uttercontempt of Abiola and other Nigerians for eight whole years was
granted by asingle order by President Buhari, just three years in office!
A Daniel hastenedto judgment!
The otherPresidents before and after Obasanjo were simply deaf to the
essence of June 12and did nothing about it. When he wanted to get some
political gains from June12, the immediate past president, Goodluck
Jonathan, did it in an opaque and inhi signature thoughtless manner by
just waking up one day and re-naming thegreat brand Unilag as Moshood
Abiola University of Lagos. Like the thoughts ofa sluggard, this rash
effort did not survive the morning after. They createdthe impression that
heavens will fall if they right the injustice of June 12,which is another
way to show their complicit support for that rabid affront onjustice. That
President Buhari, without giving an inkling, righted thatmonumental
historical injustice with just an order and set the entire nation ina wide
orgy of celebration, shows that there will never be a time heaven willfall
when the right thing is done. Indeed, a Daniel came to justice and
thenation is happy for that!
Nigerians,while savoring the revalidation of June 12, are seeing in what
happened lastweek as an eternal warning that injustice and evil have
terminal dates. Like atale told by an idiot, the deft efforts to stifle
June 15, asphyxiate and killit ended last week. The humongous prank to
replace the essence of June 12 andforce an uneventful May 29 as our
democracy day has ran its brief span andbecause it was founded on nothing,
it had collapsed like a badly arranged packof cards. Stories like this
June 12 story is the type that reinvigorates themoral fibers of a nation,
encourage the citizens to fight for and stand forwhat is good. On the
other hand, it warns those renegades who wrought andsustained the
injustice of June 12 as well as their rump who have beenstruggling to
water down the essence of this date, that wrongs and injusticesdo not
last. Injustice is like a ball of burning coal and whoever is handedsame
should be quick to throw it away before it burns him.
May Nigerianot go through the strictures of such miscarriage of truth and
justice as June12 and may the labours of our heroes past never end up in
vain. Happycelebrations to all Nigerians.
Peter ClaverOparah
Ikeja,Lagos.
E-mail: peterclaver2000@yahoo.com