By Simon Reef Musa<\/p>\n
Though a political masterstroke, the timing of the national honour
\ninvestiture on Chief MKO Abiola by President Muhammadu Buhari has
\ncontinued to be enmeshed in controversy. Proponents and opponents of the
\nevent\u00a0 havetheir points; but we lose the relevance of that electoral epoch
\nif wedisregard the fact that June 12 has become a national paradox that
\nepitomises the dark and bright side of our democracy.
\nThe annulled presidential election represents the resilience of the
\nNigerian people amidst the shackles of military dictatorship. When hope was
\nlost and the citizens were tired of the trampling of their rights; they
\nstood on the side of democracy. For once, a nation that was being invaded
\nby demons of religious violence buried the hatchet and stood behind a
\nMuslim-Muslim ticket.
\nFrom Borno to Lagos; Katsina to Port Harcourt; Calabar to Sokoto; and
\nIbadan to Adamawa; the electorate marched with the Hope \u201993 Campaign Team.
\nWhen it seemed obvious that that late Are Ona Kakanfo was coasting to
\nvictory, the military reversed our expected dawn of hope and replaced it
\nwith a moment of despondency. The annulment exposed the underbelly of some
\npoliticians whose sole pre-occupation in politics is to grab power.
\nNo doubt, Buhari\u2019s choice of the late Chief Gani Fawehinmi for the national
\naward is in recognition of his struggles not just for June 12, but for the
\nmasses. The acceptance by Ambassador Babagana Kingibe who served as Foreign
\nAffairs Minister in the Abacha military regime and thereafter Secretary to
\nthe Government of the Federation (SGF) under President Umaru Yar\u2019Adua,
\nproved a heavy blow against the June 12 struggle. To Kingibe\u2019s critics,
\nhonouring the former Secretary to Government of the Federation (SGF) with
\nthe GCON award amounted to honouring Judas.
\nThe presence of Senator Jonathan Zwingina, who served as Director General
\nof Hope \u201993 Campaign Organisation, at the event proved that politics and
\nprostitution\u00a0 could be bedmates. It was Zwingina who quickly renounced the
\nJune 12 struggle to become a commissioner in Adamawa State. His speech at
\nthe investiture ceremony is akin to Brutus\u2019 justification of the
\nassassination of Julius Caesar.
\nThe absence of Professor Humphrey Nwosu, who was the Chief Midwife of June
\n12 Miscarriage, was an irredeemable mistake. For those who are quick to
\ndescribe the chief electoral umpire as a coward, I only pray for them not
\nto have an encounter with a bandit. According to his account as contained
\nin his book, Professor Nwosu came under an unprecedented pressure to keep
\nsilent. He must have taken to the advice of Professor Chinua Achebe who
\nsaid, \u201cIt is good to be fearless my son, but sometimes it is good to be a
\ncoward; for we often stand in the compound of a coward to point at a ruin
\nwhere a great man used to live.\u201d
\nProfessor Wole Soyinka must have been miffed at the presence of some of
\nthese politicians who had come to a feast to brighten their prospects ahead
\nof 2019 polls. He recalled the selfless efforts Ola Oni in\u00a0 rallying other
\nnameless Nigerians to stake out their lives in defiance of the military
\nover the annulment. For justice to be served, Soyinka advocated for the
\nsetting up of Halls of Fame and Shame to appropriately recall the roles
\nplayed by various people.
\nThe June 12 struggle is the most profound movement that threatened
\nNigeria\u2019s oppressive forces as it propelled our people to take control of
\ntheir destiny. As Senator Bola Tinubu rightly noted, June 12 was not a
\nSouth-west affair as some have tried to paint it. Victims of the June 12
\nannulment cut across ethnic, religious and social status. Any deliberate
\nploy to ethnicise the struggle will amount to a grievous injustice to those
\nnameless people who lost their lives in the struggle.
\nThe trajectory to June 12 victory was the fallout of a bridge-building
\nprocess by Abiola that spanned several decades of service to the Nigerian
\npeople. Permit me a little digression to explain one of those nameless acts
\nof kindness by Abiola that made June 12 a reality. In 1981, the absence of
\na bridge at the Kolosok stream in Kamuru Ikulu, then in Kachia Local
\nGovernment of old Kaduna State, had led to loss of lives during raining
\nseason. With the people poor and government not responding to their plight,
\nthe people came up with the idea of organising an appeal fund, with Abiola
\nas the Chief Launcher.
\nSomehow, by struck of a magic, an invite was delivered to the generous
\nmoney bag through Rev Father Matthew Hassan Kukah. He was said to have
\npromised to honour the event. On the day of the ceremony, the man who was
\nexpected to cough out large chunk of the expected fund was nowhere close to
\nthe venue of the event. Organisers of the ceremony had to scan through the
\nassembly to see if there was anyone sent to represent the owner of Concord
\nNewspapers. Finding none, the organisers caved in to despair. Hope of many
\nmonths of planning to end the death trap at Kolosok began to fizzle out.
\nWith the people tired of waiting for someone whose name was then only heard
\non radio, they proceeded with the ceremony. After few remarks, the anchor
\nof the ceremony enquired if someone was in the assembly to represent Abiola
\nas the Chief launcher. To the embarrassment of many at the event, a scrawny
\nfellow dressed in clothes unworthy of being an Abiola representative stood
\nup.
\nWhen the fellow announced Abiola’s donation, not many ears were attentive
\nas they had given up on the man who needed a decent hair cut and good
\nclothes. To make matter worst, he told the disappointed faces that he was a
\njournalist working for the Hausa Community Concord in Zaria. He told the
\ngathering that his boss had to be away for another important event.
\nWhen he announced Abiola\u2019s donation to the gathering, a moment of surreal
\nsilence blew over the people who before now had been mourning the absence
\nof Abiola. Shout of joy broke through the gathering when the Master of
\nceremony announced that Chief MKO Abiola had donated the entire amount
\nneeded by the organisers of the appeal fund launching committee. Abiola, in
\nhis absence, had brought hope to a land threatened by Kolosok stream. In
\nhis worn-out bag, the representative brought out bundles of money that sent
\nan excitement through the crowd. The scrawny fellow with a faded bag became
\na magician. One of the men in the gathering, Baba Sheyin, who had regained
\nhis cheerful disposition, said, \u201cA man who can reach out to a fellow man in
\nanguish and bring hope is not just a man; he is a leader\u201d.
\nOver a decade later, it was pay-back time. The Hope \u201993 Team had arrived
\nKamuru Ikulu and reminded the people that the man who built the Kolosok
\nBridge was on the ballot for the June 12, 1993 presidential poll. Despite
\ncriticism that Abiola was running a Muslim-Muslim ticket, Baba Sheyin said,
\n\u201cEven if it is the Grand Sheikh of the Mecca Mosque that is on the ticket
\nwith Abiola, we shall still vote for him. He saved us when there was none
\nto help us.\u201d
\nDays before June 12, 1993, words had gone round that anyone that was a true
\nson of the Ikulu Nation must vote for the Social Democratic Party (SDP) to
\nreciprocate the kind gesture of Kolosok Bridge Builder. The queues for the
\n\u2018horse party\u2019 (SDP) in the various polling units were long, compared to the
\nfew faces on the National Republican Convention (NRC) queues at various
\npolling units.
\n\u201cMay you fall off from the Kolosok Bridge as you cross it next time\u201d, a
\nvoice screamed against the NRC queue in a particular polling unit.
\nBaba Sheyin and many old men who remembered the generosity of the
\nmulti-millionaire were dumbstruck when news came that the June 12 poll had
\nbeen annulled. One of Baba Sheyin\u2019s friends was heard heaping curses on all
\nthose behind the annulment.
\nBack to our discourse. Abiola did not only walk, but worked his way into
\nthe hearts of Nigerians by demonstrating generosity and assisting the
\ncitizens to tackle challenges confronting them on various fronts. Though
\ncoming from a poverty-stricken background, he knew the pangs of
\nwretchedness and was committed to ending it. Unlike some of our political
\nleaders who escaped poverty by the whiskers, political power has been
\nturned into a platform of advancing pecuniary interest to ruin the future
\nof the country. Abiola invested in Nigeria because he believed in the
\nnation. He provided jobs to thousands and shared in the dream for a greater
\nNigeria where wretchedness is banished and the nation\u2019s resources deployed
\nto serve the needs and not the greed of a few controlling the levers of
\npower.
\nAs patriots and political villains assembled to honour the memory of the
\nman who paid the supreme price for democracy, we must not lose sight of
\nwhat June 12 symbolises. It was a movement for the emancipation of the
\ncitizens from the primordial forces that seek to destroy the dream for a
\nprosperous and just Nigeria.
\nOur leaders and those who assembled to honour Abiola should honestly answer
\nthese questions: Would Abiola endorse the mass murders that have turned our
\ncountry into a hair-rising cynosure of killing field? Would Abiola accept
\nour present condition of cascading poverty where no fewer than nine million
\njobs have been lost in the last three years? Would the winner of the June
\n12 presidential poll accept a situation where some state governments sack
\nthousands of workers in a bid to provide for the feeding of primary pupils?
\nWould Abiola not have revolted against the cries of marginalisation and
\noutright discrimination on the basis of ethnic and religious factors
\ntearing the fabric of our nation apart? Would Abiola have accepted a
\nsituation where the executive and legislative arms are almost at war at a
\ntime when all hands ought to be on deck?
\nThe investiture may have come and gone, but the controversy may not fizzle
\nfor a long while to come. June 12 is not a memory; it is a flame of
\ninspiration to move Nigeria forward, no matter its imperfections.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Simon Reef Musa Though a political masterstroke, the timing of the national honour investiture on Chief MKO Abiola by President Muhammadu Buhari has continued to be enmeshed in controversy.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":62621,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-62619","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles-opinions"],"yoast_head":"\n