However, despite years of advocacy, successive administrations continued to stick with the May 29 handover date, despite calls to have June 12 declared a public holiday. Only the South-West States of Lagos, Ogun, Osun, Ondo, and Ekiti, which were under the control of the now-defunct Alliance for Democracy, observed June 12 as a public holiday in honour of the heroes and heroines who died on that day.
At the national level, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd), the immediate past president, finally paid tribute to the martyr of democracy, MKO Abiola, in 2019 by awarding him the prestigious Grand Commander of the Order of the Niger as well as making the day a public holiday.
The significance of June 12 in the country’s arduous transition to democracy has been the subject of numerous inquiries in the past. Without June 12, would May 29 have occurred? If MKO hadn’t passed away in prison, would Obasanjo—who showed Abiola little respect even in death—have been elected president?
Mike Ozekhome, Senior Advocate of Nigeria and June 12 campaigner, claimed that the 1993 presidential election was the closest any election had ever been to what June 12 brought to Nigeria’s democracy.
The real Democracy Day, he declared, is June 12, not May 29. Before former President Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd) made the declaration about three years ago, I had fought for this for years. In fact, I was the one who proposed that it be implemented at the 2014 National Conference.
Festus Keyamo, a fellow SAN and the recently retired Minister of State for Labour and Employment, agreed with Ozekhome that the historic day was revered for a variety of reasons, the most important of which is the realisation of how far democracy has come in terms of the power it has given to the people.
The importance of June 12 lies in the fact that Nigerians learned that even the worst form of democracy is preferable to the best form of dictatorship. You can see that after the last election, when some of these younger elements were essentially calling for interim government and some unconstitutional interventions because of their disappointment over their candidates’ failure, the elders in their camps called them to order. This is because Nigerians have since realised that it is better to fight amongst ourselves and keep developing our democracy than to return to military rule. They were playing with fire and had no idea it. In other words, the June 12 struggle is responsible for the stability we currently experience, which is the longest stretch of democratic rule since 1960. We are in this position today because of our President Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and other pro-democracy forces, Keyamo said.
Anthony Sani, a chieftain of the Arewa Consultative Forum, agrees that despite the annulment of the election that would have put Abiola in office, Nigeria’s democracy has gained significantly in terms of the populace’s understanding of their rights and willingness to adhere to the fundamental principles of constitutional democracy.
Sani urged Nigerians to keep in mind that the most important lesson to learn from the historic June 12 was that Abiola died to ensure that the country’s democracy would be deeply ingrained and sustained over time.
In his own words: “The importance of June 12 Democracy Day is the freedom of choice that democracy confers on the people with regard to how they want to be governed, and for which MKO Abiola died. Even though the June 12, 1993 election was widely regarded as the most fair and free and produced Chief Abiola as the victor, the military regime annulled the results.
Thus, June 12 is observed annually to remember the elections as a sign that democracy has persisted in Nigeria for the benefit of all. The commemoration of June 12 also provides an opportunity to evaluate progress against plans by way of both trend and cross assessment of performance for the purpose of improvement because the good things in life are not given voluntarily but are obtained through relentless hard work by both leaders and the led.
Although democracy is widely regarded as the best type of government, its willingness to accept the very forces that made martyrs’ lives so miserable raises more questions than it does answers. Nigerians were treated to tales of sorrow, tears, and blood at the Human Rights Violation Investigation Commission, also known as the Oputa Panel, many years ago. Sergeant Barnabas Msheila, affectionately known as Sergeant Rogers, described how the Abacha Strike Force, under the direction of Major Hamza Al-Mustapha, ordered the killings of Abacha’s perceived enemies, including the head of the National Democratic Coalition, Pa Alfred Rewane, Kudi
Afenifere leader Pa Abraham Adesanya was shot in his car in Lagos, but managed to escape unharmed. Publisher of The Guardian, Alex Ibru, was shot and had to be flown abroad for medical treatment in order to have any chance of survival. But the very people who opposed democracy in the country tried, with varying degrees of success, to reap its benefits. IBB himself attempted but failed to run for President in 2007 on the PDP platform, and Major Al-Mustapha, Abacha’s Chief Security Officer, was the Action Alliance’s presidential candidate in the general election of 2023. Shame!
