To start with, my piece will focus on the origins of May 29th as our former Democracy Day which has now become our Handover date and the June 12 which was formally celebrated as Moshood Kashimawo Olawale (MKO) Abiola’s Day in some parts of the country, but has now officially become our new Democracy Day from 2019 to- date . The last time Nigeria had full democratically elected governments from federal to states was in the Second Republic (1979- 1983). From 1983 to 1999 were fifteen years of none full democratically elected governments in Nigeria. In between we had a Diarchy system of government (Military and civilian) under president Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida (IBB ) from 1992 to 1993 and four months Interim National Government(ING) under late Chief Ernest Shonekan.
On the 12th of June, 1993, there was a Presidential Election in Nigeria whose results thought not officially announced was widely acclaimed to have been won by late Chief MKO Abiola. The then military Junta of president IBB annulled the election midway. The annulment gave birth to series of political agitations in the country which led to the annual “celebration” of June 12th as a day for “freedom” or “Democracy” in some parts of Nigeria. The day had no official national recognition until 2018. However, on the May 29th day from the year 2000 until 2018, May 29th of every year was marked as Democracy Day. The Day was a National Holiday to mark the day the military handed over power to a democratically elected government after fifteen years of its absent. May 29th, 1999 ushered in the 4th Republic.
The June 12, Election of 1993 was neither a “Yoruba” nor ” a southern” Nigerian , but purely a Nigerian project which was unfortunate turned to be a Yoruba or a southern project due to careless utterances made by some politicians . The presumed winner was overwhelmingly voted by muslims, christans, northerners and southerners. It clearly showed then that, ethnic, religious and regional considerations were of less considerations in our politics of that time. The greatest “point” missed by most Nigerians about the election, was that, it was a stolen mandate of all Nigerians not only the “Yorubas” or the “southerners “as it was made to look like by some “dubious elite”who soon after its unilateral annulment by the then IBB’S government turned the victory to be either an ethnic or a regional one.
The Nigerianess of the project then was to the extent that, Chief Moshood Kashimawo Olawale (MKO) Abiola and his running mate Alh. Baba Gana Kingibe were both Muslims. The presumed winner who was a Yoruba man defeated a Muslim -Christan ticket of late Alh. Bashir Othman Tofa from Kano state and Dr Sylvester Ugoh ,an Igbo man from Imo state even in Tofa’s home state of Kano. It was very unfortunate to note that, soon after the annulment of the election by the then IBB’s Military Junta who happened to be a northerner for reasons best known to him the supposed election victory was turned to either be an “ethnic or a “regional” victory by some selfish elite simply because the supposed winner late Chief MKO Abiola happened to be a Yoruba man from sourthern Nigeria.
The facts remain that Chief MKO Abiola of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) won in the 19 states plus Abuja of the then 30 states of Nigeria even though not officially announced . Some Nigerians felt that in view of the significance of the then June 12 elections which united Nigerians to a large extent irrespective of tribe, religion and region should be our “real” or “natural” Democracy Day. Other people felt that June 12 was simply adopted by president Buhari in 2018 because he was then bidding for his second term in officer in order to woo the sentiments of the south western voters .
However, on May 29th Day as former Governor Nasir Ahmad El -Rufa’i put it in his book called : “Accident Public Servant”, which I paraphrased thus, after General Abdulsalami Abubakar became the president in 1998, he asked his In-law Ibrahim Aliyu who was then a retired permanent secretary and the chairman of Intercellular Nigeria Limited a company floated by El-Rufa’i’s elder brother, Bashir to put together a small team of trusted , apolitical experts to advise him on political and economic transition. Accidental Public Servant ( P. 52).
“…Ibrahim suggested a six-person advisory committee, consisting of three northerners and three southerners. This was what came to be known as General Abubakar’s personal think -tank-the Programme Implementation and Monitoring Committee, generally referred to as PIMCO…” Accidental Public Servant ( P. 52-3). former Governor El-Rufai was among the six people selected to serve in PIMCO.
El-Rufa’i said: ” …The other big eye opener for me was how literally a handful of people decided a date for Abdulsalami to hand power to the next democratically elected president. At the first meeting of PIMCO on the 10th of June, 1998, Abdulsalami made it clear that because the military had lost credibility from from seemingly endless transitions, postponements and cancellations of elections, and wished to conclude the Abacha transition and hand over power on the first of January, 1999. Our initial response was that this sounded find, but the junta still needed to consult more widely – to find out what majority of Nigerians thought on that and other related matters…”
“…The initial date that was fixed for handling power was in mid-April, but our chairman Ibrahim Aliyu raised the point that two months may not be enough time for all the post -election litigation and adjudication process to be done before hand -over. More time may be needed because we knew that our elections tended to be contentious, and politicians therefore litigated a lot – candidates always go to election tribunals even when they have clearly lost an election, hoping a technicality will earn a cancellation and re-run. I was mandated to see the then chief justice of Nigeria, justice Mohammed Lawal Uwais, to get an idea of how much time in the Court would be adequate after the elections for all post -election litigations to run their course…”
“… The experienced jurist did a step -by-step analysis of civil procedures likely to be complied with, and was of the opinion that the courts would need until the end of April to the middle of may to dispose of all election petitions from the proposed February election dates. When I took that back to PIMCO, we added four weeks from mid–may and we landed on Saturday, The 12th of June as the hand – over date. The first lady, Justice Fati Abubakar – a senior high court judge herself – weighed in on justice Uwais’ recommend time – line with her husband to get his quick buy – in to adopt what PIMCO suggested as the hand – over date…”
“…Now, any student of Nigerian politics should know that the 12th of June is about as close to bad karma for the military regime as you can get – it was the date of the election which M. K. O Abiola won and was later annulled by General Babangida. Abdulsalami recognised this date as well, so we moved two weeks backward to the 29th of may, which has remained our ` Democracy Day ‘ and a national holiday ever since. Our colleague, Dr. Tunde Soleye, was not privy to this decision but had a different basis of objection any handover date later than June 8. Tunde believed that any person that spends more than 12 months in Aso villa goes mad literally and begins to try every scheme not to ever leave the office and residence of the president. He was determined to protect friend Abdulsalami Abubakar from the affliction and therefore separately insisted that he must hand over before the anniversary of Abacha ‘s death…” Accidental Public Servant (P.58-9).
Finally, whichever day is the Nigeria’s Democracy Day, all what Nigerians want presently is good governance, jobs, security, peace, unity, growth and development which is at the lowest ebb. Our leaders must wake up from their slumber and do the right things.
May God bless Nigeria!
