President Tinubu’s maiden Democracy Day broadcast

 

Painfully, I have asked you, my compatriots, to sacrifice a little more for the survival of our country. For your trust and belief in us, I assure you that your sacrifice shall not be in vain. The government I lead will repay you through massive investment in transportation infrastructure, education, regular power supply, healthcare and other public utilities that will improve the quality of lives – President Bola Tinubu’s first Democracy Day broadcast on June 12, 2023.

Where were you 30 years ago was a challenge on social and broadcast media last Monday, June 12, 2023. Many who are old enough recounted their experience on Saturday, June 12, 1993 when the presidential election of the aborted Third Republic held. I was then an undergraduate student of the University of Lagos. Though I was of voting age then, I did not register to vote. I was however fully involved in the protests aimed at de-nullification of the presidential poll. I had started my practice of freelance journalism then and was actively contributing to OGBC FM Mailbag 2084; a popular audience participatory programme on the Ogun State Broadcasting Corporation situated in Abeokuta. The programme had to be rested after Gen. Ibrahim Babangida annulled the June 12 1993 presidential election.

For the benefits of under-30 youths, June 12, 1993 was supposed to be the end of the electoral process that started in 1990 under the elongated transition programme of maverick military president, Babangida. He had established a two-party system for the country. One was called the National Republican Convention headed by Chief Tom Ikimi and the other he called Social Democratic Party headed by Chief Tony Anenih, both of whom are from Edo State. The two political parties were government funded. Offices were built for the political parties across the existing local government, states and the nation’s capital. Meanwhile, he had banned, unbanned, re-banned old politicians and said that only new breed politicians were allowed to contest elections. IBB as Babangida was fondly called had prior to the elongated transition programme established the National Electoral Commission headed by Prof. Humphrey Nwosu as the national chairman.

After each round of elections, the winners are sworn into office. That’s why local government chairpersons, governors and National Assembly members of the Third Republic were not inaugurated same year as we have it now. NEC as the election management body also introduced an Option A4 mode of election. This is an open ballot system where voters queue behind their preferred candidates or their posters or pictures and they are counted with the number of votes recorded and later aggregated to determine the winner. This system of voting is anachronistic and anti-democratic. One of the features of democracy is secrecy of ballot which is aimed at preventing voter intimidation and harassment.

In 1993, NRC presented Alhaji Bashir Tofa from Kano as the presidential candidate. SDP nominated Chief MKO Abiola, a business mogul from Ogun State as its standard bearer. Tofa chose Chief Sylvester Ugoh, a Christian from the South-East as his running mate while Abiola took a gamble by nominating Ambassador Babagana Kingibe, a fellow Muslim from Borno State as his running mate.  In spite of the same faith ticket of the SDP, Abiola won a pan-Nigerian mandate. He even defeated Tofa in his native Kano State. Thus, President Tinubu picking another Kanuri-man from Borno State who is also a Muslim like him evoked a feeling of de-ja-vu as many Nigerians believe that re-enactment of same-faith ticket at the national level, 30 years after it was first experimented is tantamount to political hara-kiri. Truth be told, the same-faith ticket of the All Progressives Congress in the 2023 presidential poll harmed the victory margin of Tinubu as many Christian minority groups in northern Nigeria and even in the South did not vote for APC due to the same-faith ticket gamble.

Following the annulment of June 12, 1993 presidential election adjudged as free and fair by the military junta of IBB, the National Democratic Coalition and other groups such as the Campaign for Democracy, Committee for the Defence of Human Rights and Civil Liberties Organisation were formed to press home for the return of the country to civil rule. Oodua People’s Congress and Afenifere Renewal Group also sprang up. OPC was renowned for the demand for Oduduwa Republic.  When the pressure from the pro-democracy groups was much, IBB decided to step aside on August 27, 1993 by handing over the reins of government to Chief Ernest Shonekan under an interim government arrangement.  Shonekan was himself pushed aside by Gen. Sani Abacha on November 17, 1993 after a high court declared the interim government unconstitutional, null and void. MKO Abiola refused to give up on his mandate and he embarked on an international campaign for the denullification of the presidential election.

This was what President Tinubu referenced in his maiden Democracy Day speech last Monday when he said “We can easily recall the sacrifice and martyrdom of Chief MKO Abiola, the custodian of the sacred mandate that was so cruelly annulled. He sacrificed his life in unyielding, patriotic defence of the ideals of democracy as symbolised in his choice, by his fellow countrymen and women, as their duly-elected President. There was an easier choice for him. It was to forgo the justice of his cause and opt for the path of ease and capitulation in the face of the tyranny of power. To his eternal credit and immortal glory, Abiola said no. He demonstrated the time-tested eternal truth that there are certain ideals and principles that are far more valuable than life itself.”

The media and civil society organisations that campaigned for the denullification of the June 12, 1993 presidential election did not go unpunished by the military junta of Gen. Sani Abacha. Many newspaper and broadcast stations including this medium – The PUNCH was proscribed. The Guardian, National Concord, Newswatch, TELL and The News magazines were similarly banned. The founder of The Guardian newspaper, Mr Alex Ibru, survived assassination attempt on his life. Pa Alfred Rewane, Mrs. Kudirat Abiola, Bagaulda Kalto were not so lucky. They paid the supreme price. Veteran journalist, Kunle Ajibade, was jailed for life while Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka and the incumbent president, Tinubu had to go on self-exile to escape Abacha’s hit squad. Scores of citizens died from gunshot wounds during the mass protests to de-nullify the June 12, 1993 presidential election especially in the six South-West states while tertiary institutions including my alma mater, University of Lagos was shut down and students asked to vacate campuses immediately.

When President Tinubu said in his Democracy Day speech that “we must never take this democracy for granted. We must forever jealously guard and protect it like a precious jewel. For, a people can never truly appreciate the freedoms and rights democracy guarantees them until they lose it.” He was very much on point.

How have we fared 30 years after June 12, 1993? Unfortunately, we haven’t fared significantly well. Our elections still leave much to be desired as money and violence continue to play a dominant role in our electoral democracy. The “not-in-my-backyard” attitude of Nigeria’s political class leaves a sour taste in the mouth. Self-aggrandisement seems to be the holy writ of Nigeria’s political elite as all development indices are pointing south even after uninterrupted 24 years of civil rule. Poverty, unemployment, insecurity, infrastructural deficit, widespread corruption, and gross abuse of office have become our new normal.

The admonition of President Tinubu to his fellow politician is quite in order. He said inter alia that “….those of us who have been privileged to be elected into public offices at various levels in both the executive and legislative arms of government must recommit ourselves to offering selfless service to the people, and delivering concrete democracy dividends in accordance with our electoral promises.” Hope this worthy counsel is strictly adhered to. I look forward to the president’s fulfilment of this eternal word of his “We shall be faithful to truth. Faithful to equity. And faithful to justice. We shall exercise our authority and mandate to govern with fairness, respect for the rule of law, and commitment to always uphold the dignity of all our people.” So help him God!