By Emma Obe
“Any sacrifice is in order if it will bring democracy, peace and prosperity to Nigeria,” said Chief Moshood Abiola, as he spoke to the BBC on the phone while the police led him out of his residence in Lagos in June 1994 to the final detention that cost him his life four years later.

Abiola was the acclaimed winner of the June 12, 1993 presidential election, which was annulled by the military-led government of General Ibrahim Babangida (retd).

The annulment came via a press statement circulated to State House Correspondents on June 23, 1993 by Nduka Irabor, the Chief Press Secretary to the then Vice-President, Augustus Aikhomu, a retired admiral as the nation and indeed the world waited for that moment to hear from the military authorities which had a few days earlier ordered the suspension of the collation of the results of the election. Declared results were already showing that Abiola of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) was winning by a widening margin ahead of Alhaji Bashir Tofa of the National Republican Convention (NRC).

Irabor handed copies of the unsigned press statement that annulled the election to the waiting State House Correspondents and asked them to go file their stories. The annulment statement read, “In view of the spirit of litigation pending in various courts, the federal government is compelled to take appropriate steps in order to rescue the judiciary from intra-voyaging. Those steps are taken so as to protect our legal system and the judiciary from being ridiculed and politicised, both naturally and internationally.

“In an attempt to end this ridiculous charade which may culminate in judicial anarchy, the Federal Military Government has decided to stop forthwith, all court proceedings pending or to be instituted and appeals thereon in respect of any matter touching, relating or concerning the presidential election held on June 12, 1993.

“The Transition to Civil Rule Political Programme (Amendment Number 3), Decree Number 52 of 1992 and the Presidential Election (Basic Constitutional and Transitional Provision) Decree Number 13 of 1993 are hereby repealed. All acts or omissions done or purported to have been done, or to be done by any person, authority etc, under the above-named decrees are hereby declared invalid.

“The National Electoral Commission is hereby suspended. All acts or omission done or purported to have been done by itself, its officers or agents under the repealed Decree number 13, 1993 are hereby nullified.”

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The news of the annulment threw Nigeria into its worst humanitarian crisis since the Nigerian civil war of the 1960s. Protesters were killed in the streets of Lagos by soldiers deployed by the military authorities.

Fearing that events could lead to another civil war, millions of Nigerians criss-crossed the country with their families to return to their native lands, creating huge traffic on the highways and many cases of injuries and deaths from accidents.

Two months later the military President, Babangida, was forced to step down from office. He set up the Interim National Government headed by Chief Ernest Shonekan. But the crises did not abate. Shonekan promised a fresh election in February 1994.

But by November 1993, he was overthrown by General Sani Abacha, who cancelled the transition programme and got set to rule for life. He dissolved the two political parties and constituted a new cabinet in which he brought on board some members of aggrieved politicians including the running-mate to Abiola in the June 12 election, Alhaji Babagana Kingibe.

There followed a massive clampdown on the press and civil society that opposed the annulment. Many activists and journalists were killed while many others escaped into exile. Among those killed were Bagauda Kaltho of TheNews magazine and Pa Alfred Rewane, who was vocal against the regime of Abacha. The mass actions continued through the years of Gen. Sani Abacha until he died suddenly in June 1998.

In response to the general demand for a return to democratic rule, Abacha’s successor, Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar, commenced a transition programme that culminated in the general elections of 1999 that brought in the present democratic dispensation.

What benefits have Nigerians got from the sacrifice of Abiola and the thousands of people who died and lost valuables during the struggle for democracy after the June 12 crisis? Jamiu Abiola, son of Abiola, recently said it would be regrettable if democracy fails in the country. “Then my parents died in vain. That will never happen, by the grace of God,” Jamiu, whose mother, Kudirat Abiola, was also killed during the crisis.

In declaring June 12 the new Democracy Day in Nigeria two years ago, President Muhammadu Buhari said his government was burying the negative side of June 12; the side of ill-feelings, hate, frustration and agony.

He added, “What we are doing is celebrating the positive side of June 12: the June 12, which reinstates democracy and freedom; the June 12 that overcomes our various divides; and the June 12 that produces unity and national cohesion. This is the June 12 that we are celebrating today. And we will nurture it to our next generation.”

Femi Falana, one of the leading lights in the struggle for democracy feels that not enough recognition has been given to people who staked their lives for June 12 and the struggle for democracy.

He, therefore, in the light of this has demanded that the Nigerian government goes beyond the platitude of just recognizing Chief Abiola and Chief Gani Fawehinmi for their part in the June 12 saga to also recognize many other Nigerians.

He says the struggle for democracy had not ended with the enthronement of civilian rule in 1999 and calls on Nigerians to continue the struggle until genuine democracy is enthroned in the country.

“The last 22 years have been civil rule of disenchantment and frustration on the part of the majority of Nigerians,” according to Falana.

“Only a few people, infinitesimal of politicians, can be said to have benefited from civil rule. Only a few politicians are laughing to the bank at the expense of our people. The point I’m making is that the last 21 years have been years of sorrow and tears for our people. That is why the struggle to have genuine democracy must be intensified by genuine patriots in this country.”

An Onitsha-based lawyer, Geoffrey Okeke, says the sacrifice made by Nigerians for June 12 would be a waste if all sections of the country are not carried along to benefit from the democracy.

“What is June 12 if some people from a particular part of the country are excluded from participating in the governance of this country?

“During the transition to democracy in 1999, the whole country came to an understanding that the Presidency should go to the Yoruba, whose son, Abiola, was denied the Presidency in 1993 by the military. That was why the two presidential candidates came from the South-West.

“Today, it stands out that the South-East has been politically marginalised. It will be sad and indeed be meaningless for anyone to celebrate that there is democracy in this country if the legitimate desire of the people from the South-East to also produce the president is frustrated by people who think they own the country. If that is the case, then June 12 exists for only particular sections of this country. The sacrifices of that watershed in the history of our nation are just vainglory,” he said.

An engineer from Bayelsa State, George Mbie, looks back at the speech of President Buhari two years ago when he declared June 12 the Democracy Day and says the President, has more than anyone else, violated the reason for which he declared the day, Democracy Day.

“If you listened to his speech on that day, he said that in declaring June 12 a national day, he was burying the negative sides of June 12 such as hate, ill feelings and frustrations. Tell me, today that the country is sharply divided along tribal lines, who has presided over a nation that is sharply divided more than before; a nation where people are treated and given appointments based on where they come from?

“Why has it not become apparent that the position of the president should be zoned by the major parties to the South-East? We must correct this obvious official policy of government if we must give June 12 its true meaning,” Mbie said.

A Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Olisa Agbakoba, who led a coalition of civil society organisations during the June 12 struggle, expresses regret that those who worked hard for democracy failed the country in one sense when they did not join the democratic rule to ensure that the roots of democracy and good governance were planted deep before retreating.

The legal luminary said, “I think we committed a strategic error of thinking that our work stops with just engaging the military and removing them. I think the important strategic error was in not understanding that we needed to go into politics. And that was a big error. If we had gone into politics, it might have changed a lot of things in Nigeria. So, my personal regret was that we didn’t see far enough to say we are going to into politics.”