Nigerians celebrated another day of democracy on Saturday, June 12, with less pomp and ceremony. Protests were scheduled, held or cancelled, as the case might be, in different places.
In Lagos, there was heavy security presence with protests scheduled to take place in several spots.
The United States government had to warn its citizens to avoid co-ordinated street protests scheduled to hold in several parts of the state.
There were rave media reviews, and in an era where insecurity is widespread, there was tension everywhere.
With rampant discontent, terrorism and ethnic violence threatening national cohesion, the day was spent in apprehension.
Insecurity forced a state government, Zamfara, to cancel the celebration of Democracy Day.
President Muhammadu Buhari responded with threats and direct orders to security agencies to put down any trouble.
But he promised to do all within his power to ratchet up democratic governance in the country.
Senior advocate, Afe Babalola, captured the scenario better when he said on Friday that true democracy was still elusive in Nigeria 28 years after the June 12, 1993, presidentialelection annulment.
The election, which has been recognised to have been won by Chief Moshood Abiola, was annulled by the military government of Gen. Ibrahim Babangida.
Babalola recalled the day the issue of June 12 was finally put to rest in the court, via a ‘one-sheet gazette’ presented by a government lawyer.
He described the annulment as the saddest day for the Judiciary in the country.
According to him, the annulment signified “the beginning of a journey the end of which nobody knows.”
Truly, everything points to the fact that we have not made much progress democracy-wise, since the annulment.
Babalola was Abiola’s lawyer in the ensuing political case in 1993.
He said in a statement entitled, ‘June 12, whether Abiola died in vain or not: Time will tell.’
He swore that the ghost of the annulment of the election would continue to haunt Nigeria.
The founder of Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti, questioned whether the declaration of June 12 as Democracy Day by the President Buhari had achieved any result or not.
The quality of our democracy, experts have argued, is nothing to write home about, 28 years after the freest election was annulled over obscure reasons.
There is frenzy over freedom of expression and elections are usually marred with violence, rancour and fraud.
It is obvious that we have not fared easy on the road of transparency and justice.
Banditry, insurgency and kidnapping have hijacked the road to proper democratic governance.
Like Babalola rightly noted, Abiola went through an election, and to get a judgment, (but) he was sent out of the court with a gazette that the election had been annulled.
Since then, the Nigerian state has not been able to properly engage its diverse peoples in a way that encourages cohesion.
The pillars of democracy have not grown, other than periodic elections that are neither free nor fair.
The other pillars – majority rule and minority rights, rule of law, respect for fundamental human rights, as well as equality before the law, have remained a mirage.
Peace is a crucial factor in development. It would seem that the nation has missed its track on this important template since the annulment.
Nigeria may, really, have learnt little in the last 22 years of uninterrupted democracy.
But she need to use occasions like the democracy day to show dedication to pursuing those ideals that promote national unity and peaceful co- existence.
The country is still on the search for true democracy which began on June 12, 1993.
We had been denied true democracy for long.
As the bedrock of democracy, some have argued that it has not been well with the three pillars of governance –Executive, Legislative and Judiciary.
We must take steps to prevent the country from total collapse by fundamentally addressing the important issue of National Conference, and to draft a more acceptable constitution.
This is the first time in the nation’s history that all the courts in the country were grounded by strike because of fight over autonomy.
The strike has been halted but the fundamental issues are yet to be addressed.
Like a legal expert recently noted, the Legislature, as the second arm of government in a democracy, has failed to enact a law to constitute a National Conference to fashion out a true federal constitution to replace the 1999 military/unitary constitution foisted on Nigerians at the point of their exit from governance in 1999.
Recently, there are reports that the National Assembly has been spending billions of Naira just to invite Nigerians to discuss an amendment to the 1999 Constitution which is believed to be the root cause of Nigeria’s problems today.
The Presidency too has been sweating to battle sundry acts of insecurity, including insurgency,banditry, armed robbery, burglary and armed herdsmen who range the farmlands – killing and destroying.
Cattle rearers and kidnappershave been ranging the land for blood sending many farmers into panic flights.
Schools have continuously been ravaged by kidnappers and many killed in the process.
And here is our big question: Has the declaration of June 12 as Democracy Day by the Federal Government so far yielded any result?
Has Abiola died in vain or not?
He shoudn’t.
