By Douglass Anele
Another June 12 anniversary has come and gone. It is time, therefore, for a critical reflection on the events that precipitated the anniversary in question and on how “June 12” has been hijacked by   carpetbaggers, publicity seekers, and political area boys and clowns to enhance their own narrow selfish interests.

The story of “June 12” has been told innumerable times by different people with varying degrees of historical intuition and competence that only a bare outline is considered necessary for our analysis. On June 12, 1993, millions of Nigerians voted for two Federal Government-created-and-funded parties. The Social Democratic Party (SDP) and the National Republican Convention (NRC).

Bashir Tofa, an obscure businessman from the North, was the presidential candidate of NRC, whereas M.K.O Abiola vied on behalf of the SDP. Clearly, Bashir was not a match for Abiola, who was very popular nationwide.  Abiola won 19 states while Tofa was victorious in 11.

However, in a bizzare twist, before the entire result could be announced, Babangida aborted the entire process. He and his officials gave very bad reasons for the extremely unjust and provocative annulment.  They shamelessly argued that Abiola’s victory threatened national unity, that the government owed Abiola a lot of money, that there was rigging and that some senior military officers opposed Abiola’s presidency, etc.

The annulment led to riots in different parts of the country, particularly in the South-West. Hundreds of lives were lost and property worth hundreds of millions of naira destroyed. Abiola fled the country shortly after the annulment. He returned in 1994, went to Epetedo area of Lagos and declared himself President. Late Sani Abacha, the military leviathan who kicked out the farcical Ernest Shonekan-led Interim National Government, locked him up. Abacha died on June 8, 1998.

The new military despot at that time, Abdulsalami Abubakar, tried to persuade Abiola to give up his agitation to be made president. On July 7, Thomas Pickering, the United States undersecretary of state, led a US delegation which  met with Abiola. Shortly after, Abiola took ill, and was pronounced dead about 90 minutes later.

Since the infamous and treasonable annulment of the June 12 presidential election, all sorts of individuals or “activists” and groups have emerged claiming to “fight for June 12,” insisting that Abiola, “the symbol of democracy” should be immortalised by the Federal Government. Certainly, the annulment of that election  ranks as one of the grossest injustices the military has inflicted on Nigerians since independence.

However, I wish to draw attention to some points often neglected by June 12 activists. Babangida’s transition programme which eventually produced the SDP and the NRC was definitely compromised by the arbitrary ban on many popular politicians, whimsical changes in the rules of the electoral process, and the shambolic  manipulation of the entire programme by the military junta.

Babangida and his cohorts, both military and civilians, were working towards a predetermined answer while kicking Nigerians around like football. In this connection, Karl Maier remarked correctly that neither the two parties nor the emergence of Abiola and Tofa as presidential candidates for their respective parties were products of anyrhing that can be described as the expression of popular will. As a matter of fact, Babangida’s transition programme which ought to give birth to a democratically elected government was mostly implemented undemocratically.

Yet, because of the low quality of elections conducted in Nigeria since 1960, and improvement in the voting process arising from the use of Option A4, the presidential election held on June 12, 1993, was adjudged by Nigerian and international observers as one of the freest and fairest elections ever conducted in Nigeria. One of the immediate fallouts of the annulment of that election is the formation of pro-democracy groups, especially the Campaign for Democracy (CD) and the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO).

All kinds of individuals, including the good, the bad and the decidedly immoral, joined these organisations. Certainly, few agitators for the actualisation of Abiola’s presidential victory at the time, and now for the immortalisation of the late politician, are genuine, in the sense that they truly wanted Abiola to be declared president, or at least have the Federal Government memorialise his brief struggles with the military.

The rest are opportunists who used, and are still using, “June 12” to make money and achieve their egoistic political agenda. Nigerians should ponder these questions dispassionately: How many of those still sermonising and pontificating about “June 12” truly understand what democracy truly means?

How many of them who eventually became governors, ministers, commissioners etc worked for the people rather than for themselves? How did the pro-democracy organisations generate funds for their activities and how were the funds managed?

I am convinced that many “respected” prominent members of “pro-June 12” civil society groups were motivated principally by pecuniary interests, because occasionally the media report serious in-fighting within the groups over money and power. As my mother was fond of saying in those days when the profession of automobile mechanic was yet to become sophisticated: “ndi mechanic ekweghi anyi mara ndi wu ndi ara.”

Members of the elite, sitting pretty in their comfort zones, at every anniversary of June 12, utter fine shibboleths about Abiola and democracy in Nigeria. But how can one tell who is real and who is genuine among them? That is the question.  TO BE CONTINUED.