IN two days, it will be another anniversary of the June 12, 1993 presidential election, which the late Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola comfortably won, but was denied victory by the military government of Gen. Ibrahim Babangida.Defiantly, MKO demanded the retrieval of his mandate, a process that ignited pro-democracy protests across the country. Seeing that he had lost the battle to perpetuate himself in office, Babangida was forced to step aside in 1993, foisting General Sani Abacha on the polity.When Abacha made it difficult for Abiola to consummate his mandate, Abiola declared himself president in 1994 at Epetedo, Lagos. He was accused of treason and arrested by the Abacha administration. For four years Abiola was in detention, but he did not give up. He died under suspicious circumstances on July 7, 1998, the day he was to be released.The death of Abiola fired series pro-democracy activities, which forced the military to return to the barracks. Thus, it was June 12 that led to the negotiations that brought about the return to democratic rule and Abiola paid the supreme price for what has now become the Fourth Republic. Democratic governments since 1999 have been reluctant to acknowledge June 12, and accord MKO his right place in the annals of Nigeria's political history. President Jonathan took a bold step to do that recently, when he renamed the University of Lagos as Moshood Abiola University. MKO actually deserves more, some people say.Sunday Akere is the Commissioner for Information in Osun State. In this interview with ABIODUN FANORO, he explained why Osun declared June 12 Democracy Day.What informed the decision of your government to declare June 12 Democracy Day'THE June 12, 1993 presidential election won by Chief Moshood Kashimawo Olawale (M.K.O.) Abiola has remained the watershed of the country's democratic experiment. It was the failure to accord the election its due recognition that has brought the country to where it is today. It was the uncommon leadership example displayed by Chief Abiola and the nation-wide protest that followed, that forced the military to hand over power to a civilian government in 1999.If all of us want to be sincere, June 12, 1999 should be our true and genuine democracy day in Nigeria. To genuine lovers of democracy, May 29, 1999 only marked the day civilian rule was restored. The true day of democracy, which was June 12, 1993, preceded May 29, and it was the day Nigerians in unity voted for democracy and went ahead to defend it with their blood.Osun was the only state in Nigeria that refused to mark the May 29, Democracy Day declared by the Federal Government. Why so'To all intent and purposes, Nigeria is a federating country. Therefore, as much as the Federal Government has the right and the power to announce policies, so do states have the power to do everything legal within the ambit of the Constitution.For us here, we believe June 12 is our Democracy Day and that is how it should be. I know we are only playing with issues, judging by the recent position of the Federal Government on this June 12 issue; it is a matter of time when the Federal Government would accept June 12 as the true Democracy Day.It was to the delight of most Nigerians when President Jonathan on May 29, not only accorded Chief M.K.O. Abiola some measures of recognition as the winner of the June 12, 1993 presidential election, former University of Lagos was re-named after him. Let me assure you, Osun is not alone in this conviction to make June 12 Democracy Day, other states run on the platform of our party, Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) are also going to accord same treatment to June 12.Are you not then reducing June 12 to a sectional issue'No, no, it is not being politicized at all. What we are doing is that as progressives, not as ACN, we are spearheading the campaign and movement to actualize this national desire to make June 12, Democracy Day. Remember that former Ogun State Governor, Otunba Gbenga Daniel as a PDP governor had for long declared June 12 a public holiday. The issue of June 12, has nothing to do with ACN as a party or the Southwest as a region, it is a national issue. M.K.O. Abiola won election across the entire country; he even defeated his opponent Alhaji Bashir Tofar in his Kano home base, and even in his ward. That is why people are saying that it was historic that President Jonathan recognised M.K.O. Abiola, this year; but that, they don't want Abiola prize for democracy, which is national, to be limited or localized to the Southwest. It is not enough to name a university in M.K.O.'s region after him, it has nothing to do with the region, it has nothing to do with the ACN, June 12 is supposed to be a nationally accepted day to all of us in Nigeria as our Democracy Day.In the past 19 years, the progressives have been agitating for the recognition of June 12. But we are still not going to relent on our efforts until the ultimate is achieved. I can assure you that the clamour for the declaration of June 12 as Democracy Day is going on across the country. I know of some state governors in the North and Southeast who are already queuing behind this national call.How best should the Federal Government honour Abiola'The first step is for the Federal Government to declare as winner and president-elect, an elected president of Nigeria killed by agents of the state. Thereafter the Federal Government should post-humously inaugurate him and accord him all the honour and benefit of a former and late president. The Federal Government should go ahead to name any of these national structures after Abiola, the National Stadium, the National Assembly Complex or the Eagle Square.How can we use the lessons of the Abiola election to solve the present state of the nation'There are quite a number of lessons for us to learn from the success of the June 12, 1993 election. It was the first and remained the only election majority Nigerians accepted its outcome without disputation. On how to maximize the lessons of June 12, first let's start with the electoral umpire, INEC (Independent National Electoral Commission), it is time INEC should rise up to the challenges of conducting a free, fair and credible election in the country. INEC should look itself in the mirror and find out what is wrong with it that it has not been able to replicate the laudable performance of its 1993 predecessor.Why June 12 was unique was that the military administration forced everybody into two political parties. It is either you were in the Social Democratic Party (SDP) that produced Abiola or you were in the National Republican Convention (NRC). It was either you belonged to the left or you belonged to the right. It was not like the present situation where there well over 53 political parties in the country. It is therefore instructive that this format is brought into our present political situation.It is also very instructive that the progressives across the country should come together under one platform to wrestle power as was done in 1993 and use it to salvage the country. It is high time our leaders in the progressive camp drop their egos and personal ambitions. That was the situation in 1993, which helped to create that historic moment of Abiola presidency. Again I repeat, if they had before now buried their ego and differences, Nigeria would not be in this sorry state today. It is gratifying that our leaders in the progressive camp have now seen the necessity of this and are now talking, with the hope of collapsing their different structures into a formidable platform to confront the conservatives, seize power from them and save the country.Now is the time to strengthen the campaign for people to vote along ideological lines and not tribal or ethnic lines. One great damage the annulment of June 12 and the subsequent proscription of the two political parties has done to us as a country, is that it never allowed us to grow along the line of political parties, it truncated our emerging and promising political institutions, it killed the morale and interest of patriotic Nigerians who should participate in politics and go for elective offices. It exacerbated the culture of settlement, bribery and corruption, which today are the bane of our democracy.
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