“If you forget where you are coming from, do not forget where you are going”— African proverb

It is 32 years since June 12, 1993. 

Millions of young Nigerians know the date as Democracy Day, a day politicians make speeches and  Nigerians ask for more from their democracy. Until 2018, Democracy Day was May 29th, the day our elected presidents and governors are sworn-in every four years after intensely contested elections.

 In 2018, President Buhari moved it up to June 12, quite possibly to gain political capital from series of events that represented the best and the worst of Nigerians. On this day, millions of workers stay at home, many at the expense of earning the daily income to feed the family. Newspapers write strong editorials reminding Nigerians why June 12, now Democracy Day, is significant. 

Historians and actors directly involved in the events that created June 12 have argued so violently over the substance and the details of June 12 that it has come to represent the character  of our written history as a nation: all-comers versions of real events that deprive us of solid nation-building blocks.

This year’s Democracy Day lived up to tradition. It was about speeches by politicians and widespread grumbling over the quality of our democracy by the citizenry. A threatened national protest to demand good governance flopped, sending signals that even hardened activists are losing steam. Governments heaved sighs of relief at empty streets and sleeping security personnel, as Nigerians voted with their feet in favour of the day’s meal, not ideals and values. There were  mentions of June 12, 1993 when the nation came closest to having the best election in its history, under the most undemocratic context. It was aborted at delivery by a military unable to read signs.

That reckless impunity by the military set into motion a chain of events that showed a smattering of remarkable personal courage, unmentionable levels of opportunism and betrayals for which the nation is still paying a price. The national outrage over the first step to restitution for democratic governance was, sadly, gradually ethnicized and transformed into a gross injustice against Yoruba people. One version of history will record another injustice done to Abiola, even more offensive than the abortion of an election he would have won. This was the hijacking of his mission to provide leadership as a Nigerian, not a Yoruba person. Then, champions of democratization and close allies of Abiola fell over themselves to partake in the spoils of the crime. A few others who had stepped up to resist the outrage were alienated for coming from the wrong part of the country, and they walked away. Key players stretched the aborted election into a struggle for democracy and built themselves as its champions.  The military blundered on, with pronounced complicity of many civilian politicians. The ghosts of 1993 haunted the military for five more years until it ran into a dead end. In between, Abiola, ‘Yar Adua, Abacha and a few others had paid for their parts with their lives. Others grew in stature while in exile. Many moved away, frustrated by suffocating primordialism. The military ran itself out of space and out of ideas. It rushed a terminal programme, with a pronounced element of placating Yoruba people, by this time, identified as the aggrieved people.

Thirty years on, June 12 has become just another of many days Nigerians are asked to take a holiday. A raging debate is going on around our severely damaged country with leaders being held as prime suspects. The relationship between elected leaders since 1999 and the struggles to build a sustainable democratic culture and system is uncanny. Obasanjo was the unlikely beneficiary of a struggle he had nothing to do with.His presidency was product of an alliance involving an exhausted and exiting military, key players of the Northern political establishment and a faction of Yoruba political elite. He contested against the candidate of another faction of the Yoruba elite which felt entitled to crown its own Yoruba beneficiary of Abiola’s legacy. President Tinubu was with the latter, but had enough standing and resources to win the governorship election in Lagos.

Obasanjo started his presidency with almost the entire South-West’s back turned against him. It says a lot about the power of political power that in the four years of his first term, he had turned almost the entire region round to support him, except Governor Tinubu in Lagos who remained implaccably opposed to him to the end. Obasanjo conjured a successor in Umaru Yar ‘Adua, younger brother of his friend Shehu Musa  Yar’Adua who also had to make the supreme sacrifice in the struggle to oust the military permanently from power. ‘Yar ‘Adua’s deputy finished his term and won his own term. He in turn was defeated by Buhari, himself an earlier beneficiary and casualty of the military’ grip when he ruled as military head of state from 1983 to 1985.

Tinubu’s ‘Emi lokan’ in 2022 was not, therefore, without some foundation. He had been part of the democratization struggle for 30-odd years. He stood with Abiola in trying moments. He propped up NADECO all the way to the departure of the military. He stood firm in defying Obasanjo’s roller coaster, digging deep into a stubborn streak to survive multiple attempts to make him and Lagos fall in line.  He loaned Malam Nuhu Ribadu, then Vice President Atiku Abubakar his political platform to contest the Presidency. He successfully paired his party with Buhari’s CPC to form the APC and win Buhari’s two terms. He survived multiple schemes by people who owed him a lot, to frustrate his campaign. He gambled on a Muslim-Muslim ticket, earning for himself a huge chunk of the North and South-West to win the presidency.

It would appear that June 12 has turned full circle to settle, at least for now, on Tinubu. How will the spirit of June 12 judge President Tinubu today? Will it look hard to recognize the person behind an enormous range of power and influence lording it over a severely distressed country? Will it scream when it sees him in an orgy of self-glorification, having pubic buildings, airports,  schools and  roads named after him just two years into a presidency? Will it recognize the schemer and visioner when it sees him at the heart of a political strategy that recommends eating up the opposition and laughing in its face, even when the race is only half-run? Will June 12 see Tinubu as its traitor or a worthy ambassador?

 One more word….

Happy 90th birthday to a Nigerian I hold with the greatest respect and admiration, my role model, Chief Sam Amuka.

 My best wishes, Sir.