President Muhammadu Buhari has in very recent times been exhibiting traits that increasingly portray him as a democrat. Whether this was brought about by the recent political events that seem to have humbled him somehow or the realisation that with few months left to the end of his eight-year tenure, he has to double up to leave a bold positive footprint in the sands of history, one cannot really tell. Mr. President as de jure leader of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) had renounced his earlier plan to choose his successor, declaring instead that he had no preferred candidate and allowed all 23 aspirants to contest in a transparent primary election.
One aspirant in the course of addressing the audience (as requested of all contestants) even looked the president in the eye and asked rhetorically, ‘…where is the justice, where is the fairness, where is the equity…’. Also, the president is reported to have resisted pressures from his kitchen cabinet or the Villa cabal to foist a member of the defunct Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), his own arm of the legacy parties that make up the APC, as vice presidential candidate to the party’s flagbearer, Bola Tinubu; again, allowing due process to prevail instead, in choice of the running mate.
On June 12, President Buhari made a national broadcast as part of events to commemorate the 2022 Democracy Day. It is one of the few occasions when this president speaks directly to the citizens, the others being Independence Day, October 1 and New Year Day, January 1. Nigerians were, therefore, pleasantly surprised that he was writing a letter to them three days later. Splashed conspicuously on front pages of leading Nigerian newspapers, the letter with seal of the president was titled, “Letter to Nigerians at Democracy Season By Muhammadu Buhari, President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria”.
This is about the first time this president is addressing a letter to his citizens. It hints at his desire to engage more with Nigerians and also improve his democratic credentials. We may jolly well in future see Mr. President signing press statements himself, personally. The missive began thus, “Dear Nigerians, Further to my broadcast commemorating Democracy Day, I would like to highlight and elaborate some of the developments in the last 12 months of this administration”. One highlight for me is that contrary to popular notion that his administration is only applying the military option in fighting terrorism and insecurity in the land, it is also trying to tackle its root causes of unemployment and poverty through various policies/programmes in conjunction with multilateral organisations.
Also, despite reports of divestment by some oil majors in Nigeria, the president actually revealed in his letter that in the last one year, the Oil and Gas Free Trade zones have attracted over 19 companies and an investment of $16.4 billion in oil and gas related projects. Yet, another interesting statistics in President Buhari’s letter to Nigerians is that disbursement of N422.98 billion to 342,817 enterprises nationwide led to creation of an estimated 2.16 million jobs.
“As your President, I remain committed to providing an enabling environment for a free, fair and credible electoral system under my tenure’’, he stated. According to him, his administration decided to change the Democracy Day from May 29 to June 12, in order to not only honour ‘’the sacrifices of the men and women of our country who fought for the return of democracy but also to demonstrate our commitment to satisfy the aspirations of the people and creating an environment for democracy to be accepted as a way of life”.
This year’s commemoration of June 12 Democracy Day was marked with pomp and colour at the federal level with the president leading the way. But it had not always been so, there had not always been unanimity on the matter. Recall that when President Buhari first made the announcement to honour Chief M.K.O. Abiola, some had argued that a dead Nigerian could not be posthumously honoured with the nation’s highest award, insisting that Mr. President must follow and complete “due process” before the proclamation and honour could be effected. Indeed, time was when the matter of June 12, 1993 was generally approached with a long spoon in the Villa.
Professor Bolaji Akinyemi, co-chairman of former President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration’s 2014 National Conference had related how an attempt to discuss events of June 12, 1993 nearly scattered the conference, forcing them to drop it like a hot potato. A rowdy session ensued in the House of Representatives, a day after the presidential proclamation on June 12 and MKO Abiola in 2018 when the issue was raised at plenary.
Tension was doused by referring the matter to a committee. In the upper legislative chamber, however, the senate did take a position with the senators generally hailing the decision while its then president, Bukola Saraki, in a rather statesmanlike manner, replied those saying that the constitution had to be amended before the declaration could take effect thus, ‘the good intentions behind the decision should not be overruled by whatever omissions, the amendment can come later’.
Although, former President Olusegun Obasanjo disdained June 12, I believe his successor, Umar Yar’Adua, but for his illness and consequential short tenure, would have been sympathetic to June 12 issue because of his progressive tendencies and the fact that his brother, Shehu Musa Yar’Adua, an Army general, also lost his life while in prison.
Jonathan, who took over from Yar’Adua, was aligned somehow with the June 12 cause but his hands appeared tied by the power brokers at the time; hence his attempt to name what he considered a federal monument, the University of Lagos, after Chief M.K.O. Abiola, the presumed winner of that annulled election, failed. President Buhari, his successor, after some three years in office and 25 years after that historic election, then took the equally historic decision of recognising the monumental place of June 12, 1993 in our political history.
It is true that at some point in time the June 12 struggle petered out in parts of the country where people no longer heeded the call to continue with the sit outs – no going to work, no opening of business premises, etc. This could be attributed to economic reason as the struggle was becoming long drawn and people needed to fend for their families by moving about. Kudos to the South-west states that persevered with the struggle.
And when the Interim National Government (ING) was conceived, headed by someone from Chief Abiola’s home state and town, Chief Ernest Shonekan, to pacify the June 12 agitators, they still continued, disobeying the ING’s orders, thereby forcing its disbandment. Apparently, the death of General Sani Abacha under whose regime Abiola died did not in any way assuage their feelings.
The South-west states (minus the PDP- controlled ones there) continued to declare June 12 a work-free day while the federal government and many other states continued to stand aloof; some cited alleged degeneration of the struggle to a tribal thing as a reason for the disinterest.
Nonetheless, Buhari in 2018 took the bold step of giving new life, new meaning to the events of June 12, 1993 with the singular declaration that recognised Abiola as winner of that election and June 12 as the new Democracy Day. Buhari deserves accolades from the June 12 movement for treading a path other civilian presidents before him apparently feared to tread.
Ikeano writes via [email protected]
