June 12 and its Abiding Spirit

By Senator OpeyemiBamidele, CON

June 12, 1993 was truly a watershed in our post-independence history as a federation of diverse people. It was a day that no fewer than 14.29 million voters trooped to their polling units nationwide to elect a new civilian president and put paid to the regime of tyranny that eclipsed our fatherland. Before us were two presidential candidates – Chief MKO Abiola of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and Alhaji Bashir Tofa of the National Republican Convention (NRC).

United by our excruciating thirst for a democratic Nigeria, at least 58.36% of the accredited voters cast their ballots in favour of Chief MKO Abiola, a business magnate and a man of the people, whose influence transversed the length and breadth of Africa. The voters, perhaps by a collective resolve, put their divergence behind them to overwhelmingly elect the presidential candidate of the SDP. It was a decision without a dot of religion, tongues and tribes. More precisely, it was a decision taken consciously in defence of people’s aspiration, freedom and future.

At least 3,000 election observers, national and international, were accredited to monitor the 1993 presidential poll. The figure also included 135 foreign observers that keenly monitored the process nearly from all developed democracies in Asia, Europe and North America, among others, Unlike the 1979 election that was largely skewed in favour of the establishment candidate and the 1983 process that was laced with fundamental flaws that later triggered violence, observers gave the 1993 process a clean bill of health. In their report, they reached a consensus that the election “was well-conducted, free, fair and therefore credible,”

What else did a leader or a regime require to uphold people’s most critical decisions, especially at a time of national emergency when people took off their togas of ethnicity and religion to elect a leader of their choice? But the Federal Military Government under General Ibrahim BadamosiBabangida refused to toe the path of honour and respect the will of the electorate. Rather, in collusion with the military hierarchy of the time, IBB annulled the June 12,1993 presidential poll without justification; installed the Interim National Government that lacked legitimacy and appointed General SaniAbacha, now late, as the guardian of that contraption.

This flaw, either by commission or by omission, subsequently plunged our fatherland into a six-year vicious reign of brute despotism, the kind of which Nigeria never witnessed since the end of colonial rule on October 1, 1960. It was also a reign of brutality and incarceration, extermination and subjugation, injustice and invasion, oppression and repression that evidently set back our development trajectory and earned us pariah status among nations.

Rather than surrender to the whims of the late tyrant and his associates, June 12 bred bravery and courage, sacrifice and unity, aggression and rebellion in the hearts of masses and marketers, students and labour unions, intellectuals and professionals, political class and leaders of ethnic nationalities across the Niger. Indeed, it was a fierce battle of all against tyranny and not the state, against the despots and not the people, against the cruelty of regressive forces that sought to bring us back into subjugation.

These grim realities culminated in the birth of the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO), an amalgam of democratic adherents that transcended the primordial considerations that dominated our politics before that time or that criss-crossed all ethnic nationalities that constitute the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The forces never left the battle for the South-west because Chief MKO Abiola hailed from the region. For any consideration, they never saw it as the battle of the South alone; neither did they approach the battlefront with the mindset of the North against the South or the South against the North.

For all democrats alike, it was essentially a battle for the soul of Nigeria. It was a battle for the future of Nigeria and her teeming people. It was a rescue mission that united all democrats against tyrants, masses against the despots as well as civil society against the mindless jackals that prowled our fatherland. And the battle was fought fiercely and won collectively, though with sore bruises that pro-June 12 advocates had to bear and the conscionable cost that they sacrificially paid for the liberation of our fatherland.

In the battlefront were Pa Anthony Enahoro, Pa AdekunleAjasin, Chief Bola Ige, Chief Abraham Adesanya, Air Commodore Dan Suleiman, AlhajiBalarabe Musa, Amb. Walter Carrington, Com. Frank Kokori, Dr. Fredrick Fasehun, Rear Admiral NdubudiKanu, Chief Ayo Adebanjo, Chief GaniFawehinmi, Chief GaniyuDawodu, Dr. BekoRansome-Kuti, Dr. OlikoyeRansome-Kuti, SirOlaniwunAjayi, Sir Alex Ibru, Com. ChimaUbani, among others. All these titans of the struggle for democracy either died while the battle still raged or at some points after the battle was won. Nevertheless, they were all heroes of the June 12 struggle. And they will ever be remembered for standing firm against the rage of the military junta.

The struggle also paraded the fearless warriors without firearms that are still living till date. The list, though inexhaustible, eminently comprises Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu, now the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Prof. Wole Soyinka, Col. Dangiwa Umar, Gen. AlaniAkinrinade, Chief Ayo Opadokun, Oba OluFalae, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, Prof. BolajiAkinyemi, Chief Cornelius Adebayo, Hon. OlawaleOshun, Chief OlisaAgbakoba, Chief Femi Falana, Dr. Amos Akingba and many more. Till this moment, they all occupy a prime place in the heart of our collective struggle that brought about transition to civil rule on the 29th May 1999.

The cost of the struggle was too hard to bear. The blood of the innocent was spilled on the streets of our major cities. The leaders of the struggle were murdered. In this category was Pa Alfred Rewane, who was murdered in his Ikeja home;AlhajaKudiratAbiola, who was hacked down on the street of Lagos and BagaudaKaltho who was torn into pieces in the heart of Kaduna. Even the murder of Rear Admiral BabatundeElegbede, Dr. Sola Omatsola, ToyinOnagoruwa, AlhajaSuliatAdedeji and Mrs. BisoyeTejuosho, among others, is still a source of sordid reflection that refuses to completely pale into the pit of our memory.

In his own case, Sir Alex Ibru survived the gunshot of the despots. But he was never the same again until God finally called him home on the 11th November 2011. Perhaps by providence, Pa Abraham Adesanya and Air Commodore Dan Suleiman were shot at a close range, but came out unhurt. Scores of the June 12 advocates ended up in underground detention. The list includes Chief OluFalae, now the traditional ruler Ilu-Abo in Akure North Local Government, Senator OlabiyiDurojaiye and Chief Lam Adesina, who was paraded on the street of Ibadan as a prisoner of war.

The media was not exempted from the victims of the June 12 struggle. The fearless in this industry fought convincingly with their pens. The ink of their pens still bears witness to the gore of that slain that smeared our cities, the agony of incarceration that eclipsed the hearts of the victims and the undesirability of political asylum that became an option they never hoped for. Obviously, June 12 is one historic event that Dare Babarinsa, NosaIgiebor, Chris Anyanwu, SojiOmotunde, KunleAjibade, BabafemiOjudu, DapoOlorunyomi, NiranMalaolu, Chris Anyanwu, George Mbah, Ben Charles Obi and BayoOnanuga, among others, will ever relish to commit their ink to scribble down their own battles against the regime of tyranny. In varying measures, they all had their own share of the bitter bile that the regime of despots served them, whether in detention or in exile, whether in brutality or in harassment, whether as fugitives or in the trench of guerilla journalism.

As an attorney that just kicked off my legal practice, I was a victim of the vicious military junta. I still remember most vividly how I was enlisted in the legal team that fought for the restoration of the June 12 mandate. I also remember how Chief G.O.K. Ajayi, now of blessed memory, led the team of eminent legal luminaries to reverse the annulment of the June 12 election. I remember how I argued for the release of 11 students of the University of Abuja before a Federal High Court in the FCT. I remember how the agents of the vicious regimes invaded my law office in Abuja because of my resolve for the release of the 11 students. I remember how my chamber assistant contacted my wife to inform me about the invasion of my law office. I remember how my wife, then a registered pharmacist with Garki General Hospital, organised an ambulance to rescue me from where I was hiding. All these scenarios marked the beginning of my journey into exile. But why did the agents of the junta invade my Abuja law office? They were, according to my chamber assistant, looking for arms and weapons they presumed I stockpiled in my law office and private residence.

History is now our living witness that bears abundant testimonies to what Nigeria and Nigerians went through under the reign of despots. In June 1998, however, the wrath of God descended up the vault of the tyrant. And that regime, again by providence, came to an abrupt end. At home or in exile, nearly all June 12 advocates could glaringly behold a ray of light at the end of the tunnel. Just at this point, the last death knell loudly rang from the cave of power in Abuja, announcing the demise of Chief MKO Abiola. What a conspiracy! What a tragedy!! What a disappointment!!! It was the end of an era that sealed the theft of people’s mandate. Chief MKO Abiola became the last victim of the struggle when we had already beheld the light.

The narrative is entirely different today. Our civil space is more participatory than ever before. Our politics is open to virtually all Nigerians without discrimination. Our courts are now sacred sanctuaries where the oppressed can freely seek redress. Unlike that era, we can freely make our choices without intimidation or exercise our rights without trepidation. Whether by law or by rights, we now enjoy all these benefits because the heroes and heroines paid supreme sacrifices for the liberty our children are now exercising in the digital space, the rights they are always willing to enforce in the court of law and the privileges they most times take for granted since the return to civil rule.

Sadly enough, the significance of this day rarely resonates with our present generations, especially those that were born shortly before June 12, 1993 and those that came after. Our upcoming leaders too are not in sync with the essence of the struggle that brought our fatherland to this new era of political liberty. These are dangerous signposts to our collective heritage. And as a consequence, the next generation may entirely lose the essence of what June 12 represents in the history of this federation if we do not brace for the task before us. The onus, first of all, rests upon us as a government or as a federation to sustain the spirit that drove the June 12 struggle and bequeath it to the future generations.

The struggle was driven absolutely by the unity of purpose. It was sustained by the spirit of self-sacrifice at a cost no actor could ever quantify. It was won by a sheer commitment to the cause that unites us rather than the fault line that divides us. These are the core drivers that then enable the spirit of the June struggle. As a federation, we must sustain and uphold the values that drove the struggle in the task of building a federation that works for all. This is the only way we can build a resilient democracy together. This is the only way we achieve a viable economy together. This is the only way we can ensure a functional democracy that purely serves the overriding public interests..

The quest for a more democratic Nigeria is not just for the government in power. The opposition also has a frontline role to play in the task of building a functional democracy. The onus now rests upon the opposition to offer credible alternatives that can reposition our economy and stabilise the political system. This is not the era to campaign for a shadow government, an idea that does not demonstrate the spirit of the June 12 struggle or that will further endanger the unity of our fatherland. It is the era that works for the unity of our fatherland and fights all divisive tendencies that threaten our collective prosperity.

•Bamidele, Leader of the 10th Senate, writes from Abuja

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