The main essence of this write up is to bring it to our memory lane the explanation on how the issue about the popular "June 12th" holiday came into being,especially to our younger generation who are less than thirty years old to the understanding of the significant of the day.
Saturday, June 12th,1993 was like any other day. The sun gave its illumination from its horizon. The blares of the automobiles horns rented the peaceful and calmed atmosphere. Everyone is seen moving on with their daily activities. The beautiful songs of the birds in the sky were adding glamour into the peaceful morning. Everybody, both young and old, were happy to have made it to the new day. Little children were seen rolling motorcycle tyres on the roads due to less traffic congestion. Everyone seemed to have been eagerly waiting for the commencement of the Presidential elections. Especially those that were of the voting age and have since registered as voters. Everyone seemed to be tired of the military despotic type of leadership. The aged (both educated and otherwise) were equally not left out. Everyone was waiting for the real and genuine 'change' that was to come the way of every Nigerian both at home and in diaspora, when a true and genuine Democratic government must have been in place after the election.
Prior to the presidential election of the 12th of June, 1993, two political parties, the S.D.P ( the Social Democratic Party) and the N.R.C (the National Republican Convention) emerged as the two political parties to contest for the election. Chief Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola, popularly called M.K.O, was the presidential candidate for the S.D.P, while Alhaji Bashir Tofa, emerged as the flag bearer for the N.R.C.
A couple days to the election, a national presidential debate was organized for the two candidates. Among other things, this was done to enable the two candidates to tell both the Nigerians and the international communities of what their political manifestoes were. As well as telling the people what they would do if eventually elected as the President and the Commander-In-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The outcome of the debate indicated that Chief M.K.O. Abiola would be a better candidate for the election.
The election went on as scheduled. There was no cases of snatching of the ballot boxes. No cases of molestation from either of the two contesting parties. No cases of killings. Everywhere was peaceful. The voting exercises ended well. The counting of the votes started to time and also ended well .The following day, a Sunday,was suppose to be the day for the announcement of the election results as well as for the declaration of the winner. Throughout the Sunday, every Nigerian and the international communities ended up being disappointed by the refusal of the Electoral body's chairman to announce the result and declare the winner. Nothing equally happened the next day. Throughout the week that followed the election week ,nothing was heard as regarding the announcement of the election results and the declaration of the winner from the electoral chairman. Two weeks past,nothing was heard. At this stage, many Nigerians could no longer bear it. People took to the major streets in protests against the refusal of the electoral chairman to announce the election results as well as declaring the winner. These protests went on and on. Still nothing was done or heard to douse the political tensions which have almost enveloped every nooks and crannies of the country. Meanwhile from the few results that were later released by the electoral body, there was an indication that even without the release of the remaining results, the S.D.P candidate, Chief M.K.O. Abiola seemed to have won the election.
With these, many concerned Nigerians wanted the international communities to wage into the political crisis by prevailing on the Federal government to order the electoral chairman to announce the remaining election results and declare the winner. However, all these appeals went into the government's deaf ears.
The acclaimed winner,Chief M.K.O, Abiola had to eventually declared himself the President and the Commander-In-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in Lagos, having travelled abroad to inform the international communities of the Nigeria political imbroglio, and realized that nothing was done in respect of this.
Chief M.K.O. was eventually arrested by the Federal government for treason. He remained in the prison for some years. Meanwhile, the self-styled military president General Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida (even though not being elected by votes),who imprisoned him later 'stepped aside' having appointed Chief Earnest Shonekan,a man from the same state as Chief M.K.O. Abiola to head an interim national government.
Unfortunately the interim government was soon booted out through a bloodless military coup d'etat headed by the then Army Chief, General Sanni Abacha. General Abacha equally saw no reason why Chief M.K.O. Abiola could be set free from the prison. While Chief Abiola was still in the prison, the news of the sudden demise of Head of State, General Sanni Abacha filtered into the air unbelievably. The reason was that the previous day to his death, that was on a Sunday, the Head of State was seeing, with the Palestinian's President, 'Yesser' Arafat at the Nnamdi Azikwe International Airport on his was back to his country after a State's visit to the country. Few days later the unimaginable news of the death of Chief M.K.O. followed. The outcome of this news brought about serious protests by the Nigerians. It was alleged that Abiola must have been killed by the Federal government as a result of the death of the Head of State as a way of "balancing the equation".
Since 1999 when Nigeria returned back to the Democratic system of government, June 12th of every year have been observing by some States governors,particularly those that are of the South Western States of the country as a Democracy day in the country.
Now that another June 12 has come, all Nigerians, particularly the lovers of Democracy should come together for the sustainability of our Democracy and make it the best in the world if possible.
Long Live our nascent Democracy,Long Live the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
HAPPY CELEBRATION !
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