The celebration of the 2024 Democracy Day took a centre stage on Wednesday, with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, an apotheosis of that struggle, vowing to do more in advancing the essence of good governance for the overall good of the Nigeria people. Before 2019, Democracy Day was observed every 29th May to commemorate Nigeria’s return to the present unbroken democracy that was inaugurated on 29th May, 1999.
However, in 2018, in an apparent bid to booster support for his re-election bid in 2019, President Muhammadu Buhari announced that the Democracy Day, previously observed on May 29, had been shifted to June 12 to honour the memories of the presumed winner of the 1993 presidential poll, Chief Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola, popularly called MKO Abiola, and other pro-democracy citizens who were fiercely involved in the fight for the restoration of democratic governance.
Relevance or what?
When on Wednesday Tinubu reeled out names of pro-June 12 activists, it recalled our memory of some of the people that played crucial roles in resisting the nullification of the 1993 presidential poll that was presumed to have been won by the Social Democratic Party (SDP). The recognition of June 12 as Democracy Day by Buhari was an atonement over the injustice committed against Abiola. No less than 31 years after that annulment, are present realities in the country reflective of the basic essence of the goals envisioned by the June 12 SDP presidential candidate? If Abiola were alive today, would he be proud of the present cascading poverty and insecurity shredding the country?
There’s no doubt that June 12 has become an altar and a monument seized by political gladiators as an ever-present opportunity to serve their interests in the power corridors, as that political phenomenon has transmuted into an elongation of a dream for power-seekers to latch on and work towards achieving common goals for political empowerment. What we saw on Wednesday was a culmination and transformation of a democratic movement into a platform that has provided the greatest of benefits for politicians. Therefore, June 12 has become a mere reference point to a historical epoch that only excites dealers in power, even when the people central in the struggle have been abandoned.
Long shadows
June 12 has become an orchestra of deception that denies its true essence anchored in improving the lives of the masses, as the electoral spectacle has been turned into a slab upon which favour-seeking actors and political wanderers now resort to seeking pathways for significance. The 2024 Democracy Day has revealed the widening gulf between realities and dreams, with long shadows showing how far the country has walked away from the dreams of the Abiola vision as captured in the Hope ’93 presidential campaign declarations.
If Abiola’s dream of emancipating citizens from the stranglehold of poverty was anything to go by, then, there’s need for politicians to undertake a long walk and salvage Nigeria from the cluelessness of political leadership that was appallingly demonstrated during the eight years of the Buhari presidency. If we are still despairing over the past, we are yet to be assured of a brighter future by present leadership. We may have exited the gloom of the past, but we are still on the throes of despondency and crippling economic and security challenges.
One is encouraged by Senator Shehu Sani, one of the prominent figures that was involved in the fight for the restoration of Nigeria’s democracy. The former lawmaker pointedly told President Tinubu during the dinner session that nations are galvanised into action, not merely by replacing existing national anthems with old ones. Nations, declared by the gadfly, are united by common vision that promotes equity and justice for all groups.
Within the past 10 days, no fewer than 60 citizens were killed in various states, with 20 slaughtered in Niger state alone. Democracy may be a journey and not a destination, but a country whose sovereignty is continuously being challenged by criminal gangs cannot be a nation, but an entity on the throes of conflagration and ultimate disintegration. Nigerians are still imperiled by the present gloom, and are walking to their deaths. When the present does not alleviate the suffering in the land, then, citizens must explore all means, legal or illegal, to survive the times.
New sunrise
Tinubu must work towards a new sunrise for the country. As the new Sheriff in town, the president must ensure that the old altars that have worked and are still working against the development of the country must be pulled down to make Nigeria work for all. The country is where it is today because the present system does not give room for growth. Shoving our country into a bottomless hole of a unitary system, coupled with endemic corruption, cannot be in tandem with the goals of an ideal federal system.
For now, we can’t go back to the regional system, but we can evolve templates that recognise the freedom of all groups to be fused into political units of their choices. The report of the 2014 Political Conference set up by former President Goodluck Jonathan should serve as the starting point. But before that, the level of poverty and frightening spectre of insecurity ripping across our country must be tackled headlong. No nation achieves stability in an atmosphere of warfare and hunger. Against the backdrop of the prevailing despondency cleaving citizens, Wednesday’s celebration is best seen as inciting profanities that reminds us of a missed opportunity to unite for the common cause.