By Chris Otaigbe
Nigeria, on Friday, commemorated its first Democracy Day after President Muhammadu Buhari declared June 12 as the official day to mark civilian rule instead of the previously celebrated May 29.
For all the contentions and controversies that have continued to bedevil the definition and redefinition of that historic 1993 election, June 12 remains but a symbolic name for the struggle for democracy and freedom in the country after the military had held sway uninterrupted in the country for two to three decades.
It was the mantle the people needed to tell the military that they had had enough and thus, the call for them to return to the barracks, especially as an election had been held and someone had won the election.
Considering what the battle arrowheads of the struggle went through and the deprivation they suffered, including the supreme sacrifice some paid, the spirit of June 12 calls for more responsibility from all State actors and players on the democratic turf of the country.
One of the leading figures of the June 12 pro-democracy struggle was Frank Kokori, who used his position as the head of the Labour Union and led the resistance against the military.
In the interview, he granted and published in the June 13, 2016 edition of the Guardian titled: June 12 struggle was about restructuring Nigeria, says Kokori, former Secretary-General, National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), Frank Kokori explained that there didn’t exist a resistance movement or freedom fighter-type of group. According to him, at that time, the NUPENG and its affiliates in the Labour Union circle were the only alternative “because we don’t have a stock of freedom fighters in this country like what the African National Congress (ANC) of South Africa and what the Mozambique Liberation Front (FRELIMO), South West Africa People’s Organization (SWAPO) stood for.
We don’t have them in Nigeria. What Nigeria had was just student’s union people, radical press, and civil society groups. There was nothing like a crop of freedom fighters, and NUPENG and the oil unions played that role at that time,” he said.
When he was going through all these deprivations in his lonely cell at Bama prisons, he would thank God, as after the time, Nigeria would have been liberated from the military; “You just can’t lock me up for four years without taking me to court and disregarding Habeas corpus. Pope John Paul of blessed memory came here. My name was the second person on his list, MKO Abiola was number one and there were names like (Olusegun) Obasanjo and others.
Mandela came with the same list, but (Sani) Abacha treated them with contempt he never released anybody. However, I believed when I was in prison that the Nigeria I would meet when I come out is a Nigeria that is free of military dictatorship but unfortunately, we came out and the PDP government that took over gave us more problem than the military. Corruption was massive than what the military did.” Said Kokori.
According to him, the whole essence of the June 12 struggle was all about restructuring Nigeria.
“We felt Nigeria should be restructured and let us practice true federalism. And, after the military went back to barracks and General Obasanjo was made president, the first thing that the civil societies told Obasanjo was to call for a sovereign national conference or national conference because Obasanjo did not want to hear the word sovereign.” Kokori said.
Unfortunately, Obasanjo’s administration never visited the issue, to restructure Nigeria, throughout the seven active years of his government.
The whole issue of the June 12 struggle was based on the unitary government that the military fostered on Nigeria.
“I’m one of the advocates of decentralizing Nigeria into true federalism. What did Obasanjo do? He ignored all the civil society groups. It was when he was looking for third term agenda that he hurriedly put on the people’s conference a year before he left office. What was his scheme? It was self-centred and at the end of the day the moment the people scuttled his third term agenda, the conference came to an abrupt end.” He said.
For Kokori and many Nigerians, especially those from the supposedly marginalized parts of the country, the succeeding administrations after Obasanjo had all the opportunities to implement the Restructuring conference.
“Then look at the Niger Deltans who are the greatest victims of marginalization in country. We have prayed and prayed that our son should become president in this country. Jonathan was Vice president for about two and half years, President and acting President for six and half years – do you know what he did? Everything was under his pocket; the Nigerian presidency is so powerful. What did Jonathan do for six years? Did he remember his people; the suffering people of the Niger Delta, to create a true federation for our people in the south? What did he do for his people?” Asked Kokori.
“Jonathan came to power in a whirlwind of the people. After President Yar’Adua died and there was haze over whether Jonathan would be made president or not, the civil society took up arms against the northern cabal, that Jonathan must be the acting president. After the whole struggle, Jonathan was made president and finally, he was elected again to the goodwill of all Nigerians.
“What did Jonathan the son of the soil of the Niger Delta do? People cried to him on true federalism. He ignored our people. It was about 18 months before he left when his popularity dropped to virtually 15% from the almost 75% he had in 2011 that he hurriedly, like Obasanjo, put up a national conference and he had less than 18 months to exit. At the end of the day, the full document did not see light of the day.” He said.
Now in his fifth year, Buhari’s government never wants to touch the Sovereign National Conference issue, even with a long foot pole and despite his many efforts to put the country on a path to progress, it doesn’t seem to be working for the most part.
Still on some of the soldiers on the warfront of the June 12 struggle, the media and Journalists played a great role in firing up the flames so it could burn and possibly consume the military oppressors at the time. There was Chido Onuma, then a Senior Reporter for the Guardian.
Chido Onuma was a Journalist in Guardian covering the story. He also took part in all the demonstrations that happened in Lagos and became a foot soldier who played active role in all the support and frontline movement that promoted the struggle.
Onuma could easily fit in, into the pro-democracy war, because while he was a student, he took part in anti-IBB riots and so his participation in the struggle was natural thing for him. Though his life was not directly at risk, he said the lives of all actively involved in the struggle were in danger. From Guardian, he had moved to write for Tempo and The News, which were shut down by the Abacha junta.
This led to Journalists running undercover reporting and generally doing some crazy and dangerous things. He was arrested in 1995 because of a story he wrote for the AM News that blew up the plot to hack Oladipo Diya’s computer by the Abacha regime.
In spite of the fact that he was taken to Shangisha prison, he was the one who ensured Peter Ayansi, Defense Correspondent of the AM News, escaped the security. “When the SSS came into the building, I met them at the reception and they asked me about him. I told them I would go get him for them. When I told Peter, “they are here and that he should run.” When they didn’t see Peter, they started looking for the Editor of the Paper. Dapo Olorunyomi was then the Deputy Editor. They didn’t see Dapo but met Kunle and took him to Shangisha first, then moved him later around before he finally ended up spending three years in prison till Abacha died, before he was released.” He said.
When it became clear Abacha wanted to perpetuate himself in power in 1995, the new face of the pro-democracy struggle went into full force.
Onuma lamented that some of those who were in the thick of the battle and who are now in power are the ones making a mess of the June 12 struggle now that they are comfortable. Onuma believes the seeming directionless and visionless governance that encapsulate the style of government being administered in the country, today, is one that may breed another June 12 struggle because he is certain, Nigeria deserves a lot better than she is getting currently from the present crop of politicians.
“Surely, we can do better than this. I see another phase of the struggle emerging from this democratic experiment and it might be in the form of a revolution, it will be better it is organized than for it to be spontaneous. It is only a revolution that can cure the malady we have today in the existing order. Imagine the level of impunity with which corruption has taken over the system and the society. An ex-Governor who raped his State is sent to prison only to be returned before he could begin to spend the time, he is released via some judicial and political abracadabra.” He said.
Onuma was out of the country from 1995, returned ten years later, travelled again for a short period and returned the following year to work for EFCC as Head of Civil Society and Crime Prevention Unit.
Dapo and Kunle have refused to participate in the current democratic experiment because they believe it was not what they fought the military for. While Kunle is still with the News, Dapo is still in the US. “Bayo Onanuga joined politics; Femi Ojudu is the one in politics. He was a Senator but now a Presidential Adviser. The News is not on the Newsstand but it comes out when it has special report.” Said Onuma.
He said he has no plan to enter politics because “the nature of politics in Nigeria is indecent. If you don’t have money you can’t play in the murky waters that runs it or it runs on.” Concluded Onuma.
He is working on a book titled 60 years, 60 Voices in commemoration of the 60th anniversary of Nigeria’s independence.
Olisa Agbakoba, Human Rights Activist and former President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) and one of the people at the forefront of the struggle had his own regrets too.
In his interview titled: Nigeria: What I Regret About June 12 Struggle – Agbakoba, published in the June 13, 2019 edition of the Guardian, Agbakoba said the pro-democracy went into the struggle without having any other motive but to move the military back to their base in the Barracks.
“We didn’t do it because we were looking for anything; we did it because we believed in it. Though I think we made a mistake. I think we committed the strategic error of thinking that our work stops with just engaging the military and removing them. I think the important strategic error was in not understanding that we needed to go into politics. And that was a big error. If we had gone into politics, it might have changed a lot of things in Nigeria; that is my assumption.” He said.
His personal regret was that the pro-democracy movement didn’t see far enough to make the decision to go into politics.
“I should have gone to the Senate and so many of us like Femi Falana and others. I think we could have set a different tone to governance. We would have dealt with this issue of the way a new Nigeria should be run. Yes, the civil society is powerful but at the end of the day, it doesn’t have power. It doesn’t have political power and so it can’t change anything. So, that is the regret I personally have; that we should have taken advantage. But so far so good; we are happy about the MKO Abiola Day. I call it MKO Abiola Day, not June 12!” he said.
A Lecturer at the Poliical Science Department of the University of Lagos (UNILAG), Kayode Eesuola said he had a different reason for been a part of the struggle and it is one driven on the philosophy and teachings by the music Legend, Fela Anikulapo Kuti.
“I partook in the street protest along with the students of the University of Lagos to demonstrate against June 12. However, as a Felaist driven by the Felasophical idea that Abiola was part of the military contradictions that would later consume him (ITT), I stated it categorically clear that my own protest was a call for the end to military rule which Fela called ‘Soldier go, Soldier Come’, not reversal of the June 12 annulment. The reason I went into it is included in the earlier statement. It never became a threat to my life at any time because passionate protesters lose rationality at the point of protest. So did I. For me, the eclectic ideological background and divided national interest in the protest frustrated the sustainability of the protest rather than threat to life.” Said Eesuola.
Lanre Arogundade was a participant and interventionist in the June 12 struggle, both as a socialist activist and as a journalist, being the Features Editor of National Concord newspapers between 1991 and 1994.
According to him, the pre-June 12 story began with the ‘IBB must go’ campaign, in which he participated in 1992 as a member of the Labour Militant socialist group.
“We teamed up with other pro-democracy activists to paste ‘GO, IBB GO’ posters all over Lagos, like the rest of the country. My team was assigned to Oshodi under bridge, and that night we stormed the place in my National Concord official Jeta car. But my employers didn’t know anything about this. We got to Oshodi about midnight and set to work, armed with the posters and buckets of paints. We were too busy pasting the posters to notice that a police team led by an Inspector had arrived.” He said.
They were promptly arrested and taken to Area F Police Command in Ikeja. Soon other activists including Barrister Segun Sango leader of the Labour Militant group which later became the Democratic Socialist Movement were brought in. They were arrested in Agege area.
“Being a lawyer, he was the one who bailed us, although, he was a detainee, himself. In my case, the Police asked me to state whether or not I was sponsored by Concord group and threatened to report me to my employers. They got our contact details and threatened to come for us should our ‘IBB must go’ posters lead to demonstrations and violence. I believe it was such protests that forced IBB to reluctantly agree to the dubious transition programme under which, only two political parties – NRC and SDP – were allowed to contest the elections.” Said Arogundade.
When June 12 elections proper were underway, Arogundade was Features Editor of MKO Abiola’s National Concord and was actually the head of the editorial team that covered him as he voted near his residence, accompanied by Kudirat Abiola.
The first inkling that the election might be cancelled came on June 13, 1993. “There were whispers in the newsroom that the story on Abiola’s voting, written by me, and in which I had described how his green Agbada had a horse, the emblem of the SDP, embroiled on it may be tendered as evidence that he had violated the electoral law that forbade campaigning on election day. National Concord also published the photograph. Indeed, the then Deputy Editor, Hadji Liad Tella, summoned me to his office to interrogate me on why I gave so much detail.’ He said.
The elections were invariably cancelled or annulled and the struggle to restore Abiola’s mandate soon took off. The media was in the vanguard and the NUJ Lagos State Council joined Gani Fawehinmi ‘Joint Action Committee on Nigeria (JACON), which demanded the restoration of the mandate given Abiola by 14 million Nigerians and the convocation of a sovereign national conference.
“I sometimes represented NUJ at the meetings and by the time I became the Chairman of the Lagos NUJ in 1995, became the official representative. At National Concord, we were facing constant harassment by the military. The premises were first shut down for about two weeks by security operatives claiming to be looking for arms. In 1994, National Concord was finally shut down and we were sent into the unemployment market. Subsequently, I worked as the Deputy Editor of ‘The Masses’, the organ of the National Conscience Party of Nigeria, which Gani Fawehinmi had formed in defiance of the military’s ban on political activities. The Editor was Mr. Richard Akinola. From the Gani end, therefore, ‘The Masses’, the NCP and JACON were June 12 struggle’s fronts.” Said Arogundade.
The morning after the turbulence of the June 12 struggle, Nigeria has nothing to show for all that she lost in human and material resources during the pro-democracy battle that almost consumed the country.
June 12 was all about good governance that was hoped, would find expression through the generous heart of Moshood Kashimawo Abiola, the presumed Winner of the June 12, 1993 Elections adjudged to be the freest and fairest poll in the history of Nigeria.
It is unfortunate that 21 years down the line, all the nation has to show for it all, is corrupt politicians looting the treasury with impunity, anti-corruption war that is at best giving a slap on the wrist punishment to criminal looters, insurgency, insecurity fuelled, aided and abetted by some unscrupulous security personnel, kidnapping, assassinations, Yahoo Yahoo plus, money ritualists and a general atmosphere that leaves the country in a state where citizens are left to fend for themselves with little or no protection from the State.
The morning after June 12 is not what MKO Abiola fought and died for. It was not what Prof. Humphrey Nwosu, the National Electoral Commission (NEC) Chairman, pushed for when he defied the military that commissioned him to announce the result that made Abiola the presumed winner, today.
The morning after June 12, in 2020, twenty years and six elections later, is not what the thousands who lost their properties and the hundreds who paid the ultimate price, spilled blood and sacrificed their lives for.
Considering the current cycle of unclean management of this democracy, it is likely that Onuma’s prediction of an eventual revolution would be inevitable. His fear like everyone else’s is that the revolution should come without a form, as it could conflagrate from all corners with no command and control or central command. He believes the rate at which the country is moving, it is no longer an ‘if’ but a ‘when.’
Without a doubt, the next morning after Nigerians would have fully determined the direction and dimension of their response to the deteriorating state of their humanity under successive governments, it is not likely that the country would remain the same any longer.
