Press Releases

June 12: The Race To Democracy Is Yet To Be Won – Fashola

Jun 12, 2009 - As prominent Nigerians gathered Friday to commemorate the annulled June 12, 1993 Presidential Election and its acclaimed winner, late Chief MKO Abiola, Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola (SAN) has urged Nigerians to gear up for the battle to take the nation to true democracy.

Governor Fashola, who spoke at the Ostria Hall, Alausa, venue of the 16th Anniversary of June 12 themed, “Varieties of Annulment”, declared, “We need to remind ourselves that we are yet to reach the finishing line. The race is, therefore yet to be won”.

The Governor said the most significant lesson of June 12, 1993 is not the person of Chief Abiola, his family or those who paid the supreme price in the struggle for democracy but the fact that the nation came so close to getting it right but missed it.

“It is important to realize that on that day, we came so close. It was on that day that we came so close to taking a decision that would have taken us to a place different from where we are today”, the Governor said.

He lamented that from the June 12 debacle, the nation produced a military compromise that Nigerians did not prepare for and which led to a civil contrivance, adding that this led to a constitution in 1999 that Nigerians had no say about and a leadership whose brief was to ensure that the country did not break-up.

According to the Governor, the leadership that Nigerians accepted in 1999 was so that the country would remain one. “It was not necessarily to produce a minimum development objective. We were not talking of power; we were not talking of water, we were talking of break-up”, he said.

“Of course that leadership paid lip service to law and justice and in fact tried to subvert the questionable foundation of its own very existence via tenure elongation”, Governor Fashola said, lamenting that even in 2007 elections, the nation was still enmeshed in the struggle for change of leadership.

“The whole nation was faced again with the leadership question in 2007. We forgot about power, we forgot about insecurity; we forgot about the agitations of the aggrieved members of this Federation. Any change became better than no change at all. This circle has been endless and 16 years has passed”, the Governor pointed out.

Citing countries in the Middle and Far East as well as in Africa which have made tremendous progress in those 16 years, Governor Fashola lamented that within those years, the nation missed a lot of opportunities. He, however, called for perseverance among Nigerians, pointing out, “While the dreams of democracy have not come true for our people, the promise holds true for those who persevere”.

The Governor, however, declared, “While we persevere, we must insist on certain non-negotiable pillars on which democracy must stand. They are pillars of truth and pillars of justice. The search for the two will embolden us to ask the questions about how we came to this path”, adding that there was need to find out how those he described as ‘custodians of our collective heritage over the past 49 years’, managed the affairs of the country, especially the conduct of elections.

Urging that once the truth is established, the people must be courageous enough to insist that justice must be done, the Governor declared, “One of the truths that has come out from June 12 is that there was an injustice in annulling an election by somebody who was not an umpire of that election; by somebody who was not the custodian of that election. He had no business with that election. A grave injustice was, therefore, done”.

“But since then, the umpire of that election has come out in a book, I believe, he published this year, that indeed MKO Abiola won the election. We must then move on to justice and do justice in the matter. We must acknowledge, even if posthumously, that he was a truly elected President of this country and must be given the honour and merit of that office”, Governor Fashola said.

According to him, “In doing justice, I mean justice according to the law by bringing all those who compromised or obligated their duties before a competent court of law on the presumption that they are innocent and be tried by men and women of honour and integrity”.

“I believe this is the process by which we can set aright the absence of legitimacy in our leaders and our government, because a legitimate government is the most appropriate forum for the delivery of socio-political and economic benefits to the people”, he said.

Paying glowing tribute to the heroes of the nation’s democracy including those who paid the supreme price, Governor Fashola, who named some of the living ones as Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Abubakar Umar, Bayo Williams and numerous others, said, “To you our battle-tested heroes, I salute your courage and thank you for the leadership that has made people like me beneficiaries”.

At the well attended ceremony by pro-democracy groups, human rights activists and top government functionaries as well as captains of industries, two papers – Varieties of Annulment and Heroes Unsung - were delivered by Professor Bayo Williams and Barrister Opeyemi Bamidele respectively.

Also present at the occasion were the immediate past Governor of Lagos State, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu who was the Chairman of the occasion, members of the State Executive Council and the House of Assembly, Political Party Chiefs, traditional rulers, including the Akran of Badagry, and the clergy among other prominent Nigerians.