June 12 meaningless as Democracy Day without imbibing its virtues – Odumakin

The National Publicity Secretary of the pan-Yoruba socio-cultural group, Afenifere, Mr Yinka Odumakin, is one of the active participants in the struggle for the realization of the June 12 presidential election after General Ibrahim Babangida annulled the result widely believed to have been won by Moshood Abiola. Odumakin speaks on the declaration of June 12 […]

The National Publicity Secretary of the pan-Yoruba socio-cultural group, Afenifere, Mr Yinka Odumakin, is one of the active participants in the struggle for the realization of the June 12 presidential election

after General Ibrahim Babangida annulled the result widely believed to have been won by Moshood Abiola. Odumakin speaks on the declaration of June 12 as Democracy Day.

Daily Trust: What promise does the declaration of June 12 as Democracy Day hold for democracy in Nigeria?

Yinka Odumakin: The declaration represents a partial closure of the June 12 saga. It is a symbolic demonstration of the importance of June 12. June 12 is however not about the holiday, because if you say you are celebrating June 12 every day or for a whole year, it does not bring back the realization of June 12, neither would it give the mandate to Abiola to govern the country. Yes, the holiday is symbolic and an important day in our history, but beyond that, there are more issues of June 12 that we have to deal with. First, we must begin to hold elections that are like the June 12 election. We cannot be rigging elections and say we have recognised June 12. No, we have not recognised June 12, we are just observing it in our calendar. We cannot also be promoting ethnic tension. No, June 12 is not about that. June 12 was the day Abiola defeated Bashiru Tofa in Kano. That was the day a Muslim-Muslim ticket won the topmost election in many Christian areas. That was one election that was going to resolve our nationality question. So we cannot be doing damage to our nationality question and say we are celebrating June 12 until we recognize that Nigeria is a multi-ethnic nation and all nationalities must be respected. We must run a proper country, a true nation. Your religion or region should not be the basis of what you are doing in Nigeria.

DT: To what extent would you say this recognition and holiday have healed the scars of the June 12 annulment?

Odumakin: As I said, what has been done cannot wake up today. All the hundreds of youths that were killed on July 7, 1993 on the streets of Ikorodu cannot come back to life. The businesses and lives that were ruined because of June 12 cannot come back. There is no final atonement that can be paid for the annulment of June 12, it can only bring a partial closure. The more healing that will come is when we begin to hold free and fair elections, resolve the nationality question in Nigeria and restructure the country. Those are measures that can bring an effective closure to the June 12 saga, not just the holiday.

DT: Do you have any fear that another government might come and reverse this declaration?

Odumakin: It should be properly gazetted and backed by a law so that any government that comes in and wants to toy with it will have a lot of hurdles to cross.

DT: How best can Nigerians celebrate June 12 as the new Democracy Day?

Odumakin: The best way we can be celebrating June 12 is not just to do a march-past or to hold rallies on June 12. We should begin to imbibe the virtues of June 12, the best interest of June 12 and the best theme that June 12 represents. Let’s begin to see those things in our polity effectively. We should go beyond symbolism and practise the real virtues of June 12.

DT: One of the issues you have talked about is that Nigeria should begin to conduct free and fair elections similar to what we had on June 12, what kind of reforms do you recommend for our electoral system to improve on it?

Odumakin: Currently, our electoral system has a lot of challenges, part of which is that it is not in tune with party democracy. Our political parties today are like agencies of money bags. We must reverse that and have a political party dimension that reflects the feelings of members of the party, who will pick their candidates according to the rules.

When we move from that and get to the proper election itself, INEC must be empowered sufficiently. There is a section that says INEC should prosecute electoral offenders, but INEC has no power to arrest them. For as long as INEC has no power to arrest electoral offenders, how will it prosecute them? We must deal with that. We must ensure that before we go for any election, there must be a proper Electoral Act. We went to the 2019 general elections without the Electoral Bill being signed. That must not happen again. And importantly, we must ensure that the composition of the electoral commission is done in a way that it is not the president who will just pick his people, nephews, friends and associates as members. There must be a process where all the critical arms of government will be involved in picking those who sit over the electoral body.

DT: Can you recall some of your personal experiences with the June 12 saga?

Odumakin: There were so many experiences that one could recall. For instance, on July 7 when Abacha rolled out tanks and killed many people on Ikorodu road, a few other people and I were involved in counting dead bodies and removing them from the road. It was a painful thing. We cried as we were picking the dead bodies. On another occasion, I remember that somewhere in Agege, a young lady standing by me was shot dead by the police. On July 2, 1993, an activist, Dr Joe Okei-Odumakin, who is my wife now (she was not my wife then) and I met with the late Alhaja Kudirat Abiola and agreed to meet her again on July 5 in the morning. But that was when we were burying her. So, there were so many agonies that one suffered. The last one I will never forget was on May 1998 when we met a delegation from America in Victoria Island. I was there, Femi Falana was there, Chief Olisa Agbakoba was there, Dr Joe was there. That delegation grilled us. The last question they asked us was what did we think would happen if Abacha and Abiola were no more. By June 8, Abacha was no more and by July 7, Abiola was gone. We never knew what the question was all about.

DT: The question of why IBB annulled that election remains a mystery till today. From your point of view, why do you think that election was annulled?

Odumakin: They never thought that Abiola would win that election. So when the results started trickling in and he won overwhelmingly, they had no choice than to annul the election. Ibrahim Babangida should free his conscience and tell the nation why he annulled the election. All the reasons he has given us, we do not accept them.