Dappa Maharajah
A foremost human right lawyer in the country, Chief Femi Falana (SAN), has expressed displeasure over the sectionalization of the June 12 celebration in the country, saying it is beyond the Yoruba race.
Falana said this yesterday in Akure at the public lecture titled: “June 12, Hope ’93: Dream deferred,” in commemoration of late Chief Moshood Kashimawo Abiola, the winner of the June 12 Presidential election.
Dignitaries at the event, where a public utility was renamed after Abiola, included: Mr. Wale Oshun, the chairman of the event, Mr.Malachy Ugwumadu, Jiti Ogunye, Mr. Ayo Afolabi, top government functionaries, religious leaders and monarchs among others.
He decried the tribalization of the celebration to the South West geo-political zone, noting that people from other five geo-political zones, religion and tribe were also active in the struggle.
Falana, who was the guest lecturer, identified people like Col Dangiwa Umar (rtd), Balarabe Musa, Tony Enahoro, Ndubuisi Kano, Alfred Rewane, Frank Kokori, Chima Ubanni and Malachi Ugwumadu, among others, who were not Yorubas.
He insisted that the unity and integration of the nation is non negotiable, recalling experiences when people from the East and West often rose to fight injustices against Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria students by their northern counterparts.
The guest lecturer urged Nigerians to disregard the threats of disintegration by some forces in the East and North, describing them as people with dubious and questionable characters.
He lauded the Ondo State governor and host of the event, Mr. Oluwarotimi Akeredolu (SAN) for repositioning the state and payment of salary arrears to workers though the immediate past government failed to pay.
Falana, however, implored the governor to run his administration on knowledge-based economy, revitalization of agriculture, massive investment in educated, Olokola and exploitation of bitumen.
He added that the advocacy from all quarters to the All Progressives Congress (APC) led Federal Government for restructuring must not leave economic restructuring out of focus.
The President of Committee for the Defence of Human Rights (CDHR), Ugwumadu, stressed that the APC has a golden opportunity to redirect the affairs of the state and nation at large.
The CDHR boss, who urged Nigerians to discard “the wardrums of Biafran youths and the madness of Boko Haram” on disintegration, warned that if government fails, “power will still lie again on the streets like it happened in 1993.”
Governor Akeredolu described June 12 as a collective celebration that transcends the person of late Abiola, but democracy and those who fought valiantly to sustain civil rule in the country.
“June 12 is not a Yoruba celebration, it is not about Abiola; it is about democracy, it is about our emancipation and this country. That day marked a watershed for Nigerians. We must accept it, we cannot run away from it.
“That was the day when everybody came out to vote enmasse, when they expressed their support for a ticket that nobody deemed could ever happen: Muslim-Muslim ticket. That celebration can never end in this country, let everybody know, we just started.”
He attributed his assumption of office as governor to Falana, whom he said intervened on his emergence as the governorship candidate of the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) in 2012, “and that is why I am here.”
Akeredolu said the celebration is a moment and time to introspect and consolidate on the gains of democracy, insisting that Nigerians should not allow the sacrifices and efforts of past heroes to be in vain.
“If today, Nigeria is divided, what do we say is their gain? What did MKO Abiola die for? What did Kudirat die for? What is the gain of others who lost their lives in the struggle?”
He dispelled the threats of disunity and secession to shortlive Nigeria as one indivisible nation by those he dubbed “confused elements,” saying they were “sheer threats.”
“They are like a ravaging flood that won’t stop at nothing to collapse a building, we as the owners of the building will not allow the flood to destroy the building,” he said.
On restructuring, iterated: “I have said it over and over, and for the umpteenth time, I believe in restructuring and I will fight for it. We need a blue print for restructuring.”
Governor Akeredolu renamed an existing public utility along popular popular Oba Adesida Road in Akure, formerly Democracy Park, after the icon: MKO Abiola Democracy Park.
