Steve Ovirih.
Recognising June 12 as the genuine Democracy day in Nigeria by the President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration has been described as the best thing to have happened to the polity and our Democracy in years.
This was the opinion of the legal luminary, Prince Barrister Anthony Olatujoye, former CBN Director of legal .
In the course of a telephone chat with thepolity.com.ng, Prince Olatujoye said it was very glaring that Chief MKO Abiola won the June 12, 1993 General election, and it was also glaring that the cancellation of that epoch poll was due to military rascality and the desire of the military cabal of yore to perpetuate their stay in power .
While noting that June 12 symbolised people’s will over tyranny, the proclamation by president Buhari which now recognised the day as against May 29th, a mere military date set aside to mark the return to civil rule by the last military administration in Nigeria, is a display of the victory of good over evil.
Olatujoye said with the recognition conferred on June 12, the labour of those who paid the supreme price in their bid to actualise the June 12 mandate had not gone in vain, noting that the Buhari administration has done the needful by awarding the GCFR honour on the acclaimed winner of the election. He however demanded that government should facilitate the declaration of the poll result of the 1993 election so that it will enter the record book that Abiola was not just the acclaimed winner of the election, but that he won the election fair and square.
Bar. Olatujoye disagreed with the opinion in some quarters that the recognition of June 12 rather than May 29 as Democracy day in Nigeria is an attempt by President Muhammadu Buhari to spite former President Olusegun Obasanjo, noting that the May 29 Holiday was a military design of Gen Abdulsalami Abubakar who handed over power to a civilian government on that day. He maintained that the return to civil rule which the governments of Obadanjo, Yar’dua and Jonathan enjoyed was made possible by the June 12 election , adjudged the freest , fairest, devoid of ethnic or religious bias, which was unfortunately truncated by the Babangida regime.
Situating Democracy day within the context. Of June 12 rather than May 29, Olatujoye said, is recognising the foundation for this budding civil rule which June 12,1993 election laid.
He said Buhari should be congratulated for confronting this eternal truth and appreciating the victory of Moshood Abiola as victory for Democracy, a bitter truth previous Democratic dispensation had obviously shied away from.
On his take on Muhammadu Buhari’s administration so far, Prince Olatujoye gave him a pass mark, noting that Buhari has acquitted himself well in office. He said the President is working hard to improve the economy and his anti corruption campaign is yielding positive results.
