JUNE 12: OF HISTORY, AND TODAY'S HYSTERIA –BY CHRIS MUSTAPHA NWAOKOBIA JNR

"Until the Lion tells the story, 

the Hunter will always be the Hero." 

- African Proverb.

25 years ago a unique electoral feat happened in our nation's history, it was the day that Nigerians refused the biases of region and religion, and voted for a Party that presented a Muslim/Muslim Ticket, whilst trumping the one with a Muslim/Christian Ticket. Nigerians elected content and competency over creed and clan. Such is the TRUE spirit of Nigeria.

Since that election, and the attendant annulment of the election by the gap-toothed one, some of us have made JUNE 12, the DEMOCRATIC Altar at which we worship yearly. Our worship at the JUNE 12 Altar, is predicated on the fact that this Altar stands on four solidly germane and unimpeachable pillars.

1. That it remains the freest, the fairest and the most credible election in our nation's history.

2. That Nigerians against the nuances, the prejudices and the proclivities of religion voted a Muslim/Muslim Ticket. JUNE 12, became therefore the symbol of our collective depth and brotherhood.

3. That Nigerians expressed their sovereign and constitutional right to elect a leader, and did so on that day.

4. That the mandate so given on that day to Chief M.K.O Abiola was freely, fairly and credibly given, and could not be taken away by anyone or authority.

We have religiously worshipped at this pristine ALTAR indiscriminate of region and or religion. We have done so in memory of the over 300 students of various tribes and religion murdered by IBB's troops led by Abacha, for seeking the de-annulment of the PEOPLES mandate given to Abiola.

We worship at the JUNE 12 ALTAR, in memory of Kudirat Abiola, MKO Abiola, Pa Alfred Rewane, Bagauda Kalto, Gani Fawehinmi, Chima Ubani, Beko Ransome-Kuti, Omatsola, Pa Abraham Adesanya and all the direct and indirect martyrs of the struggle for the revalidation of the peoples mandate, and indeed democracy.

We worship at the JUNE 12 ALTAR, because it held out HOPE for the abolition of poverty and progress. Not because Abiola was himself a Saint, but because his message of HOPE resonated. And to us it will always be #COUNTRYFIRST, it has been more about Nigeria than about any individual, people or tendency.

And we worship at the JUNE 12 ALTAR because we insist on no less a normative than the enthroning of free, fair, credible and transparent electoral paradigms on our national canvass.

The inviolability of the essence of our worship motivated an effort of mine published by The Vanguard in 2011 on the unyielding fervour and fervency of the JUNE 12 ALTAR. See https://www.vanguardngr.com/2011/06/june-12-goes-on/

The JUNE 12 story is replete with the attempt of interloping political operators with soiled and fouled hands to harvest political profit from an ALTAR they violently desecrated and defiled. And the perfidy wears a new garb.

In 2013 I had the honour of defending the JUNE 12 ALTAR against a sacrilegious intruder, the then Governor of Akwa Ibom State Obot Godswill Akpabio, who insisted at that time that 16 was greater than 19 ala the Governors Forum election, decided to sponsor a JUNE 12 converge at the MKO Abiola residence. I cautioned my colleagues against compromising the ideals of the June 12 struggle, which chiefly remains the call for free, fair and credible polls. And opposed his place in that event. See http://www.theparadigmng.com/2013/06/13/june-12-event-self-confessed-election/

It is the same challenge that history has thrown upon my shoulders once again, I am therefore, not doing this because I am a HATER or a WAILER. I am doing this because we must situate history and hysteria in proper perspectives, and teach our children and indeed posterity to THINK.

READ ALSO: NIGERIA: THE WAY OUT IS THE TRUTH I-III -BY CHRIS MUSTAPHA NWAOKOBIA JNR. 

There are questions that assail the carapace of my mind, you may also ponder on them if you like. Can Buhari beatify June 12? Was Buhari not part of the administration of Abacha, the same Government that imprisoned the holder of the June 12 mandate? Until now, has Buhari ever spoken in support of the June 12 struggle? How can a man who holds Abacha very highly become today's hero of the June 12 hunt? How and why did he remember June 12 after his 3rd year in power, and with just a year to go? What is the role of the famous June 12 deserter and the only living beneficiary of today's June 12 hysteria Babagana Kingibe, in all of this? If MKO Abiola were alive, will he accept today's honours from Buhari, and with Kingibe on the same platform?

With the level of hunger in the land, and the killings across the Country, as well as the detention of citizens against Court Orders and due process, will Gani Fawehinmi accept today's honours?

Why is the honours list in today's hysteria lacking in names like Beko Ransome-Kuti, Bagauda Kalto, Chima Ubani, Pa Alfred Rewane, Kudirat Abiola, Pa Abraham Adesanya, Olisa Agbakoba, Olusegun Mayegun, Owei Lakemfa, Dupe Onitiri-Abiola, Ndubuisi Kanu, Fredrick Fasheun, Dan Suleman, Wole Soyinka, Ayo Obe, Frank Kokori, Shehu Sani et al, and why is the electoral umpire who superintended that election not deserving of Buhari’s honours? What does today's June 12 hysteria portend?

Has the Aso Rock celebrating authority chosen to sectionalize the June 12 struggle by inviting the same South West traditional fathers who deserted June 12, Abiola and the struggle? How many of the then Social Democratic Party SDP Officers, elected Governors, Senators, Representatives et al were involved in the June 12 struggle? Does the roll call of the attendees at today's June 12 feast in the Villa, not define the intention of the Convener?

My immediate reaction to the announcement by President Muhammadu Buhari of June 12 as the new Democracy Day effective from 2019 as a GREEK GIFT was clear, unequivocal and unambiguous. Interestingly I am glad that THINKERS are beginning to see it for what it is, and many are speaking up and speaking out against the politicization of an ideal that is better practiced than romanticized.

It is about the politics of 2019, it is sheer populism and it is a Greek gift. Less than 10days before the first Press Statement ever signed by the President, this same President declared May 29 Public Holiday (Democracy Day), so when in God's universe did the so-called wide consultation referred to in the Press Statement happen, before or after May 29?

We have interesting times ahead. And we must realize that Nigeria is beyond PMB, GEJ, IBB, OBJ and the likes, so those who are celebrating the desecration of the JUNE 12 ALTAR as an uppercut dealt on political foes by Buhari must raise the intellectual bar. Fela of blessed memory once sang, '...animal can't give me human right, human right na my property', so the deep and the discerning must be circumspect.

Some have argued that we cannot cry more than the bereaved, let me state clearly, that in June 12 all Nigerians were bereaved. It is not about the South West alone, it is about Nigeria, in fact Abia State was one of the first States ever to have adopted June 12 as a Public Holiday under Orji Uzor Kalu. Indeed, June 12 is the national cross on which Abiola and many others were martyred.

To those who pontificate and attempt for political gain to paint the June 12 struggle with ethnic brush, a rude awakening awaits you, as the Nigerian Socio-Political canvass will refuse such stain, someday surely.

READ ALSO: LEST WE FORGET: A PERSPECTIVE ON POLITICAL HYPOCRISY AND IRONIES - BY ACHIKE CHUDE 

We do not stand with Abiola because he was a Saint, we stand with him even in death because of JUNE 12, and the pillars and the message of it. We are not unaware of his past and his story as presented in a 1994 protest letter by Ganiyu Jaiyeola, then President of Africa Club in the University of Connecticut, USA against the reason for which the school was offering Abiola a Doctor of Letters degree, honoris. I hereunder for record purposes, reproduce the most part of the protest, verbatim.

“August 31, 1994

Professor Harry Hartley

President ,

University of Connecticut,        

Storrs, CT. 06269.

Dear Professor Hartley,

RE: AWARD OF HONORARY DEGREE TO CHIEF M. K. O. ABIOLA

It has come to the notice of the Nigerian community at the University of Connecticut, Storrs, that the University of Connecticut, Storrs, will be honouring Chief Moshood Abiola with a Doctor of letters degree for his devotion to democracy.  We would like to thank the University of Connecticut for bestowing such an honour on a Nigerian; indeed an African.

While we have no qualms, in principle, about the award, we object to the reasons for the honour.  We believe it is a misnomer to characterize Chief Abiola as a devotee to democracy.  Right from the regime of the late General Muritala Mohammed to General Ibrahim Babangida's disastrous era, Chief Abiola provided support for successive military regimes in Nigeria.  He benefited materially and politically from his close ties with the military.  Chief Abiola is an accountant.  He came into limelight when his company, ITT, got a multimillion dollar contract from the Federal Ministry of Communications to fix the telephone system in Nigeria once and for all.  General Mohammed, Chief Abiola's friend, was then the Federal Minister for Communications (General Yakubu Gowon was Head of the Federal Military Government of Nigeria).  Despite this huge amount, Nigeria has one of the worst telephone systems in the world.  It takes an average of two hours for a lucky person to get a call through to Nigeria......

Finally, Chief Abiola was portrayed in the nomination process as someone with "a record of standing firm for his principles, even at risk to his personal safety".  It should not be forgotten too soon that when crisis and pandemonium ensued after the annulment of the election, he abandoned his followers and took refuge in the safe and comfortable havens of the West, while the genuine democratic forces were left behind to slug it out with the military.  Asked by a BBC reporter in London why he absconded, he unabashedly retorted: "life has no duplicate.  I don't want to die now.  I want to live to serve my people.  I will go back to the country when conditions are ripe".

We wish to reiterate that we are not against honouring Chief Abiola for his genuine accomplishments.  All we are saying is that the present rationale for the award is flawed.

Thank you.

Sincerely, (signed) Ganiyu Jaiyeola  (Mr.)

President, African Club

University of Connecticut, Storrs;

On Behalf Of The Nigerian Community (University of Connecticut, Storrs).”

READ ALSO: AS IT WAS IN SAPELE IV – BY CHRIS MUSTAPHA NWAOKOBIA JNR. 

We are disciples of JUNE 12, and we worship at the JUNE 12 ALTAR because June 12 transcends ethnicity, religion and region. On that day Abiola was overwhelmingly voted for in 19 States and the FCT, Abuja, out of the then 30 states, in an election that is yet unparalleled in our nation's history, having been adjudged as the freest, the fairest and the most credible thus far. And our loyalty is chiefly to this phenomenon.

Today's event in the Villa, is a facade masqueraded as honour for Abiola and the June 12 phenomenon. It is sacrilegious, prolitrickcal and manifestly a Greek Gift meant for political capital. But Nigerians and indeed the South West are wiser.

We are where we are as a nation because wittingly or unwittingly so many have lowered the intellectual bar, and thrown away their thinking cap. Like victims of the proverbial poisoned chalice we fall for every gimmick of our oppressors and debate banalities. So sad, we are a people so easily swayed and so easily pleased. We are a people who laugh when we are not genuinely tickled, such defines the support that some have given to Buhari’s June 12 Greek Gift. But the discerning are not fooled.

Nothing can be more dangerous to a nation and its people than the oppressed jumping in defense of the oppressor. Stockholm Syndrome is the poisoned chalice of the oppressed. Hunger, joblessness, insecurity and want are indiscriminate of religion, region and ethnicity. Therefore to dwell on the politics of creed and or clan as intended by Buhari through a poisoned June 12 chalice is to deepen the sink in the nadir.

Thank goodness for the Social Democratic Party SDP that addressed a Press Conference yesterday the 11/06/2018 and put a lie to the genuineness of Buhari’s June 12 gift. The Coalition in Defence of Nigerian Democracy and Constitution CDNDC was not left out, as they described the gift, as 'a self-serving ploy to hoodwink a people to get their votes in injury time'. To seek to elevate the 'banal magic' of the oppressor ditto a poisoned JUNE 12 chalice is to toughen the latch of slavery. May the discerning be circumspect.

A poisoned chalice is a poisoned chalice no matter how lovely it looks. Those who mortified June 12, cannot give life to it. Being quick in giving accolade to your captors for what seems like some respite, emboldens every attempt to rewrite our history. And we must not allow our JUNE 12 story to be re-written by a pretender to the June 12 estate.

Finally, the good Book tells us a story of how some sincere devotees of faith were asked to sing their captors the Lord's song, but rather than say, 'O they have finally given us the opportunity and freedom to sing the Lord's song', they challenged their captors, saying the Lord's song cannot be sang in a strange land. Aso Rock under Buhari is undeserving of the JUNE 12 song. And will never be until Nigeria is restructured along the lines of true fiscal federalism, resource control, and devolution of power, so that the trees of justice, of equity, of fairness and of abolition of poverty may grow. And such is the JUNE 12 song.

May we continue to sing the JUNE 12 song in the streets, and uphold the JUNE 12 Spirit, mindful of the fact that 'If the Lion writes its story, the hunter will not be the hero of the hunt."

Let no one think he/she can successfully desecrate the JUNE 12 ALTAR, let no one spit on MKO Abiola's grave, and let no one think he/she can violate the sacred memories of the martyrs of the June 12 struggle. God forbid they do. Compatriots, I am confident that sooner rather than later a PEOPLES GOVERNMENT will rise up to do the needful. So Mote It Be.

JUNE 12 LIVES, to birth and berth THE NEW DEAL for the masses of our people. A NEW, A BETTER AND A PROSPEROUS NIGERIA IS POSSIBLE. #YESWECAN #THENEWDEAL #COUNTRYFIRST.

God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Chris Mustapha Nwaokobia Jnr, is Convener COUNTRYFIRST MOVEMENT, and a Presidential hopeful in the forthcoming 2019 general elections in Nigeria.