Adeola Aderounmu.
One year ago, I shared my opinion about June 12 1993, the day Nigeria’s freest and fairest election was annuled by one useless and stupid idiot called Babangida. 15 years after, the nonentity called Babangida is still roaming around in Nigeria as a freeman.
Babangida stole Nigeria’s money, he stole virtually all the money that Nigeria made during the Gulf war. No one of the other useless leaders have been bold enough to put him in jail or to even retrieve our National money from him.
That goes to confirm what I always emphasize that all Nigerian politicians and leaders are thieves.
What we don’t know as Nigerians is that progress will not come to us as a people or as a country because we have refused to take the bull by the horns. We have sat back to allow these idiots and animals to reign supreme over us.
Imagine what happened in the 2007 elections! Obasanjo and Iwu imposed Yar Adua (that slow and visionless man) on Nigerians. What did we get? A man who ruled a state for 8 years without building a specialised hospital to take care of his ailment. A man who will fly to Germany to receive tablets or medicines for his ailment. This is scandalous.
In my country, we generate less than 1000 MW of electricity but we need more than 100 000 MW to sustain the population’s need.
In my country, we don’t have refineries to handle the oil that nature has bestowed on us. In Nigeria, oil is a curse while it is a blessing even to those who don’t have any single oil field!
Nigerians should know that the more than 90m people living below the poverty line and who probably have no knowledge or access to internet or telephone facilities are doomed forever. It will be almost impossible to change their life styles or their perception of human existence. It is like living in bondage when a group of people have the control of the nation’s resources under their grip.
The likes of Babangida, Obasanjo, Buhari, Abdulsalami (for a start) should all be arrested and put on trial. If we tame those who think they are powerful, the others following their steps will get the message.
Let us fight a total war against corruption, not a selective war. Let us raise out voices in unism for the type of life that we want to live as a people. How do we want to be governed? Who do we want to rule us? How can we make sure that our votes are counted? How we can rid the society of crooks in the national assembly and in the senate?
What is a thief like David Mark still doing as the senate president of Nigeria? Why do we allow this nonsense in our country?
This is another June 12 and Nigerians don’t get the message. The only way forward for this country is to set the records straight. The corruption, injustices and social inequality being perpetrated by the leaders and looters in Nigeria are the reasons for the poverty that prevails in Nigeria. It is the reason that 3 square meal is a privilege. It is the reason why the nation is making giant strides back to the stone age as the rest of the world continues to enjoy the fruits of the 18th century industrialisation.
It is not right that a country so blessed can also accomodate more than 90m people living desperately on less than 2 dollars a day and having no access to clean water, proper housing and a befitting standard of life.
June 12 1993 (first published June 5 2007)
June 12 1993, Just Like Yesterday
I remembered when my parents used to talk about how life was in the 1950s and 1960s. Then I used to imagine how they could possibly remembered things that happened so long ago vividly. Now that I am an adult, I think I understand better how time can fly and then 14 years can be like 4 months!
This is the way that the time that had passed since June 12 1993 to this moment seemed to me. In fact, June 12 seemed to me like yesterday. It’s all so fresh in my memory. I was studying at the University of Lagos at that time.
As I remember June 12, I will dwell on the principles of the events of that day and not on the person of MKO Abiola, Bashir Tofa or the tropical gangster called Babangida. The reason why I will not dwell on personalities fully is because the election was not about them, it was about democratic principles and the rule of law.
On June 12 1993, millions of Nigerians voted in the best election ever conducted in the history of Nigeria. It was possible for the people to vote right because the elections were properly planned and well conducted. There were pre-election debates and it was easy to know who was intelligent and who was really dull.
The people voted and the results were rolling in more to the favour of MKO Abiola. When it became evident that Abiola would win, Bashir Tofa (the opponent) was said to have sent him congratulatory messages. Now, that is a good man when it comes to the spirit of politics without bitterness. Records have it that as the results were been announced, the prices of goods and services were dropping. There was a tailor who refused to be paid for the services he had rendered. He was so overjoyed that “at last” hope has come to the people.
That was the spirit and mood until Nigerians received a rude shock from the nonentity called Babangida. This useless man cancelled or annulled the best election in our history. There were many theories to this annulment including that Abiola is a creditor of the government, or that a few idiots would not like to see him be president of Nigeria. Some people said it was because of what he did when he was in NPN that he betrayed Awolowo. I will not be drawn into these kinds of thoughtless arguments.
The fundamental thing about June 12 was that an election held and Abiola won. The crime about it was that some cabal secretly plotted against Abiola and eternally denied him of the mandate that the Nigerian masses gave to him. He was asked by the people to give them hope, but a few hopeless and selfish persons, a few of whom unfortunately are still around the corridors of power decided otherwise.
The annulment was resisted by many true democrats, some were killed and many went into exile. Some people chickened out and were back in subsequent governments because they were simply thieves and opportunists originally. The vice-president-to-be for that annulled election is now back into the new illegitimate government that started on May 29 2007. This will show any reasonable person that such people have no shame for their misdeeds and I doubt that this man was not once a looter of our treasury. They never get enough, do they? They always stage a return to our lives and the implication is that since 1960, we have had a system of recycling sycophants in our government houses. Those that cannot be recycled stay out as useless godfathers-destroying the system to selfish ends.
Many people died in the struggle to actualize that mandate popularly called JUNE 12. May their souls find peace. They are more honourable than Babangida and his hopeless cabal put together. It remains to be proved if there were no foreign interference in the death of MKO Abiola himself, the man widely believed to have won the 1993 elections. It is not understandable why he died under questionable circumstances while a delegate from the United States was visiting him. How did a cup of tea become a poison? Historians have their hands full there and those who know the truth but cannot say it will always be judged by their own conscience.
MKO Abiola died when many thought he would be released to claim his mandate after the death of one of the notorious generals called Abacha. The implication is that he was up against an evil cabal who will not mind travelling to hell just to deny him. Indeed the cabal succeeded in their plots and 14 years after, can anyone see any progress in Nigeria? Don’t even think about the GSM, I am tired of that jingle as a measure of progress.
One thing is sure, in as much as we have refused to take the right steps and as long as we have not resisted those who are manipulating our country to a selfish end, millions of people will continue to live in poverty. This is not a curse, I lived through this dilemma and my family and friends do not deserve my curse. It is just what I call the unarguable reality of our lives. It is not for fun that the holy books stated that “You will know the truth and the truth shall set you free”!
It is one thing for us to know the truth, acknowledge it, make amends and set Nigeria on the path of glory and it is definitely another thing to continue to deny ourselves the knowledge of the truth, make a few people enjoy the fruits of the land and leave the helpless and resilient majority wallowing in absolute/abject poverty.
The way to GLORY will be a struggle on all aspects of our lives, social, economic…and so on. The way to prosperity and the good of all will be to seek the men and women who will be ready to serve selflessly and dedicatedly. In Nigeria, we need the rule of law above the rule of men.
May each June 12 continue to unsettle the mind of the wicked. May it bring jugdement who those who spilled the blood of the innocents. AND May the goodness of June 12 bring milk and honey back to the Nigerians who are weak and poor, living on less than 1 dollar a day.
This is my personal opinion and that is the way that I see it.
A View From The Scandinavian 