Nigeria's June 12 Reminiscences
June 13 2016 By Abiodun Giwa
MKO Abiola
June 12, as a day in the calendar of human events. is universal. But that day in 1993 offers a special attraction to political Nigerians. It was the day that supporters of MKO Abiola, the presumed winner of the elections, was denied his assumed mandate.
One thing that has happened to the memory or remembrance of the day, is about how the beneficiaries of democracy in the country in the last elections in South West, have discountenanced the day as worthy of being declared a public holiday, unlike some years before June 2016.
One is almost forced to think that the country's current financial misfortune from the fall in oil price is responsible for the politicians's turn about and coldness toward June 12. Anyway, some of the politicians gave speeches and lectures about how best to immortalize June 12 as Democracy Day in the country, instead of declaring it work free day.
June 12 is politically about a struggle about one man and his supporters to realize a mandate. It was also about a political crisis and one capable of teaching wisdom about power game and how individuals who think they are influential or powerful should comport themselves in a polity.
Reading some of the reminiscences about June 12 in newspaper reports on Sunday, one comes across an issue about Abiola's personality, power and the belief that Sanni Abacha, the military leader and one of the usurpers of the time, could not arrest him. On what premise Abiola thought Abacha could not order his arrest was not stated, allowing room for suggestions. Did Abiola think that Nigeria at the time was under the rule of law, which would have made it impossible for him to be arrested and incarcerated or did he thought he was so powerful and above the level that other sharks in the Nigerian political could not swallow him?
Undoubtedly, Nigeria had many political sharks in its water. Abiola was one of them. If Abiola trusted his military friends so much he felt he was safe, the fact that he was incarcerated and failed to survive the incarceration, represented a lesson in how not to trust humans, whether friends or enemies, to the exclusion of one's safety. It teaches a lesson that there are times one may have to stand alone, run away and be alive to fight again. My late brother, Dele Giwa, fell victim to the same gullibility. He trusted every fool around him so much that, when crisis that threatened his life began, he still ran and sought safety from people in the line of danger to his life.
The liberal education that I have has not taught me to trust the Pharaohs, the Goliaths and the Hamans around me. I received the first lesson about how to trust only my God from a statement Gani Fawehinmi gave my mother following my brother's assassination. He took my mother to his window, showed her the sky as the only place she should look up for help and succor in the circumstance that she found herself. Fawehinmi was unaware he was talking to me. It is a known fact that Abiola as a rich guy had many friends in high places and the irony of the crisis of his life was that Ibrahim Babangida who annulled his election was his best friend.
Only Babangida knew why he annulled the election. And he had said that the reason for his annulment of the election would remain between him and Abiola. He deprived his bosom friend the influence his friend thought he had at a moment Abiola needed the influence most. Abacha merely completed the work began by Babangida, the evil genius. Abiola was not sworn into office. he was deprived of the opportunity to be called a president and the claim to any entitlement from the office. Abiola was taken from the way to political office and was placed in the dungeon, the lowest level of human life. Unlike Jesus Christ, Abiola failed to resurrect from the dungeon and the grave, where his friends had placed.
Nigerians were denied of whatever they would have gained and enjoyed from Abiola's political leadership, because Abiola's topmost friends conspired to turn his destiny around against whatever the original plans God had for him. Again, what was it that motivated Abiola's to run for president after he was persuaded by his topmost editors to abandon politics and he did? Did not his latter day editors, who approved his run for president saw the danger of him running for political office, considering his earlier political experience in the National Party of Nigeria?
Perhaps, Abiola may have thought that Dele Giwa - one of his editors, who influenced other editors, who talked him into abandoning politics was wrong, but believed in his latter day editors or adopted children, who propelled him to run after he had earlier abandoned politics. Here, there is a reminder about the words of President Lyndon Johnson about the role played by the people around us concerning our growth and otherwise. At times, we need to hear the of voice that Elijah heard in the wilderness, rather than the human voice around us.
One thing that has happened to the memory or remembrance of the day, is about how the beneficiaries of democracy in the country in the last elections in South West, have discountenanced the day as worthy of being declared a public holiday, unlike some years before June 2016.
One is almost forced to think that the country's current financial misfortune from the fall in oil price is responsible for the politicians's turn about and coldness toward June 12. Anyway, some of the politicians gave speeches and lectures about how best to immortalize June 12 as Democracy Day in the country, instead of declaring it work free day.
June 12 is politically about a struggle about one man and his supporters to realize a mandate. It was also about a political crisis and one capable of teaching wisdom about power game and how individuals who think they are influential or powerful should comport themselves in a polity.
Reading some of the reminiscences about June 12 in newspaper reports on Sunday, one comes across an issue about Abiola's personality, power and the belief that Sanni Abacha, the military leader and one of the usurpers of the time, could not arrest him. On what premise Abiola thought Abacha could not order his arrest was not stated, allowing room for suggestions. Did Abiola think that Nigeria at the time was under the rule of law, which would have made it impossible for him to be arrested and incarcerated or did he thought he was so powerful and above the level that other sharks in the Nigerian political could not swallow him?
Undoubtedly, Nigeria had many political sharks in its water. Abiola was one of them. If Abiola trusted his military friends so much he felt he was safe, the fact that he was incarcerated and failed to survive the incarceration, represented a lesson in how not to trust humans, whether friends or enemies, to the exclusion of one's safety. It teaches a lesson that there are times one may have to stand alone, run away and be alive to fight again. My late brother, Dele Giwa, fell victim to the same gullibility. He trusted every fool around him so much that, when crisis that threatened his life began, he still ran and sought safety from people in the line of danger to his life.
The liberal education that I have has not taught me to trust the Pharaohs, the Goliaths and the Hamans around me. I received the first lesson about how to trust only my God from a statement Gani Fawehinmi gave my mother following my brother's assassination. He took my mother to his window, showed her the sky as the only place she should look up for help and succor in the circumstance that she found herself. Fawehinmi was unaware he was talking to me. It is a known fact that Abiola as a rich guy had many friends in high places and the irony of the crisis of his life was that Ibrahim Babangida who annulled his election was his best friend.
Only Babangida knew why he annulled the election. And he had said that the reason for his annulment of the election would remain between him and Abiola. He deprived his bosom friend the influence his friend thought he had at a moment Abiola needed the influence most. Abacha merely completed the work began by Babangida, the evil genius. Abiola was not sworn into office. he was deprived of the opportunity to be called a president and the claim to any entitlement from the office. Abiola was taken from the way to political office and was placed in the dungeon, the lowest level of human life. Unlike Jesus Christ, Abiola failed to resurrect from the dungeon and the grave, where his friends had placed.
Nigerians were denied of whatever they would have gained and enjoyed from Abiola's political leadership, because Abiola's topmost friends conspired to turn his destiny around against whatever the original plans God had for him. Again, what was it that motivated Abiola's to run for president after he was persuaded by his topmost editors to abandon politics and he did? Did not his latter day editors, who approved his run for president saw the danger of him running for political office, considering his earlier political experience in the National Party of Nigeria?
Perhaps, Abiola may have thought that Dele Giwa - one of his editors, who influenced other editors, who talked him into abandoning politics was wrong, but believed in his latter day editors or adopted children, who propelled him to run after he had earlier abandoned politics. Here, there is a reminder about the words of President Lyndon Johnson about the role played by the people around us concerning our growth and otherwise. At times, we need to hear the of voice that Elijah heard in the wilderness, rather than the human voice around us.
