“A leader takes people where they want to go. A great leader takes people where they don’t necessarily want to go, but ought to be.”▪︎Rosalynn Carter.
The Nigerian presidential election on June 12, 1993, was the watershed in the history of Nigeria. June 12, 1993, was the day Nigerians spoke in unison to rewrite their ugly history. A day Nigerian voices were heard loudly through ballot boxes to bid farewell to poverty, away from Nigeria. June 12 was the election that gave us the real demonstration of democracy.
Abruptly, these resonating voices were punctuated through the annulment of the freest and fairest election in the history of Nigeria. This writer will be frugal with words to name the cabal complicit in the annulment of June 12 against the Nigerian people. I will attempt not to pontify names to avoid amplifying their injustice against the Nigerian people. June 12 presidential election was also an election that shook the fabric and political landscape of Nigeria.
Meanwhile, ‘June 12 day’ has been politically stubborn and recalcitrant. The more the evil geniuses in Nigeria attempted to kill June 12 from the minds of the Nigerian people, the more the ghost of June 12 reared its bastion of history in their almost dead conscience, and in our immutable consciousness. June 12 refuses to die! Who would have thought Buhari would be the leader to resuscitate the spirit of June 12? June 12, 1993, was Nigerian anathema, and a great opportunity with a milestone in the history of Nigeria. June 12 was a day the destroyers of Nigeria sentenced Nigeria to the abyss of time! I doubt it if Mr. Tortoise and his co-usurpers and conspirators would be able to sleep the night President Muhammadu Buhari signed the ordinance on June 12 becoming a DEMOCRACY DAY in Nigeria.
Truth is recalcitrant, the more you try to kill the truth, the more it rears its beautiful head to rattle the ugly conscience and consciousness of the evil-doers and liars. The consciousness of guilt is like depression. The more you try to suppress your guilt, the more you get enmeshed in a guilty conscience. Mr. Tortoise exhibited hate for the Late Chief MKO Abiola with passion. During the 16 years of waste of his party, Mr. Tortoise as president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, and chairman of his party refused to recognize and give due recognition to a man who made it possible for him to be president. He has resentment for June 12 and those who died for the liberation and emancipation of Nigerians. A vindictive Mr. Tortoise is a man who hates anyone who tries to outshine him in the national spotlight. His vindictiveness for late Chief Awolowo, late MKO Abiola, and Prof. Wole Soyinka has metastasized to President Buhari. Buhari he once canonized is now his avowed enemy.
Whoever is doubtful of President Muhammadu Buhari’s integrity, and his assured place in the history of Nigeria will be disingenuous to history. Whoever is also closing his eyes to Buhari’s fallibility and shortcomings has a dotted mind with alternative facts and biases. Buhari has failed in some areas requiring national emergency, but he has also remapped our journey from ugly past on the road to the promised land. Anyone with moral umpire will rover around and muse the submissions above. My respect for Buhari is premised on his intentions for the people around him and Nigeria. First Hadith precisely told us that “man shall be judged according to his intentions.” I am well pleased with the advent of history, and also very concerned with the evolving development in Nigeria. We shall overcome!
History is a precursor. It is accurately judging us for who we are; what we stand for, and not what the wrong people think we are! “Man is not what we think he is, he is what he hides!” Great minds are never burdened with what their corrupt generation think about them.
“A leader takes people where they want to go. A great leader takes people where they don’t necessarily want to go, but ought to be.”▪︎Rosalynn Carter.
Great leaders are motivated and encouraged by the judgement of history. That’s why history is bunk when tomorrow becomes yesterday. History will also make sense when we play our roles to shape today in order to favor tomorrow. Great minds are always encumbered if they are not conscious of the roles they play today. And to avoid the pitfalls of yesterday today, and for the good of tomorrow. We must be conscious of what we do today, because tomorrow and karma work in tandem. Karma and tomorrow play a crucial role together in the distribution of existential rewards and justice!
In Nigeria, our history has been made abysmal and flimflam (nonsense). Nigerian leadership has made history a useless subject thereby removing it from the curricula in all schools. How does a nation tell her story in future when her generational youths are ignorant of the past and present. No one will tell your story better than your ‘experienced selves.’ Those who made history a none grata (not welcome) are the leaders whose conscience and hearts simmer in the consciousness of guilt. The closets of those who don’t love history are filthy. They’re ready to destroy any obstacle on their way to preserve their corrupt lives.
As we begin to rewrite our ugly past, we must be cognizant of those who are motivated by greed, avarice, grotesque grandstanding and political opportunism to stifle our future. We must avoid being weaponized against ourselves to see the bright future ahead of us. Those who have mortgaged our future are armed with ethnic chauvinism and religious bigotry to multiply division among us. We must be vigilant. The late Chief Gani Fawehinmi aptly predicted that the renaming of the “fake” Democracy Day of May 29 will be strike out with a stroke of the pen. Gani’s prediction came to realization on June 9, 2019.
Those who fought for June 12 must begin to pour libations at the entrances of the catacombs of MKO Abiola, Chief Gani Fawehinmi and other agitators who died for the deannulment of the June 12. Henceforth, June 12 as a DEMOCRACY DAY in Nigeria should be used to immortalize the heroes and heroines of June 12 in Nigeria. The Senior Advocate of the Masses-Chief Gani Fawehinmi, the symbol of June 12, Chief MKO Abiola and his late wife, Alhaja Kudirat Abiola, the deprived people of Nigeria are the true benefactors and celebrants of the June 12, the real and true DEMOCRACY DAY in Nigeria.
Moreover, the dehumanized owners (the majority of Nigerian people) of June 12 are in abject poverty. To preserve the legacy and bastion of June 12, President Buhari must begin the process of actualizing farewell to poverty in Nigeria, as contained in the manifesto of the late custodian (MKO Abiola) of June 12.
