Moghalu lauds Buhari over June 12 declaration

The presidential candidate of the Young Progressive Party in the 2019 general election, Prof Kingsley Moghalu, Wednesday hailed President Muhammadu Buhari for declaring June 12 as the country’s new democracy day.

“President Muhammadu Buhari deserves credit for the now official recognition of that landmark democratic experience by the federal government,” Moghalu said in a statement.

“The presidential election that held on June 12th, 1993 has for decades been the reference point for the conduct of peaceful, free and fair elections in the country,” he added.

Buhari on Monday signed the Public Holidays Act Amendment Bill into law.

The Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly Matters (Senate), Ita Enang said the Act declared June 12 of every year as public holiday and Democracy Day in Nigeria.

“It amends the Public Holidays Act which now removes May 29 of every year as a public holiday and now makes it June 12, democracy as a public holiday in Nigeria henceforth,” Enang said.

Buhari had on June 6, 2018, declared June 12 to be the new Democracy Day in commemoration of the democratic election of MKO Abiola on June 12, 1993.

The poll was the first time a presidential elections were held since the 1983 military coup. It was an event many observers have described as the most significant in Nigeria’s post-independence political history.

It is still regarded as the freest, fairest and most peaceful election ever held in Nigeria.