The yearly June 12 celebration to mark Democracy Day and 32 years of the annulment of the freest and fairest presidential election in Nigeria acclaimed to have been won by the late Chief MKO Abiola has become a hollow ritual, veteran activist and retired University of Benin lecturer, Prof. Tony Afejuku, has declared.
“There is nothing worth celebrating in Nigeria’s democracy,” Afejuku told The Guardian. “What we have is ‘big stomach democracy’— a self-serving rule of the elite. It’s no longer about the people, but about money, power and private gain.”
Afejuku accused the political class of hijacking the system, alleging that even civil society actors were not spared.
According to him, “even the so-called activists have been compromised. Nothing is working. Let nobody deceive you.”
Speaking in the same vein, a former senator and NADECO chieftain, Femi Okurounmu, said the June 12 legacy now lies in ruins.
He accused many of those who fought for the actualisation of the June 12 mandate of betraying it, adding that “the so-called progressives in power today have shown no real commitment to credible elections.”
He argued that the annulled 1993 election – widely regarded as Nigeria’s most credible – was meant to entrench transparent democracy.
“Instead, we now have a system where INEC and the judiciary, not the people, decide who governs,” he said. Okurounmu recalled that even General Ibrahim Babangida, who annulled the election, had admitted that it was a grave error.
“But instead of addressing that injustice, the Nigerian elite now gather at his book launch to celebrate him.
“Since 1993, no leader has dared to replicate that kind of credible election. That’s the real tragedy,” he noted.He slammed today’s political leaders for urging aggrieved opponents to “go to court” knowing the courts are often compromised.
He pointed to the late president Umaru Yar’Adua’s 2007 admission that his own election was deeply flawed as further evidence of a broken system.
“The truth is this – until we fundamentally restructure our system of governance, free and fair elections in Nigeria will remain a fantasy,” Okurounmu concluded.
