Punish Those Responsible For June 12 Annulment - Balarabe Musa

…Abiola Deserves National, Not Sectional, Honour —Tinubu, Fashola

LAGOS, June 12, (THEWILL) – Late Moshood Abiola, winner of the June 12, 1993 presidential election, deserves a lot more honour than naming a university after him, speakers at his 19th remembrance, which featured a lecture with the theme, Challenges and Prospects of True Federalism, Political Legitimacy and National Security, have said.

Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola and his predecessor, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, led several rights activists to Lagos Television’s Blue Roof to relive memories of the country’s freest and fairest elections. They called on the federal government to give a befitting immortalisation to MKO.

Chairman of the occasion and former governor of Kaduna State, Alhaji Balarabe Musa, in his address, said Chief Humphrey Nwosu’s admission that MKO Abiola clearly won the elections and the recent move by President Goodluck Jonathan to rename the University of Lagos after Abiola justify the continuation of such remembrance.

But Musa said the late philanthropist deserved more than the renaming of a university, and urged the federal government to establish a judicial commission of enquiry to find out the circumstances that led to the annulment of the elections, and appropriately punish those responsible for it.

“This is the only way we can ensure that this does not happen in the country again. The federal Government should also establish a national monument to preserve the legacies of the late philanthropist.” Musa said.

In his submission, Tinubu bemoaned various examples of the country’s deviation from democratic norms, such as the 6th Assembly’s amendment of the constitution to restrict the contest of elections in court to 180 days. He charged Fashola and other lawyers to challenge the amendment in court, saying the trend will mar future elections and plunge the country’s perceived democracy into total illusion.

“If anyone says that we have democracy now, maybe in 1999 when we started, I will say yes. But now we do not have democracy, justice and freedom. The danger is here,” he said.

“We had rule of law until few years ago when the National Assembly amended the constitution and took our right away through the back door. We were able to retrieve a stolen mandate in Osun, Ekiti and Edo. But immediately they noticed it, they went ahead to amend the constitution to limit the right of Nigerians to fair hearing to 180 days.”

On the renaming of Unilag to Moshood Abiola University, Lagos, Tinubu said the process of renaming universities is no longer unique, especially as the choice of UNILAG gives an impression that Abiola’s strides were sectional. He called for a national immortalisation for the winner of the June 12 presidential election.

“That mandate was a national mandate. I support the call that since the president has known the result, Abiola should be recognised posthumously as the second democratically elected president of Nigeria and his birthday or June 12 declared as a national holiday as it was done for Martin Luther-king. This is a man who struggled and died for this country. That is the minimum that we will demand from the federal government.”

Among many other distinguished speakers at the event was Governor Fashola, who expressed hopes in a bright future for the country.

“I like to remind us that we should tell those people who say that we cannot stand together irrespective of our tribe that they are lying; I like to remind those who say that we are so religiously divided, that we cannot have a second voice, that on June 12 we stood together.” He said.

“Nigeria resolved to cast their lots behind a team they thought will take them out of poverty, that is what June 12 must mean to us at the time that Abiola decided to claim back his mandate. It was a position that he took against all the odds, he did not have an army but yet he stood up against a military regime that until the people of Nigeria who voted for him ask him to step back he was their president-elect and will continue to fight for their mandate.”