June 12 is here again and all the hisses associated with it are reverberating in high and low places. What actually bounced the June 12, 1993 affair to the national scene was the well thought out idea of President Muhammadu Buhari to honour Chief MKO Abiola, the presumed winner of Jun 12, 1993 presidential election. I have stated it in several places that Abiola deserved whatever genuine respect Buhari accorded to him. However, I also asked why Buhari never included the Igbo man who supervised the June 12 affair Prof Humphrey Nwosu.
On the other hand, it must be reported that pronouncing June 12 as a Democracy Day is a glutinous insult to the judiciary and by extension Nigerians who are law abiding. The reason is, on June 10, Chief Francis Arthur Nzeribe went to court and got an injunction that painfully halted the election from taking place. Rather than going to a court of appeal to vacate the order of the lower court, Professor Humphrey Nwosu, relying on provision of Decree 53 of 1991 that empowered NEC not to listen to anybody or institution that may try to use any means to stop the conduct of the election, he directed for the election to be held. But we know that the only place allowed by law to interpret the law is the court. After the election, Nzeribe went back to court to stop the results . Babangida eventually annulled the election. Therefore, June 12 was an absolute illegality! Before it will be recognized for anything, the court order that stopped it must be vacated.
Two, the first 12 as a date disaster was on June 12, 1959 when the first parliamentary election was conducted to usher in an independent Nigeria. Sadly, that election was highly manipulated by the exiting colonial masters. The truth remains that the NCNC won that election but the British authorities, rather than using the number of votes secured by the parties, surreptitiously interpreted that the winner ought to have emerged by the number seats won in the parliaments. The result went like this: NCNC2,594,S77 votes with 81 seats; AG 1,992,364 votes with 73 seats and NPC 1,922,179 votes with 134 seats. With this, the British declared NPC winner but it never still muster enough seat to form the government alone – it entered into alliance with the NCNC. Really, the Nigerian madness started on December 12, 1959!
Three, another sad memory of 12 as a date was on January 12, 1970 when General Philip Effiong led the Buiafran delegate to surrender to Nigeria as General Ojukwu had travelled to Ivory Coast on January 10 while the war finally stopped on January 15!
Four, the late football star, Sam Okwaraji died on August 12, 1989. Five, my immediate younger brother, Charles, died on July 12, 2009. Six, Iran also annulled its presidential election on June 12, 2009. Seven, Enyimba lifted the CAF Champions League for the first time for Nigeria on Friday, June 12, 2003 against Ismaili of Egypt. Eight, what I consider the greatest speech of all time – most people give it to I Have a Dream by Luther-was delivered by the late President Roland Reagan of America on June 12, 1987 at a place called Brandenburg Gate in Berlin where he directed Goberchev to Pull Down this Gate and Tear Down this Wall. Two years later, the Berlin Wall was pulled down but it took 25 years before the June 12 in Nigeria was recognised!
