JUNE 12TH AS DEMOCRACY DAY IS NEEDLESS; ITS A SQUARE PEG IN A ROUND HOLE : OLOGBENLA ADEDOYIN

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It is needless...

In my own opinion, the declaration of June 12 as the new democracy day in Nigeria is needless.

It only opens the door for further future changing of the date, in the sense that any other elected president can decide to wake up one day and pick another date that marks another touching event in history as pertaining to elections to commemorate democracy.
 We can't keep tampering with history to score some political points.

AM I AWARE THAT JUNE 12 1993 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION WAS ADJUDGED TO BE THE NIGERIA'S FREEST AND FAIREST PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION BY NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL OBSERVERS AND IT WAS SUPPOSED TO USHER IN CHIEF  MOSHOOD KASHIMAWO OLAWALE ABIOLA WHO HAD AN OVERWHELMING VICTORY?

Yes. VERY WELL. I'm aware and I agree that Late Chief M.K.O ABIOLA was no doubt a symbol of democracy considering how he was able to secure a support that cut across geopolitical zones and religious divisions and later emerge as the winner of the presidential election.

He achieved this unprecedented feat despite the fact that he was new to partisan politics at that time he contested under the umbrella of the Social Democratic Party (SDP).

However, the election was annulled unfortunately and unjustifiably by the then military "president"  Ibrahim Babangida who in fact was a supposed friend to the late Chief MKO.

Therefore,  I have issues with why Nigeria will come back to pick a date that marked such an injustice to democracy and commemorate it as democracy day...

Are we saying we admire such injustice? If we want to honor the dead, let's do it honorably and declare June 12 as the CHIEF MKO ABIOLA DAY, just as we have Martin Luther King day in America.

MY CASE FOR MAY 29...
The democracy day strictly so called is a public holiday to commemorate the restoration of democracy in the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

May 29 was intially chosen as the official date on the calendar to mark democracy because it was that day that General Abdulsalami Abubakar handed over to Olusegun Obasanjo as the president of a newly democratically elected government.

May 29, 1999 stood significantly as the day multiple decades of military rule ended to welcome a democratically elected president.

Prior to May 29,1999, Nigeria had experienced military take over since 1966 (expect for a short democratic break between 1979 and 1983)...
Change in government was characterized by bloody coups, deceitful schemes, massacre of political leaders and all forms of inhuman and degrading treatment.

On May 29 1999, Nigeria seems to have made a resolute decision to recognize election as the only means of change of government.
Whether or not we resolved to actually ensure that subsequent elections will be truly democratic, free and fair, bloodless and all is a different topic.

However, I feel as a nation we finally determined that no more are we going to have a press broadcast of a military man with a thick voice declaring to us that "...the constitution is hereby suspended and all elected assemblies are hereby dissolved".

Abiola's election is still a tragedy, a massacre of the people's will. His Hope 1993 political manifesto never manifested because he was not given the mandate. He promised "Farewell to poverty", amongst other things... One of his slogans during the campaign was "At last! Our rays of Hope", but at the end it was a sorry case of  "Alas! Our ray of hope as a nation and as a people had been blocked"

How can that date in history truly commemorate democracy?

Anyway, I want to sincerely thank the Federal government of Nigeria, through the orchestration of president Muhammed Buhari's declaration, for giving me a day off tedious lectures and school activities. I've been on my bed reading and falling back asleep.
The Late Chief Mko's bones will smile in the grave for the posthumous presidential recognition conferred on him as the GCFR on June 6, 2018...

The wickedness of men delayed his destiny to be president while he was alive, but I think his destiny to be President cannot be stopped anyway.

Congratulations to his Families.

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