Nigeria is a country where many good things enjoyed in the past have disappeared with time, so a lot of people subsist on nostalgia. They often remember the time the rail system worked, the time electricity supply was okay, the time that potable water flowed from the public tap and the time a mere pence could feed an entire family. And for those who passed through the good old universities, the story of how free eggs and milk flowed in roomy cafeterias will always be told.
On the political arena, however, many people are always eager to remember the watershed called June 12. That is the trendy term for the June 12, 1993 presidential election in which Nigerians from different parts of the country massively voted for the late business mogul and politician, Chief MKO Abiola. The candidate of the Social Democratic Party had beaten that of the National Republican Convention, Alhaji Bashir Tofa, to the extent that the late philanthropist walloped Tofa even in his backyard in Kano.
As if General Ibrahim Babangida , the then cunning military head of state, alongside other members of the regime’s cabal, was created for the sole purpose of destabilising the polity and taking the country 1,000 years back in democratic experience, he annulled the election. An Abuja court, which has variously been described as a ‘kangaroo, jankara, black market court,’ stopped the Prof. Humphrey Nwosu-led National Electoral Commission from further announcing the results, after those of 14 states had been made public.
The spread of Abiola’s victory clearly showed that Nigerians had defied ethnic and religious sentiments to elect the person they believed would bring the change they desired. For instance, when the total results were unofficially got, it was discovered that he received over eight million votes, and won in 19 states and the Federal Capital Territory. Tofa could only muster over six million votes, while he won only in 10 states.
Despite the fact that the wicked IBB regime’s action inflicted multiple tragedies on the country, many Nigerians still remember the election with nostalgia. While it will still take time to get it out of the consciousness of such people, however, the success of last Saturday’s presidential election has provided a lot of succour. Having been convinced about the credibility of the process, the electorate had reinvented the zeal, patience and orderliness that produced the June 12 watershed to produce what can now be called a turning point. The significance of last Saturday’s democratic feat – which actually started the previous week when the National Assembly elections were held – has again rekindled the hope of many Nigerians in Project Nigeria and assured them that the hand of change is stronger than the antics of wicked tyrants.
But the road to the current feats has been rough and tough. After Nwosu, for instance, Nigerians had been at the mercy of two umpires, the late Sir Abel Goubadia, and the notorious Prof. Maurice Iwu, who oversaw a very porous and fraudulent INEC. Banking on the do-or-die politics the former President Olusegun Obasanjo flaunted on many occasions, Iwu turned the idea of a free and fair election upside down, with the ruling People’s Democratic Party particularly overrunning polls like an army of occupation. It is unfair to say that other parties too did not indulge in rigging, but the misuse of federal might by the ruling party made a mess of the process.
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