“A candid assessment shows that this day is more a pseudo-democracy day or a ‘demockery’ day.
Gen. Buhari who was unprincipled enough to serve in the government that jailed late President-Elect Moshood Abiola until his death basically ate from his stolen electoral mandate – again.
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Worse still he appointed Prof Gambari who was the international arrowhead of opposition to the realization of June 12 elections and the restoration of democracy as Chief of Staff.
Ambassador Kingibe who betrayed June 12 has continued to wax strong in this administration with one appointment after another.
In effect, the bad actors and enemies of June 12 have been fully rehabilitated and feasting on the torso of our dying democracy while the true heroes and advocates of our democracy languish.
Abiola was Southern Nigeria’s “Dangote“ but rather than owning the government through the back door, he had the decency to humbly and properly seek government through a popular vote for which he paid dearly with his business empire, his wife, and his life.
This is why some of us spoke out against this grave injustice at great personal cost and loss including imprisonment and exile abroad only to see pretenders celebrating what they fought against.
In 1997, I was in the vanguard of activists who successfully advocated for the renaming of the street outside the Nigerian mission to the UN after late Kudirat Abiola while we were harassed by Gambari, Marwa, and others still in government.
Myself, Cordelia Kokori, Hafsat Abiola, late Anebi Adoga, Muyiwa Ige, Jumoke Ogunkeyede amongst others were very active in New York, Washington, and across the US. Prof Soyinka and late Pa Enahoro, Mayor Dinkins, and Ambassador Carrington used to come and bolster us as Titans along with Fayemi from the UK.
I call on the Nigerian government to officially accept the renaming of the street outside Nigeria House New York which it has refused to acknowledge for 24 years as the “Kudirat Abiola” corner.
Chief of Staff Prof Gambari who personally fought it, should see to the recognition of this national heroine of democracy by ensuring all stationary of Nigeria’s permanent mission to the UN and consulate includes the name “Kudirat Abiola corner” in the address and a befitting painting, bust or other images of Kudirat should be placed at Nigeria House New York.
Finally, I wish to note with sadness that Gen. Buhari’s recent interview has confirmed what we already knew – that he has more loyalty to the nation of Niger than Nigeria which brought him up.
With the $2 billion rails to Niger, it is obvious Buhari has perfected his Plan B while his wife has already executed her Plan B to Dubai even before Pastor Adefarasin wisely counseled Nigerians to make an alternative plan. The president did not hide the fact that their sights are on the oil in Niger which of course frees them from dependence on oil from the Niger Delta. Niger is the north’s new much-sought “oil Delta.“
I wish to dedicate this June 12 to the late Yinka Odumakin and my fellow pro-democracy activists of that era who do not yet see the Nigeria of our dreams.
During one of his visits to the US, he expressed to me his disappointment in President Jonathan concluding, “he is not it.”
Yinka later championed Buhari’s candidacy and ultimately when he found him a fraud had the personal integrity to admit that Buhari was certainly “not it!”
As we used to sing on the streets of New York, “I know it well, I do believe, we shall overcome someday.”