Tinubu and the spirit of June 12, By Reuben Abati 

On June 12, 1993, Nigeria had a general, presidential election that spoke to the potentials of a united country. The ticket: Abiola-Kingibe was Muslim-Muslim, and yet Nigerians voted freely.  It was peaceful, well organised, and the voter turn-out was impressive. On that day, I even trekked from Alakuko, a border town between Ogun and Lagos states to Alhaji DA Babalola’s house in Ogba, Lagos State and I trekked all the way back. I didn’t feel anything. Nigerians wanted change. The military had brutalised us so much, we wanted them out of the way. It was a vote for change and democracy. It was a vote against the people who did not want the June 12 presidential election and their stomach-driven supporters in civil society, including traditional rulers who collected MKO Abiola’s money and goodwill and betrayed him. The entire county was in a mood of euphoria. But Babangida and his cohorts ruined everything. 

They annulled the election and imposed, in due course, an Interim National Government (ING), a kangaroo, fidihe, one lap on the seat, one lap out, precariously seated contraption that never survived. The contraption was led by Chief Ernest Adegunle Shonekan, who had made his name as a United African Company (UAC) chieftain, in those days when UAC was UAC. In less than 100 days, on 17 November, 1993 to be precise, the ING was sent adrift by General Sani Abacha, who imposed himself on the Nigerian people as head of state. Abacha was cunning, devilish, dictatorial. His widow, Maryam Abacha, says something otherwise. No. She is wrong. She is not in a position to speak against her husband. She does not even know what she is talking about! Abacha not only stole this country blind, he inflicted such hurt (1993–1998) that will remain hurting, painful and discomforting for generations to come. When he died unceremoniously, suddenly and ignominiously, on 8 June, 1998, there was dancing in the streets! He was in the class of General Idi Amin Dada of Uganda (1971–1979), Hastings Kamuzu Banda of Malawi (1966–1994), Siad Barre of Somalia (1969 -1991), Omar al-Bashir of Sudan (1993–2012), Mobutu Sese Seko of the Democratic Republic of Congo (1965–1997), and Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe (1987-2013). These were African leaders who died and their people rejoiced: a lesson in Africa’s democratic process, sit-tightism, and the link between leaders and their people. 

But African leaders don’t ever learn, they are just tone-deaf, and completely incapable of learning, as we see in Cameroon where President Paul Biya is determined to expire in office (since 1975, he is still there!); in Equatorial Guinea where Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mbasogo thinks that without him (since 1979), there would be no country; in Rwanda, where Paul Kagame (president since 2000) imagines himself to be a modern day messiah; and in Togo, where Faure Gnassingbe seems to think he has a divine, hereditary claim to power (being president since 2005 after his father’s death and with no plan to vacate office). General Sani Abacha wanted to be like these characters, having blackmailed and schemed his way into office. He stole Nigeria blind and left a legacy as the ancestor that is always giving, as successive Nigerian governments trail his loots and keep repatriating percentages of this from Switzerland, Island of New Jersey, the UK, and United States. His widow says her husband was keeping the loot for Nigeria, for the people’s benefit. Even the dumbest man on the street knows that Nigeria has a Central Bank. It’s money could not be kept in its bank, Abacha had to go and hide our money elsewhere in safe havens that remained unknown to the Nigerian government and the people, and the records were known only to his own agents and family members. And now Mrs Abacha moans! Madam, please! Please!! And, please!!!. 

However, we were talking about how President Tinubu has tried to address part of the mess that General Abacha created, and how well he has reinvented the story beyond General Buhari and for which we commend him. On June 12 this year, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu decided to avoid the pomp and pageantry of old, and used the occasion to speak from the National Assembly, which had organised a joint sitting to mark the occasion. Baba Seyi, Oko Mummy Remi spoke with flair and confidence. He read the teleprompter very well. His swag was in place. He was well dressed. Lagos City Boy did not disappoint. Very good optics. But the more important part was that Tinubu’s speech was devoted to the remembrance of June 12 heroes, the men and women who paid the ultimate sacrifice for Nigeria’s democracy. He was a member of that struggle. In his early days, before he became governor, and made money, he was out there at the barricades, with the persons who resisted Abacha and the military junta. He joined others to shout: “Never Again To military rule.” The Bola Tinubu that many first knew was the anti-military, pro-democracy protester, who moved from the comfort of the oil and gas sector to fight for the ordinary Nigerian on the streets of Lagos and London. He was in exile. He returned and he joined the struggle as a politician. It has taken him more than two decades to remain in the struggle and find his way to the very top as Nigeria’s president. 

On June 12, he remembered. He remembered his own past. He remembered his own comrades. He chose to honour them. It was not in any way an exhaustive list, and there have been complaints. Aare Dele Momodu, who played a frontline role in Radio Kudirat, says he would have been embarrassed if his name was added to the list. He was Saliu Elenu Gboro Eni Olorun O pa of Radio Kudirat. Omoyele Sowore, the activist, says if they had mentioned his name, he would have rejected the award. But give him his flowers, Sowore was at the centre of the June 12 struggle, fighting on behalf of the ordinary Nigerian. I did not see Olisa Agbakoba’s name – terrible omission. I did not see Babafemi Ojudu’s name. Why? Kayode Fayemi also deserves recognition. He was at the centre of the Radio Kudirat operation in London: he has told the story himself in a book titled, Out of the Shadows: Exile and The Struggle for Freedom and Democracy in Nigeria (CDD, Bookcraft: 2005, 436 pp.). Fayemi holds the national honour, CON for his work as a two-time governor in Ekiti State and as a federal minister. He should have been included in that list and promoted to the CFR rank. Dapo Olorunyomi too. When Abacha’s goons came for Olorunyomi in June 1995, and they could not find him, they arrested his wife and one-week old baby! That child must be fully grown now, born at the time into Abacha’s land of agony. Dapo fled. They detained his wife for 68 days! There were also careless oversights. Professor Bolaji Akinyemi got a CFR in 2011. In 2025, they gave him another CFR. He deserves the award but he also deserves promotion, instead of being turned into a Yoruba version of Jay Jay Okocha, the legendary footballer, whose parents were so happy at his birth they named him twice! The organisers were so sloppy, they declared two of the recipients dead: Dr Edwin Madunagu, and Pa Reuben Fasoranti, but the two distinguished citizens are still alive and well. The Nigerian government has no right to declare them dead officially, even if Mr Bayo Onanuga has apologised accordingly. Don’t they keep records in the Federal Government? What happened to the digitalisation that was done and perfected under the Jonathan administration? Is this a case of lazy civil servants or incompetent political appointees who make their boss look bad because they are not paying enough attention to details?

The matter is worse. Emeka Ugwu-Oju, friend and activist, member of NADECO, in a statement dated June 12, 2025, has done an even more comprehensive job of listing all the important names that should have been on President Tinubu’s list. In his list of names that President Tinubu should not have overlooked, he mentioned late Pa Michael Adekunle Ajasin, late Chief Anthony Enahoro, late Senator Abraham Adesanya, Rear Admiral Ndubuisi Kanu, Senator Cornelius Adebayo, Professor Pat Utomi, Bobo Nwosisi, Ralph Obioha, Bagauda Kaltho, Reverend Tunji Adebiyi, Pa Ayo Adebanjo, Frank Kokori, Chief Olanihun Ajayi, Chief Ayo Opadokun, Senator Kofo Bucknor-Akerele, Dr Usman Bugaje, Chief Benson Lulu Briggs, Colonel Dangiwa Umar (rtd), Guy Ikokwu, Arthur Nwankwo, etc. Thank you, Emeka. But it seems to me that we should give some credit to President Bola Tinubu for even making the effort. Memory is one of the biggest problems we have had to deal with in this country. Nigerians are so present-minded, they toy routinely with history. Everyone likes to talk, and we all write history from our own side of the coin, but unfortunately those who get a chance to talk are so ignorant, and privileged. President Tinubu has a chance to correct whatever mistakes that may have been made. Those who may have been overlooked in the June 12 Honours List can be added to another list this year. No one can take away from Tinubu his bold, wise, and strategic decision to go back to June 12 and remind Nigerians of that significant moment in our lives, and particularly, the heroism of Chief MKO Abiola. Since his ascension to the Nigerian throne in 2023, he has been hands-on and visible, providing us with a different breath of fresh air, whatever the problems may be. 

However, he needs to be reminded that the spirt of June 12 and the symbolism of MKO Abiola that he celebrates is all about “farewell to poverty”. This was MKO Abiola’s mantra. He wanted to re-organise Nigeria in such a way that Nigerians would not sleep and wake up poor and they could enjoy the dignity of the human person. It is well, right and proper that MKO Abiola preached the gospel of prosperity and welfare for all Nigerians. The best possible way to keep that dream alive and active, is for President Tinubu, a proclaimed progressive, to live up to that ideal. The standard test among Nigerians, as it was in traditional societies, is to measure a king’s tenure by the scope of prosperity among the people, certainly not the elite, during his reign. Tinubu must be reminded that no matter how long this lasts, the people will remember, and they will talk and busybodies like me will report what they saw in a fair and balanced manner. President Tinubu has only one primary assignment: to make Nigeria a better place than he met it. 

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Professor Wole Soyinka extended that list of demands, when after the June 12 celebrations, the Nobel Laureate asked that President Tinubu must do something about the conflict in the Benue, and the unresolved killings of Dele Giwa (19 October, 1986), and Bola Ige (23 December, 2003). Soyinka means well. Tinubu should listen to him. Nigeria has a long list of unresolved murders. Nobody should die because they are Nigerian or just because they are from Benue or Odupani or Umukwata. Every one living within this territory called Nigeria deserves to live, and enjoy basic rights under the laws of the land. Other unresolved murders would include the killing of Toyin Onagoruwa, Marshall Harry, Funsho Williams, Alhaja Suliat Adedeji, Iyalode Bisoye Tejuosho, Aminoasari Dikibo, Alfred Rewane, Bagauda Kaltho… In the Abacha days, many died. Others disappeared. In the spirit of June 12, President Tinubu has the time and the opportunity to re-open many of these cases. He only needs to muster the will. Far away at the Vatican, Pope Leo XIV spoke about, “security, peace and justice in Nigeria.” He spoke the truth – that is exactly what we need in this country, not just in Benue-Plateau, but in every part of Nigeria. 

Reuben Abati, a former presidential spokesperson, writes from Lagos.