Restructure Nigeria Now to Avoid Disintegration, Coalition Tells FG

• Ambode canvasses peaceful credible election
Our Correspondents
A coalition of pro-democracy groups Monday asked President Muhammadu Buhari to urgently look into various reports of previous constitutional conferences as a road map to restructure Nigeria to a true federal democratic state and avoid breakup of the country.

Also, Lagos State Governor, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode, has canvassed the need to uphold democratic principles and culture by participating in democratic processes such as voters’ registration exercise and avoiding anything that could disrupt peaceful conduct of election.

The pro-democracy groups canvassed the position at a symposium the state government organised to mark the 24th anniversary of the June 12, 1993 presidential election yesterday at the Lagos TV Complex, Agidingbi where they called for political restructuring.
The presidential election, which was peacefully conducted on June 12, 1993 and extensively adjudged to have been won by late Chief MKO Abiola, was annulled by former military President, Gen. Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida (rtd) annulled against people’s will.

But at the symposium, yesterday, such pro-democracy groups as the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO) and June 12 Coalition for Democratic Formations, among others, called on the president to embark on the process that would lead to a true federal democratic state.
The NADECO Chairman, Rear Admiral Ndubusi Kanu, said even though a thick cloud “is hanging in the horizon, the situation can still be salvaged. But that can only happen if we restructure. Restructure is no reinventing wheel. It is a return to a federation of different peoples.”

Citing the significance of June 12 in the political history of Nigeria, the acting Chairman of June 12 Coalition, Commodore Linus Okoroji, demanded that the Buhari administration should look into the reports of various constitutional conferences to restructure Nigeria.

Okoroji also demanded that the president should ensure that justice “is done to the people of Nigeria and the memories of all the martyrs of democracy who paid the supreme price by immortalising and declaring June 12 Nigeria’s true democracy day.”

Likewise, the June 12 coalition leader demanded that the acclaimed winner of the June 12, 1993 presidential election should be honoured and immortalised for his supreme sacrifice.
He demanded that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) should formally release the results of the June 12, 1993 presidential election and MKO Abiola be declared as the winner of the process and recognised as Nigeria’s posthumous president.

Ambode, who was represented by the Deputy Governor, Dr. Oluranti Adebule, also emphasised the need to immortalise MKO Abiola and all martyrs of the annulled elections for paying supreme price in the quest to actualise the popular will of the people.

 He noted that the day and the events that followed would remain evergreen in Nigeria’s political history, being a process through which Abiola and others laid down their lives in order to actualise the popular will of the people expressed through the ballot box.