A TIME FOR NATIONAL HEALING
President Tinubu must help rebuild relationships torn apart largely by partisan politics
To honour the memory of the late Bashorun Moshood Kashimawo Abiola, the acclaimed winner of the annulled 1993 presidential election who died in incarceration, former President Muhammadu Buhari in 2018 proclaimed June 12 Democracy Day in Nigeria. A year later, he assented to the Public Holiday Amendment Bill which gave effect to the decision. Prior to that period Democracy Day had been marked on May 29 every year. As Nigeria therefore marks another Democracy Day today, albeit under a new dispensation, it is appropriate to reflect on the significance of the celebration.
Unarguably, our nation is bleeding from old and new injuries. At no other time has the feeling of hurt in several parts of the nation been more pronounced than now, especially given what transpired during the 2023 general election. On a day such as this, therefore, the conversation should be about national healing. But since healing is not a self-induced, spontaneous event, the ultimate responsibility now lies with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. Fortunately, he understands what the times demand. Following his election in February, Tinubu appealed to Nigerians “to rise above our differences, which, in reality, are fewer than the valued strings that bind us together as a people.”
The kind of healing that Nigeria needs today is a civic connection that transcends our delicate fault lines, especially ethnicity and religion. It also includes rebuilding our levels of trust in one another as well as in critical institutions so that we can together begin to take collective action for the common good. While healing will not erase injuries, it would afford stakeholders the ability to live with them in constructive ways.
Meanwhile, the essence of June 12 should not be lost on Nigerians. Strictly interpreted, it was more than the date of an election. On that day, as we stated in the past, Nigerians defied faith, ethnicity and nativism to speak with one undivided voice on the choice of national leadership. The appeal of the late Abiola—the man who symbolises the day—was not just in his philanthropic sweep across the nation. A Baptist school boy who happened to be a Muslim, a street kid who rose to the pinnacle of the boardroom and a multi-millionaire who found time to commune with the poor were combinations that appealed to the widest spectrum of the Nigerian electorate in that historic election.
Although the election—conducted exactly 30 years today under a guided democracy superintended by the military regime of General Ibrahim Babangida—was without any hitches, the result was annulled before it could be officially declared. But Nigerians knew the late Abiola of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) had won. The struggle that followed led to the death of many pro-democracy activists, especially under the late General Sani Abacha. His death and that of Abiola, a month apart, in 1998 ushered in the current democracy on 29th May 1999.
President Tinubu was one of the pro-democracy agitators who fought for the validation of the election at the time. He has a higher responsibility now. He must help to rebuild relationships that have been fractured by the 2023 general election. But every Nigerian also has a role to play. People who have lived together in peace for decades should not allow themselves to be torn apart by partisan politics. Without prejudice to the cases at the election petition tribunals, we enjoin those whose candidates were successful at the poll to understand that democracy is not just about winning elections, it is about service to the people. Besides, democratic civility also requires that we address the dashed expectations of those whose candidates were not successful.
We wish Nigerians happy Democracy Day!
