Abiola: Afenifere commends Buhari, says coming elections must be free, fair and credible

Sequel to President Muhammadu Buhari’s award of GCFR to late MKO Abiola and his subsequent declaration of June 12 as the nation’s democracy day, pan-Yoruba socio-political group, Afenifere, has lauded the honour while it warned against using it as a political gimmick to woo voters in the coming elections. 

The group explained that though it accepted the recognition of Abiola and June 12 by the All Progressives Congress (APC) led federal government, there is a need to test the motives and true intentions of the government with the coming elections in Ekiti, Osun and next year’s presidential elections.

Abiola was the presumed winner of the June 12, 1993 presidential elections, which was annulled by the military regime of Ibrahim Babangida.

He was later arrested by the military dictator, Sani Abacha, and incarcerated while fighting to reclaim his mandate, until his death in detention in 1998.

The spokesman for Afenifere, Yinka Odumakin in statement released shortly after the honour was announced on Wednesday said Afenifere had been on the struggle to get the government recognise the historic moment of June 12 and the sacrifice of Abiola for two decades.

He feared that the government might be trying to woo voters ahead of the coming 2019 general elections, even though the gesture was a welcome development.

“We are not unaware that we are now in the election season and every attempt will be made to woo voters with issues that are popular,” Odumakin said.

“But be that as it may, we have canvassed for the honour of Chief Moshood Abiola since the annulment of June 12 and for June 12 to be declared democracy day for over two decades now. Therefore we accept the declarations and commend them.

“If we are able to hold free and fair elections, if we allow Nigerians to elect their leaders without hindrance, if the will of voters is acknowledged, if the ballot is allowed to reign supreme in the next Nigerian elections, then this would have celebrated our true belief in the spirit of June 12 and the proper honour of Abiola, who died on principle, insisting that the rights of Nigerians and their votes must be respected.”

He said if the coming elections failed to meet these tests, then it would show that the declarations were as a mere political gimmick to hoodwink the electorate.

“They say fairness consist in giving even the devil his due. Like I said the true test of the motive and intention will come out in January, in fact right from Ekiti on July 14, we will know whether this is just a mere gimmick or a true spirit of democracy in the land. So it is not far for us to know the motive behind this,” Odumakin said.