Nigeria is a country without regards for her heroes and this explains why politicians now prefer to thief public money and live large rather than make sacrifices for the advancement and development of the country.
Echoes of the June 12, 1993, presidential election reverberated at the National Conference on Thursday when a motion seeking national recognition for the presumed winner of the poll, the late Chief Moshood Abiola, was moved at the confab. The motion, which was moved by Orok Duke, saw the delegates divided along regional lines as those from the southern Nigeria favoured the motion while those from the North rejected it.
Those who were opposed to the motion, led by a representative of the civil society, Mallam Nasir Kura, were shouting “no!, no!”
The anti-June 12 delegates, which included Umaru Mohammed Hadejia, representing Jigawa State, continued their opposition to the motion, but Duke refused to be intimidated.
The reaction led to a rowdy session, which attracted the attention of security men outside the plenary.
The mover of the motion, Duke, said that apart from Abiola, others that died as a result of the annulment of the election deserved to be honoured. He specifically asked for the permission of the plenary to pay tributes to all those who died, including Abiola, who he described as the one who spearheaded Nigeria’s democracy.
Duke added that the conference should cause the authorities to always remember “June 12 as a watershed in the history of Nigeria. I suggest that a monument in tandem with what the conference had proposed for other heroes and heroines should be recommended in honour of MKO Abiola.”
According to Punch, his motion did not go down well with some delegates as they continued with the shouts of no, no! But for the quick intervention of the Chairman of the conference, Justice Idris Kutigi, the disagreement might have probably led to a free-for-all among the delegates.
Duke argued that the country could not afford to carry on as if June 12 never existed, and further stressed that many Nigerians died on that day.
“June 12 is a preamble as to why we are here today, it is for the continuation of an unfinished business of 1993 that we are here. Moshood Abiola paid that ultimate sacrifice and it is not something we can wish away and assume that it never happened to us.
“I was an active participant, and some of the delegates here were victims of June 12. If we forget history it will repeat itself as a tragedy. Those who fell for the sake of June 12 should be remembered today.”
Duke’s motion was supported by Chief Ayo Adebanjo, who said he was disappointed by the opposition.
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