JUNE 12 1993
June 12, 1993, marks a watershed moment in the history of Nigeria. It is one of the many viable reasons history ought to be made a compulsory subject for every student in Nigerian schools, right from primary up to secondary school.
It is the kind of stuff Nigerians in the next fifty years would consider to only be possible in the world of fiction. It is a cataclysm of event that I hope to one day see made into TV Series kinda biopic. Nigerians of all spheres of life, putting aside differences in ethnicity and religion which had been major divisive issues since before the independence of the country, drummed up support for both a Muslim president and vice president. Any political analyst, student or even newbie in Nigeria knows how impossible that is right now.
Not to begin teaching a lesson on History here, but it is safe to say that June 12, 1993, goes beyond the enigma that is M.K.O Abiola. It was the day Nigeria got to its post-civil war peak and crashed. It was the day the divisiveness of tribe and religion was defeated and reestablished on a stronger foundation. It was the day the vices that every “Coupist” in the history of Nigeria condemns when he stepped to the microphone to give his first nationwide broadcast was re-entrenched into the nerve and marrow of Nigeria.
After reading and hearing various accounts from different lead characters of that day, it is quite right to conclude that injustice was meted out to not just M.K.O Abiola, but Nigeria as a whole. Worse still, mechanisms to ensure history never repeats itself have still not been put in place. Sixteen years into our democracy and a sitting president loses his bid for reelection and the whole nation had to sit on edges to see if “it” will happen again, we are less than two years away from the next election and there is no guarantee that it will be free, credible or accepted by not just the president and his opponents, but also by every group in Nigeria.
Lessons from this debacle, we need great institutions, not great men (M.K.O Abiola, Ibrahim Babangida, Prof. Humphrey Nwosu) but then great men build great institutions.
Wilson Joshua is a Video Editor, Content Creator and Creative Writer.
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