By Lola Idahosa, Kaduna
President Muhammadu Buhari should offer leadership and build a groundswell of national consensus to posthumously accord acceptable ,deserved national and global Honour to the winner of the June 12th 1993 presidential election, Chief Moshood Abiola and hundreds of other victims of that era of impunity.
This call was made by Nigeria Labour Congress NLC on President Mohammadu Buhari, through Issa Aremu, the deputy president of Joe Ajaero led faction who is also the General Secretary, Textile Workers’ Union.
He told Newsdiaryonline that 22 years after, June 12 spectre repeatedly haunts Nigeria’s democratic process. “ It’s time we exorcised it. Given the free and fair election that led to his emergence in March this year, President Muhammadu Buhari is the best positioned Nigerian leader in recent times to rightly name, shame and damn the criminal annulment of the 1993 presidential election results adjudged to be the most free and fair.
“The point cannot be overstated; the distortion of Nigeria’s democratic aspiration started with the singular annulment of 1993 June 12 free and fair elections. Since the shameful events of 1993, election riggers had perfected the art of violations of peoples’ mandates through varying subterfuges that included ballot snatching, alteration of electoral rules, falsifications of election results as we witnessed in particular in 2003 and 2007 elections. The same impunity sadly snowballed to civil society and trade union organizations. Let’s close the chapter of June 12th by dignifying its victims as a matter of legitimate right not favour.
Hailing Jega, Labour again commended the outgoing INEC chairman, Professor Attahiru Jega for standing firm and truly independent in upholding the mandate of Nigerians during the 2015 presidential elections and by doing so raising high, the banner of Africa as democracy destination. “If some of his predecessors had stood firm, Nigeria’s democratic mileage would have been far more remarkable and pray that the souls of all victims of June 12 avoidable crisis rest in eternal peace” Aremu said.
