For the second time since his inauguration last year, President Bola Tinubu has made a show of the Democracy Day, and using it as a reminder to the public of his democratic credentials as an activist, protester and a man who deployed the media in setting the nation’s political agenda. The last one was even more so, as he virtually raised the dead heroes of Nigeria’s Democracy, with an uncommon outpour of encomium. It all started 31 years ago, when the fairest and freest election ever conducted in Nigeria and which was presumably won by Chief Moshood Abiola, was annulled by then military President, General Ibrahim Babangida.
It would lead to a torrent of political activities and struggles that ultimately resulted, 6 years later, to the return to civil rule. The struggle not only claimed Abiola‘s life, his wife, Kudirat, and several other political figures including General Shehu Musa Yar’Adua and Pa Alfred Rewane, among others, paid the supreme price. While many others were hunted down, the likes of Tinubu were hounded into exile, from where they intensified their advocacy and put it on the international agenda.
Fittingly, the man who paid the tributes, is one of the leaders of the struggle. There also lies the contradictions. Since his inauguration last year, many had expected that the Tinubu federal administration would be a shining light in upholding the tenets of democracy, free speech and human rights.
The expectation was based on his antecedents as a private citi.
