President Muhammadu Buhari has announced June 12 as the new date for Democracy Day in Nigeria, proposing to confer a posthumous GCFR title on the late Chief Moshood Abiola.
Late Abiola won the June 12, 1993 election which former President Ibrahim Babangida annulled.
The President in a tweet on his official handle explained why June 12 will replace May 29.
He noted that June 12 is a more symbolic day.
According to him, June 12 is more symbolic than May 29 or October as Democracy Day.
“Dear Nigerians, I am delighted to announce that, after due consultations, the Federal Government has decided that henceforth, June 12 will be celebrated as Democracy Day.
“We have also decided to award posthumously the highest Honour in the land, GCFR, to the late Chief MKO Abiola.
“In the view of Nigerians, as shared by this administration, June 12, 1993, was and is far more symbolic of Democracy in the Nigerian context than May 29, or even October 1,” his tweet read.
Reacting to the development, one-time Executive Secretary of the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) and an arrowhead of the June 12 movement, Chief Frank Kokori, described the formalization of the date as the National Democracy Day as the triumph of truth over injustice.
Chief Kokori, now a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), said the news of the proclamation by President Muhammadu Buhari and the posthumous honours conferred of the icon of the struggle, the late Chief Moshood Abiola, makes him the happiest living man.
Kokori, who reflected on the harsh conditions that all those involved in the struggle had to put up with, however said the decision by President Buhari to take the bold decision, though he was the least person such an action was expected from, would embolden Nigerians to engage in more patriotic actions.
“First of all I thank God for everything, I thank God that today the country has finally come to end that big controversy about June 12 and May 29. I thank the president for doing that, at least, at this time.
He was the least person I actually expected to do this because we had expected that during the 8 years of President Obasanjo, with the pressure at that time, with Gani Faweyinmi still alive, with people like us still active, we thought he would declare that day the democracy day and make it a public holiday.
“I am the happiest man in this country today because I now realize that the struggle we made, especially my union; NUPENG and PENGASSAN, was not in vain and most of us who suffered terrible deprivation at that time. I am happy to be alive this day. They even said it is above October 1 because that was the day that we really fought for freedom and I have always said it everywhere. I am one of the happiest people on earth today and I appreciate this government because it is this government to come to realize the importance of that day.
“Before it used to be only Lagos and some Yoruba state that were recognizing it, but now it is a national holiday. What a good news for me and those of us who are still alive, who fought in that struggle in the civil society and labour. I give a special tribute to my union; NUPENG and PENGASSAN. We suffered deprivation, just as people must suffer deprivation in struggle and some will pay the supreme sacrifice.
“This is to say that no matter how long injustice lasts, at the end of the day goodness and truth will triumph. That is what has happened to us today. The significance for Nigerians is that it tells us that when you struggle for your country, such struggles are never in vain. Many have mocked us that we have been forgotten, they say those who never struggled for democracy are the ones enjoying our democracy today.
“Today we have been recognized and though I’m no more in the union, I will want NUPENG to get involved in this from now on; all June 12, NUPENG can come out and flaunt their muscles that they were the heroes and the arrowhead of that struggle,” he said.