*The Democracy Day Story*
*The Democracy Day Story*
Chief M.K.O Abiola was the presidential flag bearer for the Social Democratic Party in 1993 when he contested for become the president in an election which is said to be the best election in Nigeria and adjudged to be free and fair in all parts of the country.
Chairman of the National Electoral Body (NEC) had decided to use what he called "Option A4' wherein people who wanted to vote for a particular party will queue up in a single line and then counted by everyone and the process recorded on video camera. This open balloting system removed every option of vote padding in all the polling units.
Unfortunately, the then Military president as he was then called - General Ibrahim Babangida annulled the election. This led to series of events that eventually made the entire cou try ungovernable again. A civil war was imminent and in order to avoid the war, he immediately constituted an emergency transitional government and handed over power to Ernest Shonekan who was then a civilian and vacated power.
Chief M.K.O Abiola was later arrested based on trumped up treason charges and throqn into where he stayed till 7th July 1998 when he was assassinated.
From 1993, 12th June became the rallying day to remember the fight for democracy. much later, President Goodluck Jonathan declared 12th June democracy day in Nigeria.
However the question 99.1% of Nigerians beg to answer is" Have we actually achieved anything worth celebrating in Nigeria?" How has our democracy day fared?
22th Jun3 should be a day for sober reflection on our Democratic journey so far.
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