Nasiru Yusuf

A second republic parliamentarian Junaidu Muhammad has faulted President Muhammad Buhari’s declaration of June 12 as a Democracy day in Nigeria.

Mr Muhammad who represented Kano municipal federal constituency in the House of Representatives during the second republic said this in an exclusive interview with Kano Focus.

According to him both May 29 declared by former President Olusegun Obasanjo and Buhari’s June 12 are irrelevant to the attainment of democracy in Nigeria.

“The declaration of June 12 as Democracy day is entirely irrelevant. “The crux of  issue is that, the former president (Obasanjo) came and celebrated his own coming to power, and declared it as democracy day.

“Now another President (Buhari) under pressure has now decided to change it to another day.

“Both exercises are irrelevant because they are irrelevant to the attainment of democracy in Nigeria.

“Nigeria was democracy before both Obasanjo and Buhari became president.

“And both of them were involved in truncating our democracy. “Buhari was part of the group who came to power under Murtala, he was the governor of Northeast, later minister of petroleum and chairman of NNPC.

“Obasanjo was also part of that group who came to power in 1975 under Murtala.

“Later both of them got involved in politics, and as a result both became presidents,” he said.

Why not 1^st October?

The politician argued that October 1st would have been the best day for celebrating democracy in Nigeria, as it was the day the country got its independence from the British government.

This according to him is more legitimate, as it is not the choice of military or any government in power, but democratically elected representatives.

“But the idea that June 12 is the actual date of election is neither here nor there.

“Because we are talking of June 12 of 1990s, we got independence in 1960.

“That was over thirty years ago when we had a strong measure of democratic governance.

This cannot be denied. It is historically verifiable,” Mr Junaidu said.

June 12 is a fraud

On the candidature of late MKO Abiola and Bashir Tofa in June 12 election, Mr Muhammad described them as military protégés who were installed to enable soldiers continue exercising power from the  background after they step aside.

He argued that, the military plan failed, because the election was massively rigged and their favored candidate performed poorly, hence, they annulled the election.

On the proponents of June 12 election agitation, Dr Muhammad said  no responsible person will beat his chest and claim to have won the election due to his hard work and political strategy.

He noted that, it is a fruitless effort and a waste of time to engage in counter argument on the validity or otherwise of June 12 election.

“The idea that some group of educated elites like NADECO or whatever they call themselves decided to now claim ownership, and promoted NADECO agitation into some kind of massive political stardom is mischievous and misguided.

“Because once you look at the result of the election, the people who actually delivered the alleged winner of  the June 12 election were not the people of Southern Nigeria.

“It is the people from other parts of the country who voted him and enabled him to be claimed as the winner of the election.

“As far as I am concerned only a bloody fool will say oh, we won the election or even celebrate the outcome of the election as a result of their hard work or their agitation or their political maneuvering. “And those who want reply them are also equally wasting their time because the outcome of June 12 annulled election does not in any way confer any legitimacy to any  politician or political party now in existence or those who tried to step aside.” Mr. Junaidu said.