Obaba Museum

June 12 has now officially come to mark a day of celebration in Nigeria. Nigerians celebrate June 12 as Democracy day, symbolic in marking the transfer of political power from the military to an elected civilian government in 1999. Of course it also marks the start of the longest continuous civilian rule since Nigeria got independence from colonial masters in 1960. Democracy day is a tradition that has been held annually since the year 2000 however June 12 was not always a thing.

Initially, May 29 was the official democracy day in Nigeria marking when Olusegun Obasanjo took office as the president of Nigeria in 1999 officially ending several decades of military rule in Nigeria since 1966. Of course there was a short period of democracy from 1979 to 1983, however, the apparent helplessness of the civilian government gave way for another coup. On June 6, 2018 a little bit over a week after May 29, 2018 had been celebrated as democracy day, the Federal Government of Nigeria led by President Muhammad Buhari declared June 12 as the new democracy day and he gave his inaugural speech for his second term on June 12, 2019.

You must be wondering, why June 12? On June 12, 1993 an election which is said to be Nigeria’s ‘freest’ and ‘fairest’ election took place. The election involved two parties – Social Democratic Party (SDP) represented by Moshood Kashimawo Abiola and National Republican Convention (NRC) represented by Bashir Tofa. Nigeria was practicing a two party system then. Although it was said that the election was the ‘freest’ and ‘fairest’, the military head of state, Ibrahim Babaginda annulled the election on the grounds of rigging. On June 11, 1994, Abiola declared himself as the President of Nigeria which led to his arrest on the grounds of treason, under the command of General Sani Abacha on June 23, 1994.

Abiola was detained for four years and he died on July 7, 1998, his supposed day of release. In order to celebrate a man who fought for Nigerian’s democracy, president Buhari declared June 12 as the new official day for democracy celebration, although, before then the south Western states of Nigeria had been celebrating June 12 as ‘Abiola’s Day’.