Afenifere Demands Official Publication of June 12 Presidential Election Results

Posted by African Examiner Featured, Latest Headlines, News Saturday, June 11th, 2016

By Ayo Balogun

LAGOS, NIGERIA (AFRICAN EXAMINER) – Afenifere Renewal Group (ARG) has called on the Federal Government (FG) to release the official result of the June 12 1993 Presidential Election, which was won by late Chief M.K.O Abiola.

In a press statement signed by its chairman, Hon. Olawale Oshun, to commemorate the 23rd anniversary of the freest and fairest poll in Nigeria, ARG said President Buhari, as the beneficiary of a ballot revolution that mostly mirrored that of 1993, owes Nigerians the duty of declassifying the result, particularly now that 23 years have elapsed and the Official Secret Act can no longer be binding on the document.

ARG, according to the statement, believes, this will “reverse the stigma occasioned by the foolish act of canceling that election, adjudged to be the most peaceful in the history of Nigeria.” It will also open up the hypocrisy of Military rule and help project democracy as a better form of governance.

“June 12 is no longer a struggle but now an obligation. The people have played their own part. It is now the obligation of the beneficiaries of that struggle to set the country on a truly democratic path by deliberately replacing every stamp of military rule on Nigeria’s nationhood, including the imposed governance structure and constitution, through democratic rights and tenets. There is no alternative way to deepen democracy in Nigeria,” the statement said.

“Let nobody be deceived. Until the Federal Government takes conscious steps to restructure Nigeria, the country will continue to wobble from one crisis of nationhood to another. To continue to ignore this necessity is a tacit support by elected officials for everything that transpired during the military era and this is why military rule has transited to ‘do or die’ politics and citizens now believed they have a right to take up arms against their country.”

“ARG therefore called on President Buhari, as a former military ruler and now a self-confessed democrat, to see himself as best poised to help Nigeria make this transition. This can be his best legacy and the starting point, we dare say, is to release the June 12 Presidential election result and its winner appropriately recognized and honoured” the statement demand.