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MKO Abiola: Mixed feelings trail Buhari’s June 12 declaration
The declaration of June 12 as Nigeria’s Democracy Day and a posthumous award of GCFR, Nigeria’s highest honour, for the presumed winner of the June 12, 1993 presidential election, Chief Moshood Abiola on Wednesday by President Muhmmadu Buhari was received with mixed-feelings by Nigerians.
While some commended President Muhammadu Buhari for the development, others believe there is an underlying motive.
To the opposition party, the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP), the recognition of June 12 as Nigeria’s Democracy Day smacks of hypocrisy and political desperation ahead of 2019 presidential election.
According to the party’s spokesman, Kola Ologbondiyan, President Buhari’s action merely sought to use the name and person of Chief Abiola to gain a political capital and not out of genuine reverence and recognition for him.
A former Chief Judge of Nigeria, Alfa Belgore in his own reaction described as illegal the conferment of Nigeria’s highest national honour on MKO Abiola.
The retired judge said the national honours cannot be awarded posthumously, “much less the GCFR”, which is the highest honour in the land.
Belgore, chairman of the 2016 national honours committee, was also quoted to have said he was not consulted by the Buhari administration before the decision was taken.
He said under the 1963 National Honours Act, only soldiers or other servicemen could be awarded posthumous medals for their bravery.
For Femi Falana, a senior advocate of Nigeria (SAN), by declaring June 12 Democracy Day, President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration has put an end to the “hypocrisy” of ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo.
In a statement, Falana said declaring June 12 as Democracy Day “validated the integrity of the fair and free election that was criminally annulled by the Ibrahim Babangida junta”.
According to him, President Muhammadu Buhari made history today by conferring the post humous national award of Grand Commander of the Federal Republic (GCFR) on Chief M. K. O. Abiola, the acclaimed of the June 12, 1993 presidential election for his huge contribution to the restoration of democratic rule in Nigeria.
Also reacting to the news, one of the children of the late politician, Hafsat Abiola-Costello, daughter of MKO Abiola, said the declaration has proven that integrity, fairness and honour are still alive.
Abiola-Costello said she had waited in vain for many years and had stopped hoping that her father will be honoured by the country.
The president of Kudirat Initiative for Democracy (KIND) said: “I had expected that the handover from military rule to democracy would be held on the 12th of June. That would have signalled the completion of a circle that began with a dream deferred.
