'Release results of June 12, 1993 Presidential election,' Afenifere tells Buhari

dimeji akinloye

June 11, 2016 8:22 PM

The group said releasing the result would “reverse the stigma occasioned by the foolish act of canceling that election".

Pan Yoruba socio-political group,

The group made the call on Saturday, June 11, in a statement to mark the 23rd anniversary of June 12.

In the statement, the ARG chairman, Olawale Oshun, said the President, as the beneficiary of a ballot revolution that mostly mirrored that of 1993, owed Nigerians the duty of declassifying the result, particularly now that 23 years had elapsed and the Official Secret Act could no longer be binding on the document.

The group said releasing the result would “reverse the stigma occasioned by the foolish act of canceling that election, adjudged to be the most peaceful in the history of Nigeria.”

It said releasing the result would 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 statement said.

“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.

“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.

“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 recognised and honoured,” Afenifere said.

READ: Afenifere says Buhari is still behaving like a military dictator

The group further said that if Buhari ignores the call to publish the result, it would mean an indirect support by elected officials for everything that transpired during the military era, when military rule had transited to ‘do or die’ politics.

dimeji akinloye