Those fears lingered as 1999 became 2000 and 2003 morphed into 2004. 

By the time Obasanjo was leaving office in 2007 after serving his constitutionally permissible two terms of eight years in office, with Umaru Yar’adua being propped as his successor, there was a palpable sense of relief across the land.

Finally, it did look like the soldiers had been confined to the barracks where they truly belong. And just as well. 

It’s now 21 years since Abdulsalami Abubakar broke the chain of military deception by conducting an election that actually handed over power to the winner. 

Before him, Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida (IBB) kept dribbling everyone and himself by shifting the transition calendar like one would shift the goalpost in the middle of a football game. 

When IBB finally annulled the June 12, 1993 election won by Chief MKO Abiola, he set the nation back several years and set himself up for a fall. 

The undercurrents and unrest caused by the annulment swept IBB aside and unleashed the dark-goggled and unsmiling General Sani Abacha on the nation. The rest, as they say, is history.

President Muhammadu Buhari’s declaration of June 12 as Nigeria’s Democracy Day, instead of May 29, was the right thing to do. Abiola may not have lived to become president, but the lessons of that freest and fairest of elections should hopefully propel this nation to where it ought to be soon enough. 

So far, in 21 years of unbroken democratic experience in Nigeria--our elections are still massively rigged, the dividends of democracy remain a pipe dream for millions of households, corruption is rife and endemic, terrorists continue to kill and displace millions, electricity remains as erratic as ever, our schools are falling apart, our hospitals remain mere consulting clinics, our roads are still pothole-ridden and unmotorable and Nigeria is now the poverty capital of the world. 

But nationhood is a journey; a very painful, arduous one sometimes. Maybe, as we get better at this democracy thing and as the old guard dies and paves way for the new, this nation will be able to fix its crumbling infrastructure and guarantee a modicum of decent living for the mass of the people. Just maybe.

For now, let’s celebrate our 21 years of unbroken democracy in peace and clink glasses while we still can. There’s still a long way to go no doubt, but there’s a sense that this democracy, no matter how flawed, is here to stay. It can be worked upon, it can be tweaked for better results. But it’s here. And that’s pretty reassuring for the moment.  

Happy Democracy Day, Nigeria!

---

Pulse Editorial is the opinion of the editorial team of Pulse. It does not represent the opinion of the organization Pulse.'