Committee for the Defence of Human Rights (CDHR) has called on President Bola Tinubu to name Aso Rock Presidential Villa after the acclaimed winner of the June 12, 1993 presidential election, Chief MKO Abiola.
CDHR added that it was still waiting for the proper recognition of Abiola as a former president.
The group said it believed that there was nothing too much to give a man who sacrificed his life for the enthronement of democracy in the country.
CDHR National President, Debo Adeniran, made the appeal in a letter dated June 14, 2024 and addressed to Tinubu, a copy of which was made available to THISDAY on Sunday.
The group said it was disappointed that after the president’s speech on June 12, Abiola was not recognised as a former president. It recalled that given the importance of June 12 in the history of Nigeria, former President Muhammadu Buhari, on June 6, 2018, set the day aside as Nigeria’s Democracy Day.
CDHR stated, “Democracy Day carries huge significance for many Nigerians. It was on this date in 1993 that a general election was held for the first time since the 1983 military coup, which toppled the democratically-elected government of the late former President Shehu Shagari. Many observers have described the event as the most significant in Nigeria’s post-independence political history.
“To this end, we at the Committee for the Defence of Human Rights (CDHR) were taken aback and our hopes were dashed during and after your Democracy Day speech. This was because we expected you to declare MKO Abiola as former president of our great country.
“The immediate past president, Buhari, has surpassed you by recognising the day and making it Democracy Day to be celebrated by all and sundry in the country.
“We expected you to go a step further by recognising him as a former president and even naming June 12, M.K.O Abiola Day to be fashioned after the famous Martin Luther King Jr. Day, which is a federal holiday in the United States observed on the third Monday of January each year.”
CDHR added, “We believe there is nothing too much to give a man who sacrificed his life for the enthronement of democracy in the country, hence, it will be more gratifying if the Aso Rock President Villa is named after him.
“We have always known you to be part and parcel of the struggle for democracy in which MKO Abiola sacrificed his life, hence, we looked up to you to complete the process of honouring Abiola by declaring him the winner of the June 12 election. This would also go a long way in healing the wounds inflicted on the people by all that happened due to the annulment of that election and the subsequent demise of Abiola and all other patriots who lost their lives during that time.
“Your Excellency, although today we are all basking in the euphoria of a peaceful transfer of power from successive democratically-elected governments, it is not yet Uhuru. Your administration and, indeed, all Nigerians must ensure that the failed promises of June 12, such as abrogation of poverty, equity, and justice, which the enemies of democracy who ganged up and criminally annulled the elections, did not allow to materialise, are actualised under your administration.
“Economic prosperity, security, goodwill and a sense of unity that are some of the hallmarks of the June 12 struggles should be seen as the building blocks of a true and enduring democracy, which you are spearheading.”
Adedayo Akinwale
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