Being the response of Uche Onyeagucha Esq to President Bola Tinubu’s recent Democracy Day Speech

Dear Mr. President,

I listened to your Democracy day speech. With due respect your speech fell short of my expectation.

The Nigeria that you have inherited as President is different from the Nigeria of Abiola’s June 12.

In Abiola’s June 12 Nigeria, Nigerians were not divided along religious or ethnic lines like today. Nigerians irrespective of ethnic lineage voted freely in Lagos and other states without fear of molestation and intimidation. I remember that NRC lost in the Government House polling booth Owerri not minding that the Governor in Imo, Evan Enwerem was in NRC. No voter got molested for it.

Today in Lagos your supporters kill, maim and drive away voters who they perceived as people who will vote against your party.

In the spirit of the new Democracy which you referenced, I expected you to speak against such brazen undemocratic behaviour. You didn’t. You supported them with your silence.

It was wrong of you to refer to your opponents as sour losers. Your election fell below June 12 standard. Your Election, Mr President, even fell below INECs standard. Please be humble in your victory. INEC is disappointed in their conduct of the election. The reason why INEC did not upload the results in real time as they promised was to enable them manipulate the results. Till date INEC has not completed uploading the results of the elections. I expected you like Yar’Adua to accept that all is not well with our electoral system and that you will work to improve on it in the spirit of June 12.

Just like you, I was founding member of AC, CAN and APC. We were victims of dubious elections in AC and APC.

In your speech I expected to hear a firm promise to deliver free and fair elections where no voter will be molested and which will be satisfactory to all voters. PDP to which I am now a member rigged the elections in 2003, 2007 and 2011. They could have rigged the elections of 2015 but for God and President Jonathan who felt that the life and blood of any Nigerian is not worth his victory.

APC of which you are the Leader has taken over the rigging. Deep down you know that your election was a scam despite your being declared winner.

Mr President we were in the trenches together in the June 12 struggle. We traveled to the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) sponsored World Conference on Democracy in Washington DC, 1995, to campaign and lobby against military dictatorship in Nigeria. We led marches across the globe and lobbied parliaments against Abacha. We ran Radio Kudirat International amongst other things to achieve todays Democracy.

I am disappointed that you could conclude your speech without cautioning the thug who is Speaker in Lagos House of Assembly for threatening people who voted against your party in Lagos. I assume that you support him.

Mr President, please call your boys in Lagos to order. No one will be bullied in Lagos just because you are President. No one. Nigeria belongs to all of us equally, Lagos inclusive. Nigeria Constitution supersedes whatever law they are contemplating in Lagos House of Assembly.

Your speech fell short of the expectations of our struggles for June 12, short of our struggles against Obasanjo’s third term ambition, short of our dream in AC. CAN and original APCs change.

The Nigeria whichh you inherited is too polarized along religious and ethnic lines. You will need to be a real democrat in words and action to move it forward. IBB dribbled Nigerians so much that your dribbling will not hold. Obasanjo came with so much messianic attitude that you cannot beat. We saw through Buhari’s dubious saintly attitude that we can no longer be deceived by a new saint.

Mr President, after IBB, OBJ and Buhari Nigerians have passed through enough nightmare. Your election was a nightmare. Appeal to us, don’t breath down on us. It won’t work. Your mandate is inferior to Abiolas mandate. This is 2023 not June 12. A lot has changed. Nigerians have difficulty trusting any Leader again. Our relationship with you will be simply put; e dey play, e dey show.

Finally, I urge you to release the results of the June 12, Elections as we have demanded over the years with you. Announce MKO Abiola as the winner of the election, for the records as we have demanded with you over the years. No double measures.

I make these demands on you believing same to be true and in the spirit of June 12 struggle.

•Uche Onyeagucha Esq wrote Umuagam, Obinze, Imo State.

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