By EMMANUEL OLONIRUHA

A human rights activist, Shehu Sani, says the refusal to participate in politics in 1999 remained a majority mistake some pro-democracy activists made, with adverse effect on Nigeria?s democracy till today.

Sani, a former Kaduna Central Senatorial District Senator, stated this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Sunday in Abuja.

Sani recalled that after the struggle for return to civilian rule from the military in 1999, one of the pro-democracy activists then, Bola Tinubu, opted to join politics then.

He said while Tinubu joined politics, others like Gani Fawehinmi, Femi Falana, Olisa Agbakoba, Mike Ozekhome and himself continued in the struggle and refused to participate in politics.

The activist said that the Fawehinmi school of thought believed that they should continue to fight and advocate for social justice and human rights through activism rather than joining politics.

?On the other hand, Tinubu, a pro-democracy activist, emphasised the importance of political engagement and governance through establishment of political structures.

?The mistake some of us activists made in 1999 is still affecting democracy up till today. When it was time for transition to civil rule, we refused to stop (activism).

?Then, 98 per cent of the activists followed Gani and by the time we realised that the path would not take us so long, we decided to contest elections in 2003; even Gani, Femi Falana, Olisa Agbakoba and Mike Ozekhome contested and performed woefully.

?At this time, Tinubu had already moved on from activism to being a state governor and today, he?s the president.

?We took the wrong path as activists, I must say.

?Olisa Agbakoba and Gani Fawehinmi contested for president but they could not make it. Mike Ozekhome contested for governor in Edo, he too didn?t succeed; Femi Falana too contested for governor in Ekiti, he could not make it.

?But in the case of South Africa, the African National Congress (ANC) never made the mistake made by Nigerian activists.

?ANC fought the apartheid government in South Africa; they transformed into a political party and took over power.

?Imagine if they said they would not go into transition and continue to fight, it would have been another party that would be in power and apartheid would have continued.

?A verse in the Bible says that there is time for everything. There was time for us to fight, which we did; and time for us to end the fight but we refused to end the fight,? he said.

Sani expressed the regret that the mistake made by many pro-democracy activists was still having adverse effect on Nigeria?s democracy up till today.

??By the time we realised that we needed to take over political powers, all the political space had already been dominated by people who did not fight for democracy,? he said.

The former senator said that it was unfortunate that some people, including Sule Lamido, Jerry Gana and others who shared the same ideology with Tinubu in the past, are now far apart from him.

According to him, most of the people currently working with Tinubu do not share the same ideology with him, given his background as an activist.

?The likes of Jerry Gana, Sule Lamido and others, who ought to have been with him today, are now at an inconvenient distance,? he said. (NAN)

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