Despite the historic attempt by President Muhammed Buhari to recognise and honour the acclaimed winner of June 12, 1993 elections, late Moshood Abiola and the subsequent declaration of that day as Democracy Day, a United States of America based human rights lawyer and activist, Emmanuel Ogebe has said that Buhari was and will never be a champion of democracy.

A statement issued by Ogebe in response to Buhari’s declaration of June 12 as Democracy Day gave several reasons to support this assertion.

According to the statement, Gen. Buhari and Ambassador Babagana Kingibe served General Abacha’s government in power while Abiola served time in prison – where he died!

“Kingibe served prominently in President Yar’Adua’s government and currently serves in General Buhari’s Government discreetly. Now Gen Buhari has announced a national honour for Abiola and of course Kingibe his run away mate.

“In the meantime, Abiola’s business empire has been decimated. His Concord newspaper gone and with it lots of jobs and livelihoods amongst but a few.

“Even in his supposed attempt at addressing a travesty on our democracy, it ends up being lopsided. How is this different from Buhari’s detention of fellow Fulani President Shagari under house arrest but the imprisonment of VP Alex Ekwueme, a southerner in maximum security prison after he overthrew them in a coup?

“Furthermore, Kingibe who has been implicated by the former head of NIA for alleged corruption and attempted theft of millions of dollars is being given a national honour by a supposed anti-corruption president Buhari.”

“Meanwhile reputable legal icon Gani Fawehinmi who rejected a national honour in his lifetime is being imposed with one posthumously by an ex-military dictator.

“If I were President and wanted to make up for June 12, I would:- recognise Abiola as president-elect and confer upon his family the entitlements, therefore – apologise to the family and Nigerian electorate for the injustice- name the Abuja stadium after him – pay reparations,” the statement said.

According to Ogebe, “It is ironic that Buhari never spoke up for these ones in their time of trouble or while they were alive. Rather he continues to hero worship Abacha their oppressor, adding, “This gesture is mere symbolism without substance” –The human rights lawyer who was arrested in the wake of the assassination of Kudirat Abiola in June 1996 said that – June 8 is also the 20th anniversary of the death of the maximum brutal dictator General Abacha.

“It is tragically befuddling that Nigeria’s worst military regime outperformed Nigeria’s current elected government in terms of development and human rights. General Abacha built the largest housing estate in Africa at the time and the current national hospital while Buhari cannot even equip his presidential clinic.

“As a political detainee of General Abacha’s, I had the opportunity to be treated at the Aso Clinic after I passed out from torture and interrogation. It was a fully functional facility 22 years ago even for prisoners compared to today when President Buhari’s own family complain of its inadequacy.

“Despite the corruption, waste, abuse and mismanagement of the Petroleum Trust Fund under Buhari then, the PTF still built roads more so than Buhari today.

“In terms of human rights, while Abacha tried and executed activists such as Ken Saro-Wiwa, killed pro-democracy protestors in Lagos, assassinated Kudirat Abiola inter alia, the sheer number of innocent citizens killed by the Buhari administration far exceeds Abacha’s terrible human rights record.

“The Shiite massacres, the IPOB massacres, the IDP camp bombing and rapes show massive human rights abuses on a petrifying scale under a so-called “democratic” dispensation.

“When you combine that with disobedience to court orders, arbitrary arrest of judges which even Abacha never did, selective prosecution of opposition, it can only be concluded that on the whole, that Buhari today not only has a worse human rights record than he did before as military dictator but indeed a worse one than General Abacha in terms of numbers,” the statement affirmed.

Also, “Given that he has not hidden the fact that General Abacha is his mentor and role model, and considering that his last public service was under that hated regime, it is abundantly clear that Buhari has no democratic credentials then or now and is a colossal mistake of 2015 which must be corrected at the earliest available opportunity.

“Buhari is a serial failure who failed as governor of Northeast Nigeria which is now Boko Haram’s hotbed; who failed as minister of Petroleum then and is failing as oil minister again now; who failed as military ruler them and is failing as civilian ruler now!

“If Buhari does not resign, he will make history as the first Nigerian ruler to be kicked out by the military and then by voters!

“As one of those who fought for and paid the price for our democracy and freedom when Buhari was feeding fat on Nigeria’s oil wealth, Nigeria as presently constituted is not the nation of our dreams. It is a pseudo-nation of our nightmares.

“The most urgent task for the restoration and preservation of human rights in Nigeria is the extrication of dictators and ex-dictators from the democratic space. I urge all human rights activists past and present to return to the trenches for a fresh pro-democracy struggle because we have been deceived by an ex-military gerontocracy parading as a democracy. Where ex-governors retire to the Senate, ex-dictators retire to the presidency,” the statement declared.

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