As Nigeria prepares to formally mark June 12 as the Democracy Day, President Muhammadu Buhari yesterday assented to a bill nullifying May 29 previously set aside as a public holiday for the celebration.
The Senior Special Assistant on National Assembly Matters (Senate), Senator Ita Enang, told State House correspondents immediately after the signing that Buhari assented to the Public Holiday Amendment Bill to confer official recognition for June 12 as the Democracy Day.
“May 29th will only be handover date and working day. By the Act amended and signed by Mr. President, May 29 is no more a public holiday. June 12 is now a public holiday and the country’s Democracy Day,” he said.
Meanwhile, pressure is mounting on the Federal Government to go the whole hog in honouring the late Chief Moshood Abiola as the winner of the annulled June 12, 1993 presidential election.
Regional groups and prominent stakeholders in the nation’s political space said the late Abiola should be declared president posthumously and all privileges awarded accordingly.
The officials of the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO) led by their chairman, Rear Admiral Ndubuisi Kanu (rtd), National Publicity Secretary of the Yoruba socio-cultural organisation, Afenifere, Mr. Yinka Odumakin and former President of the Aka Ikenga, Chief Goddy Uwazurike, asked the Federal Government to go beyond the celebration of June 12 as the Democracy Day and public holiday. They want the late Abiola to be officially declared the winner of the historic election adjudged to be the country’s fairest since independence.
The election was annulled by the then military president, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida (rtd), who later admitted that he was under pressure from unnamed forces in the hierarchy of military leadership to do so.
Source: Guardian Newspaper
