June 12: Ikimi, IYC, Onuesoke laud, slam Buhari on awards

SOME groups and individuals in the Niger Delta have separately lauded and slammed President Muhammadu Buhari over the posthumous awards given to Chief MKO Abiola, Babagana Kingibe, Chief Gani Fawehinmi and the recognition of June 12 as the new Democracy Day for the country.

TribuneOnline reports that President Buhari last week announced that Chief Abiola, presumed winner of the June 12, 1993, presidential election and his vice, Kingibe, as well as renown lawyer and rights activist, Chief Fawehinmi would be awarded Grand Commander of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (GCFR) and Grand Commander of the Order of the Niger (GCON) respectively.

National Coordinator of the Centre for the Vulnerable and the Underprivileged (CENTREP), Oghenejabor Ikimi, Esq, President of Ijaw Youth Council (IYC), Pereotubo Oweilaemi, Esq and a chieftain of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Sunny Onuesoke, commended the president’s courage for doing what his predecessors could not delve into.

To Ikimi, “the timing cannot be better than now. We in the civil society group have been clamouring for June 12 to be made the real Democracy Day.

“The timing is okay because there’s no time that would not have been okay for this kind of gesture. June 12 signalled the democracy we’re enjoying today.

“Abiola, Kingibe, Fawehinmi and others are symbols of democracy. You can’t take it away from them.

Although, Kingibe later betrayed Abiola, that still does not take it from him. So, they deserve the award.”

Speaking on if the awards to three of the heroes were enough, Ikimi, a rights activist, quipped: “Nobody had thought it his wildest imagination that one day, a president would confer GCFR on Abiola, but it has happened.

“The process has begun. I congratulate Buhari for the courage. He has just written the page one, page two will soon begin. Other things will follow.

Abiola will be recognised as president. Other injustices will be redressed, too. We’ve started on a good note.”

The PDP chieftain and former governorship aspirant, Chief Onuesoke, who described gesture as a welcome development, however, argued that the timing was wrong because of its suspicious political undertone ahead 2019 elections.

“Wrong in the sense that what was the president doing ever since he was sworn in as president? What was his role as a top member of the Abacha government? Did he mention it as a campaign tool to convince Nigerians of his intentions to vote for him?”

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He added that the president’s declaration could only be justified if Abiola is officially declared the winner of 1993 and as former President of Nigeria and should be entitled to all posthumous benefits accorded any ex-president.

While expressing reservation for the recognition of Kingibe, Chief Onuesoke cynically urged Buhari to also “declare the day he overthrew our legitimate government of Shehu Shagari as a Dictatorship Day, that’s when I will also appreciate him.”

President of IYC, Oweilaemi, Esq, said while the proclamation of June 12 as Democracy Day was in order as far as there are no ulterior motives, other numerous demands of Nigerians from successive governments should be attended to.

“However, IYC is also appealing to Mr President to also look into the grievances of the Niger Delta people. Our problem is the economic strangulation.

“We want to be part of governance processes in the oil sector. Let everybody control what he has in his domain.

“Give Nigerians political-cum economic autonomy. True federalism is the panacea to the myriads of problems in the country,” the IYC president worldwide noted.