AS reactions trail the 2025 national honour President Bola Tinubu bestowed on some personalities to mark Democracy Day, indications are that the names of more persons who were involved in the June 12 struggle are being compiled for such recognition.
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A former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Alhaji Sule Lamido, has expressed reservations on certain persons that made the 2025 national honour President Bola Tinubu bestowed on some personalities to mark the June 12 anniversary on Democracy Day.
Recall that Lamido was a couple of leaders of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) that were appointed as ministers in the heat of the June 12 annulment protest in the country.
He was the national secretary of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) whose candidate won the election described as the most incredible and freest in the history of Nigeria.
Reacting to the names of those conferred with the national award by the president for their role in the June 12 struggle that culminated in civil rule 26 years ago, Lamido expressed reservations on what he perceived as the mix-up on the story behind the making of the annulled election and the fallouts.
He claimed that those individuals that actually contributed in bringing about the victory of SDP in the election were left of the beneficiaries of the national award.
In a note tagged: June 12 from a Participant sent to the Nigerian Tribune at the weekend, the former minister also quoted dome portions of his recent autobiography: Being True To Myself, presented to the public to explain his claim.
He stated: “Amusingly, all known June 12 activists, who were then docile or “Sidon look” or who had taken refuge outside Nigeria for fear of Abacha, are now among those celebrating and claiming the victory of June 12.
“And those who resisted every effort by Babangida to continue after annulling June 12, as well as those who fought Abacha, are now shamelessly being ignored, all in an attempt to rewrite history. No amount of deconstruction and reconstruction to stand history on its head can bury the truth.”
“It must be clearly understood that there was June 11 before June 12! All the heroes listed in the speech by President Tinubu on the 2024 Democracy Day Speech, none but a very few were in SDP on June 11.
“In the campaigns we undertook in all the states of the Federation, none of them was there, not even President Tinubu himself. Babagana Kingibe can attest to this. All of these interlocutors have no idea how Abiola defeated Bashir Tofa in Kano, and even at his polling unit.
“The June 12 was national accomplishment. The elements in NADECO simply snatched away the finished product, at the end of the mill, and by so doing sectionalized, trivialised and diminished an otherwise national sacrifice, bereft of today’s religious, regional, ethnic and ephemeral politics. Typical of their character, they believed more in the bathwater than the baby.”
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