Legal practitioner and pro-democracy and rights activist, was the president of the Civil Liberties Organisation (CLO) and leaders of many other civil society groups that led the June 12 struggle. She speaks to SEGUN KASALI about her experience, role and vision of the campaigners for equity, justice and rule of law in the country.
WHAT was your role during the June 12 saga?
I became the Civil Liberties Organisation’s president in 1995 and by that time we were already into the Abacha military dictatorship. When the June 12 elections took place, I was the deputy president of CLO. The CLO itself was part of the campaign for democracy coalition, which was headed by Dr. Beko Ransome-Kuti. The CLO’s President then was Olisa Agbakoba and he had seconded one of our officers, Chima Ubani to work as the secretary for the Campaign for Democracy. Campaign for Democracy was the one clamouring for the end of military rule when Babangida kept on changing the goalpost. There were a lot of people who rejected Babangida’s transition completely.
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What were the lessons learnt from June 12?
The main lesson learnt is when we were facing a common enemy, we were united: The media, politicians, civil society because you will remember that between 1995 after Abacha, the politicians formed National Alliance for Democratic Coalition (NADECO). The Campaign for Democracy was part of NADECO and CLO was part of Campaign for Democracy; we were effectively part of NADECO.
President Bola Tinubu has spent two years in office. What is your assessment of the performance of the government?
I did believe we were headed in economic stormy waters and the one thing Tinubu had going for him was when Olusegun Obasanjo unleashed economic storm on him by withholding the local government funds in Lagos State. He weathered the storm. So, that made him a good candidate. But, it is unfortunate we don’t have dispassionate economic assessment. Many who do the cerebral and even the economic practice said he is taking some necessary steps and that we will reap the benefits later. Now, the question is how soon will that be? To my mind, If we have not started to reap the benefits by this time next year, then it is only by a lot of political mastery and wizardry that President Tinubu can be re-elected and part of that mastery and political wizardry is causing confusion among those who can come up to oppose him.
There is frenetic horse-trading for the 2027 general election across the board. What is your take on activities of 2027 journey?
I was still president of the CLO until 2003. I have made up my mind that once we return to civil rule I will only be involved in single politics campaign. Hence, I am involved in the Bring Back Our Girls Campaign. Here we are 11 years later and we are still campaigning that the government should bring back our girls. To me, we voted for democracy because we wanted the democratic process to bring solution to our problems.
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