After 20 Years of Democracy, the Memories of June 12 have Refused to Wane..... Segun Showunmi

After 20 years of democracy, the memories of June 12 1993 have refused to wane; we are at a point where we must soberly ask: what does June 12 represent? I hold the view that with the travesty that the 2019 presidential elections in Nigeria represents, we are right back to June 12. Whereas so much is being done to honor the memories of MKO Abiola with all sorts, ranging from GCFR, to a holiday on the anniversary, we may ask: does June 12 not mean free, fair, credible and transparent elections, where the outcome is acceptable to a great number or Nigerians and friends of Nigeria?
If that be the case, I think the baton of the ideals have passed on from Moshood Kashimawo Abiola to Atiku Abubakar. As it was with June 12 1993, so it is with February 23 2019, for on both dates the electoral wishes of Nigerians where fraudulently and criminally abridged by those who had a duty to ensure that whatever we wish to commemorate with June 12 1993, a bigger commemoration would have been a free, fair, credible, transparent and acceptable election. Having not achieved that, our nation must accept that, rather than learn from history that real peace and development cannot occur when the critical ingredient, which is credible election, has not taken place and the legitimacy required to govern is suspect, we have seemed to remain perpetually on June 12 1993.
So, we may do whatever cosmetic plastering we like and play to the gallery all we like, the ghost of a stolen mandate, which is what June 12 1993 and now February 23 2019 represent, lives on. Whereas with June 12, we have lost the opportunity of a real remedy, in the case of February 23 2019, we can remedy the situation, beyond the court cases; we can have a special administrative panel review the entire process, examine the real circumstances mitigating against the dream of credible elections, ascertain those culpable and due for punishment, do whatever is required, but we must, with one voice, say Never Again!
Then and only then will the ghost of June 12, now fully reflected in the Atiku Abubakar Stolen Mandate, which really is a Stolen Future of the Nigerian People, be laid to rest. Until then, may the soul of our democracy, now on life support, survive, while that of MKO Abiola and the numerous martyrs Rest In Peace.
I cannot in good conscience say happy democracy day for indeed there is nothing to be happy about.

Segun Showunmi