June 12 Democracy Day: Buhari’s Political Masterstroke
TPolitical Master Stroke he decision of President Muhammadu Buhari to declare June 12 as Democracy Day, and the conferment of the highest honour in the land posthumously on the late Chief MKO Abiola, was a political masterstroke and a good decision well taken. This wise and well thought out decision, has been widely applauded by men and women of goodwill in Nigeria. Indeed, this decision has healed some big wounds, and cured some political diseases that have plagued this nation for over 24 years. At last, justice was done, and the Federal Government of Nigeria acknowledged injustice and wrong done to Nigerians in general, and to the Abiola Family, in particular.
What a way to redress an injustice and to ease tension, in a nation that is battling with economic and political issues, including insecurity and mass disenchantment in the land? Despite this good gesture which was widely applauded by Nigerians of all divide, there are few who are still arguing about the legality of both the Democracy Day and the award. For the award, some of the opinion is that, it cannot be conferred on a dead person who they argue has lost his or her citizenship by virtue of death, while others argue that posthumous awards are reserved only for those in the Military.
Issues My humble view about these issues are as follows: as long as the National Honours Act does not expressly exclude the award of GCFR on a dead person, then it may be wrong to criticise this good gesture made by President Buhari, which deserves an accolade and not criticism, as it were. Secondly a dead person, does not cease to be a Nigerian because he or she is dead, as citizenship is not derived on whether one is living or dead, but as defined by the Constitution, which incidentally, is elaborate and without any ambiguity on this.
One other issue that is eliciting debate, which I consider healthy, is whether handover date of this Government will be extended to June 12th, 2019 instead of May 29th, 2019.
My intervention on this, is that this present Government will carry out their handover properly as prescribed in the Constitution on the 29th of May, 2019, there won't be any extension for a day. However, the subsequent Governments after May 29th, 2019 will be sworn in on 12th June, 2023. What that means