Release Results Of June 12, 1993 Presidential Elections – Afenifere Tells Buhari

Pan Yoruba socio-political group, Afenifere Renewal Group, ARG, on Saturday, June 11, 2016 called on the President Muhammadu Buhari-led federal government to release the official result of the June 12, 1993, presidential elections, believed to be won by the late Bashorun Moshood Abiola.

In a statement to commemorate the 23rd anniversary of June 12, the ARG chairman, Olawale Oshun, said President Muhammadu Buhari, as the beneficiary of a ballot revolution that mostly mirrored that of 1993, owed Nigerians the duty of declassifying the result, particularly now that 23 years had elapsed and the Official Secret Act could no longer be binding on the document.

Afenifere Renewal Group, according to the statement, believe releasing the result would “reverse the stigma occasioned by the foolish act of canceling that election, adjudged to be the most peaceful in the history of Nigeria.”

The group said releasing the result would also open up the “hypocrisy” of military rule and help project democracy as a better form of governance.

“June 12 is no longer a struggle but now an obligation,” the statement said.

“The people have played their own part. It is now the obligation of the beneficiaries of that struggle to set the country on a truly democratic path by deliberately replacing every stamp of military rule on Nigeria’s nationhood, including the imposed governance structure and constitution, through democratic rights and tenets. There is no alternative way to deepen democracy in Nigeria.

“Let nobody be deceived. Until the federal government takes conscious steps to restructure Nigeria, the country will continue to wobble from one crisis of nationhood.”

The group further stated that continuing to ignore calls to publish the result would amount to a tacit support by elected officials for everything that transpired during the military era, a reason that, it said, military rule had transited to ‘do or die’ politics and citizens believed they had a right to take up arms against their country.

“Afenifere Renewal Group, therefore, calls on President Buhari, as a former military ruler and now a self-confessed democrat, to see himself as best poised to help Nigeria make this transition. This can be his best legacy and the starting point, we dare say, is to release the June 12 presidential election result and its winner appropriately recognised and honoured.”