Good morning, Mr President. I speak to the issue of the heroes of democracy in Nigeria from the vantage position of being the former General Secretary of the Campaign for Democracy in Nigeria.  My first submission is that your speech could not have naturally carried the names of all who partook in the struggle for democracy in Nigeria.

Those who blamed you for not doing so got it wrong. Even a brochure detailing pro-democracy activists in Nigeria would still have been controversial. How would you accommodate the foot soldiers who trouped out and received the bullets while protesting the annulment of the June 12, 1993, Presidential Election? What about the quiet protest of the rank-and-file elements in the military who abhorred the prevalent autocracy of the time, and perversity of an ‘army of anything goes’?

Of course, in the social sciences, we are often acculturated to base our analysis on the dominant current. In this way, the president’s speech could have taken note of the key leaders of the various social forces involved in the June 12 and the broad anti-military struggle.

This is the least I can attempt to do in this piece given the prevalent revisionism today where those who by chance shook the hands of MKO Abiola or worked in his outfit lay claim to being pro-democracy activists. Others who were wrongfully detained due to the indiscriminate approach of the security operatives also claim the epithet.

Let me begin by identifying the nucleus of the struggle against military rule in Nigeria, what may be regarded as the second phase (1984-1999) of which the June 12 and the Ogoni trial were episodes.  That nucleus is the Nigerian left strewn across the various sectarian groups such as the Socialist Congress of Nigeria (SCON) and Socialist Revolutionary Vanguard (SRV), and Democratic Socialist Movement (DSM), broad confluences of the left elements in the country.

Notable ones like Alao Aka-Bashorun, Eskor Toyo, Baba Omojola, Comrade Ola Oni, Edwin Madunagu, Balarabe Musa, Abayomi Ferreira, Bassey Ekpo Bassey, Jonathan Ihonde, Emakpo Ajise, Festus Iyayi, Osagie Obayuwana, Akpan Ekpo, Atahiru Jega, Edet Uno, Omotoye Olorode, Dipo Fashina, Idowu Awopetu, Raufu Mustapha, Femi Ahmed (Sandinista), Femi Aborisade, Femi Falana, Chom Bagu, Segun Sango, Lanre Arogundade, and John Odah.

There were other notables in the labour movement, Chief Michael Imoudu, Alli Ciroma, and Hassan Somonu. Chief Gani Fawehinmi, was in a class of his own and by his pro-poor activities can be classified as belonging to the broad left. The fighting forces of the Nigerian left were firmly entrenched in the Nigerian student movement and the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC).

This was well demonstrated in the popular protests of the 1980s and 1990s led by the radical National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS). These were the anti-fee demonstration of 1984, the Ango-Must-Go of 1986, the anti-subsidy of 1986; the anti-SAP Protest of 1989, the Economist Protest of 1992, and subsequent post-annulment protests of 1993 onward.

Perhaps fired by the events in former French colonies in Africa, especially the Republic of Benin, which successfully convoked a Sovereign National Conference (SNC), Aka-Bashorun, with some progressive elements in the northern half of the country formed the National Consultative Forum (NCF) that attempted to convene one at the National Theatre, Iganmu, Lagos, truncated by General Babangida junta.

NCF would later metamorphose into the Campaign for Democracy (CD) proclaimed on November 11, 1991, NUJ, Press Centre, Victoria Island, Lagos, with a former national election in Jos, May 2, 1992. The following persons were elected into its leadership: 1) Dr. Beko Ransome-Kuti (chairman). 2) Mr. Chom Bagu (Vice Chairman). 3) Mr Chima Ubani (General Secretary). 5) Mr Salihu Mohammed Lukeman (Deputy General Secretary). 6) Mrs Gloria Kilanko (Treasurer). 7) Mr Ishaya Daniel (Internal Auditor).

The Zonal Chairmen included: John Gimbason (Zone A). Ibrahim Abubakar Waziri (Zone B). Titus Mann (Zone C). Dele Ojegbede (Zone D). Dr. Festus Iyayi (Zone E). Ken Saro-Wiwa (F). Alao Aka-Bashorun, Baba Omojola and Femi Falana were
Ex-Officio members of the executive organ.

The second executive body elected in Ibadan saw Beko Ransome-Kuti and myself as Chairman and General Secretary respectively in 1994. At the peak of its activities, the CD had over 126 affiliate organisations, including the Pat-Utomi-led Concerned Professionals and Olisa Agbakoba-led Civil Liberties Organisation. Let me note that Agbakoba would later act as Convener of the United Action for Democracy while Chima Ubani and I worked as Joint-Secretary due to the reconciliation that followed the division in the CD in 1994 at Ibadan.

Two perspectives existed in the CD on the way forward for the country. A section favoured the termination of military rule for all time and the convocation of SNC. The second group favoured the de-annulment of the June 12 presidential election with Chief Abiola heading a Government of National Unity (GNU) to convey the SNC. It must not be forgotten that until the annulment of June 12, the Nigerian left saw Abiola as part of the oppressive bourgeois class and never believed that the Babangida transition programme would work and hinted at a hidden agenda of self-transmutation.

Following the annulment of June 12, the Nigerian left saw a window of opportunity to give the military a final push and threw its weight behind the struggle to validate Abiola’s mandate. It would be recalled that while the military dithered over the release of the results of the June 12 election, it was the Beko Ransome-Kuti-led CD that released the result, and led the first mass protest of July 5, 1993 that shut down most parts of the country.
To be continued next week.