Something must be wrong with the May 29 date

NIGERIA’s path to democracy is chequered. Once we lost it to the 1966 coupists, several military leaders thereafter, made unsuccessful attempts to return the country to democracy.

From the late General Murtala Mohammed, who was cut down by his colleagues, through Generals [all retired]Muhammadu Buhari, Ibrahim Babangida  to Sani  Abacha, transfer of power at the centre was a very difficult challenge, except for General Olusegun Obasanjo as he then was, who voluntarily handed over power in 1979, only to regain it years after, but not without sacrifices.


Handover of power could be difficult, especially if one shot his way into it from what we saw in the behaviours of these Generals. Power handover was made more difficult for them by the players in the system who would always gravitate around every leader. These men, as powerful as they were, believed in power politics without principles.

They mustered ethnic, military, tribal forces to see to it that any Head of State sat tight till he was pushed out by his impatient colleagues in a military putsch or so. Some of these coups were bloody, while others looked like arrangee business among ‘brothers’.

Of all our past military leaders, it was the great duo of General Abdulsalami Abubakar (rtd) and Vice Admiral Okhai Akhigbe(rtd) who resolutely gave us democracy, which culminated into the swearing in of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo as the first democratically elected President of Nigeria on May 29, 1999. So, our beloved former President , a great man by any description, chose naturally to declare that same date as Nigeria’s Democracy Day. Democracy Day is worthy of the celebration in our nation.

The serious problem is with the date May 29 itself. Upon the announcement of this very date as Democracy Day, agitation filled the air waves in Nigeria.
Many Nigerians argued that June 12  should be the Democracy Day because it was on June 12, 1993 that Prof.Humphrey Nwosu,  as the head of the then INEC, announced the result of the fairest, most transparent and freest presidential election ever held in Nigeria in favour of Chief MKO Abiola of the Social Democratic Party, SDP, who trounced Alhaji Bashir Tofa  of the Nigerian National Party, NPN.But to the surprise of all, except perhaps the makers and shapers of Nigeria at that time, General Ibrahim Babangida(rtd), as the Head of State, annulled the result of the election.

The agitations that followed this annulment became so intense that he stepped aside from Aso Rock and put in Chief Ernest Shonekan  as the Head of an Interim National Government, ING. As wicked, unfair, and unjust as that annulment was, power players continued to jostle and push for control. This left the ING  unstable until General Abacha  pushed Chief Shonekan aside and out of Aso Rock on December 18, 1993. After putting Chief MKO Abiola in jail, General Abacha was found himself contending with the forces of June 12 even as he tried to convince Nigerian that the cap of a president fitted him better.

But he bowed out of the scene when death unexpectedly struck, thus paving way for  General Abubakar and Admiral Akhigbe to assume control of in Aso Rock. Chief MKO Abiola also died in the struggle to actualize June 12. But these two fine officers of the Nigerian Military overlooked the power players, the trappings of governance at the peak and conducted elections that   brought  Obasanjo back to Aso Rock. Critics of Chief Obasanjo say that he spurned the June 12 date because he despised Chief Abiola and all he stood for. He, however, chose May 29, the date he was sworn in as President, as the Democracy Day for this nation.

The key questions of who decided on May 29 as the date for the swearing in of President Obasanjo, what was playing in their minds, and what was their purpose, are the concerns of this writer.This is because on the  May 29, 1966, the whole of Northern Nigeria declared what they called ‘Araba’ against the Igbos in the North and started a genocide against the Igbos, a genocide that led to a civil war that saw over 3.1 million Igbos killed.

Professor Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe, a visiting professor at the Universaidade de Fortlaeza and a specialist on the state and on the genocide wars in Africa in the post-1966 epoch-beginning with the Igbo genocide, confirms that this genocide inaugurated Africa’s current age of pestilence. He says that over 12 million additional Africans have been murdered in further genocide in Rwanda (1994), Zaire/DRCongo(since late 1990s) and Dafur-West Sudan (since 2004), and in other wars in Africa.

Prof Ekwe-Ekwe  gave reasons on his website, and whether we agree with him or not, we are bound to accept that May 29 is not a day for this kind of merry making and celebration for this counrty. It was the date evil started in Nigeria which touched Africa and is still festering.

May 29, 1966 is undoubtedly the most tragic day in Igbo history. It is the date of Igbo genocide-the most gruesome, devastating and expansive genocide in 20th Century Africa.

This very date, May 29, brings to the mind of any reasonable Igbo man, the terrible memories of the genocide and the unjust war that followed. Yet this May 29 1966 is also the Igbo day of affirmation, recovery and liberation. The Igbo people resolved on this day that marked the beginning of genocide, to survive the catastrophe by creating the State of Biafra. The Igbo could not have survived the genocide if they remained in Nigeria at that time.

Those who started the genocide, the North of Nigeria, had all it required to wipe them out from the face of Nigeria, because protection for them would have come from nowhere. That the Igbos lost the war and the mention of the word Biafra is now shouted down at all levels in Nigeria, all exacerbated by the continued trial of Chief Uwazurike of MASSOB, makes this date a special day of meditation and rethinking to the Igbo man, and by extension to all lovers of peace and progress, of Nigeria. We saw the war in Igbo land, we were ravaged, killed, our women raped and dehumanized, properties carried away by the invading army and it all started on May 29, 1966.

It should be a day of sober reflection, dedicated by the Igbo man, Nigeria and Africa against genocide. It should be a day Nigerians, especially in the North, should sit, think and resolve never to attack an Igbo man or any visitor to their land again. Celebrating democracy on the same date is a cover-up of facts and the truth, and at best is deceitful and mischievous.

That the late  Generals I.D. Bisala and Mamman Vatsa were killed for organising unsuccessful coups is a fact. We cannot cover up or deny that they were Generals of the Nigerian Army. The younger officers need to know this truth so as to guide them in their career.

In the same vein, that IGP Tafa Balogun was tried and convicted of a crime in this country does not remove the fact that he was an Inspector General of our beloved Police Force. We must always accept it and then address it for the help of future leaders. That May 29, 1966 was the date the North started genocide against Igbos is a fact, and we as a nation should respect that fact, and use the occasion to address the issues that cause genocide with a view to stopping it in our country. The tell- tales of the lack of remorse by the North in this action abound.The North must stop killing Igbos!

How do Nigerians, especially the true democrats like Chief Obasanjo want the Igbos to feel that it is on such a date that Nigerians chose to celebrate democracy? If  indeed the State of Nigeria has any respect for the Igbo man and believes in fairness and justice, the Nigerian Presidency and Senate should look into these facts and change this date. If we in Nigeria really mean to build a nation where inequalities and mischief of the past will be done away with, we must jointly reject celebrations on this date.

May 29, should be a day dedicated by Nigeria against genocide in Nigeria. If all those who have benefited economically or in one way or the other from the defeat of Biafra, the silencing and conquering of the Igbo man rejoice over it, wine and dine on that day, for the other lovers of this nation in truth, it will remain a day of prayers, solemn meditation and supplications to God, asking the Lord, what shall we do so as never to tread this path again in Nigeria.
Mr.  CLEMENT UDEGBE, a lawyer, wrote from Lagos.