Democracy Day was established to commemorate the June 12, 1993, presidential election that the late Chief MKO Abiola won being declared invalid. Asiwaju Bola Tinubu of the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO) was one of those fighting to put the mandate into action back then. He is the current president. Due to the hardships, Tinubu would have perished in Cotonou, but his kindness and love for Amala saved him.
When the annulment occurred, the late General Sani Abacha, who stole power, went crazy! Abacha exhibited a lot of killers without boundaries! He sent his killers after advocating for democracy. Many people perished in the process. One of the missions was when Abacha dispatched his killers to the Republic of Benin.
Tinubu described what transpired in an interview with TheNEWS, saying, “I didn’t have a passport and couldn’t have been able to fly. They eventually learned about our travels since they had spies everywhere, including in the Benin Republic. Twice I was discovered, but I luckily got away. When I was hiding, they tracked me to a run-down hotel.
I had gone out on an Okada to a market where Yorubas predominate to buy amala the day they came for me at the hotel. Akinrinade and the rest of them would also be introduced to me. The spies went to the hotel, and as I was coming up, I noticed two persons at the front desk asking inquiries while wearing tajia (skull caps). I turned around after the receptionist, who I had been quite cordial with, winked at me as he attended to them. I got in touch with an architect friend of mine in the Benin Republic who was empathetic toward us. The fortunate ones that night included Professor Wole Soyinka and Alani Akinrinade, who slept in a superior hotel. Fortunately, the persons hunting them down missed them as they pursued them to the hotel.
No paean is without suffering. Tinubu is currently the President and Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria after enduring such a trying time and battling for democracy. He now belongs to the group of freedom fighters who ended up governing their countries: Lesh Walesa of Poland; Jomo Kenyata of the Mau Mau Struggle in Kenya; Yuweri Museveni, a freedom fighter in Uganda (though a sit-tight leader now); Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, who later turned to a different thing; Keneth Kaunda and Patrick Chiluba of Zambia; Aung San Suu Kyi of Myanmar; Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil; and, of course, Nelson Mandela of South Africa.
PUNCH
