MKO Abiola: APC Chieftain, Takus Slams Obasanjo For Failing To Recognise June 12

An All Progressives Congress (APC) stalwart in Cross River State, Chief Godwin Takus has lambasted former president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo for failing to recognise June 12 as Democracy Day.

Speaking with Daily Post in a phone interview on Thursday, he stated that Obasanjo, as president, had all it took to recognise June 12, a day an election adjudged most credible in Nigeria’s history was conducted, alleging that the former president demurred due to personal and selfish reasons.

Takus maintained that Obasanjo became president not because he was the best at the time, but because he was a beneficiary of the struggle for the actualisation of June 12.

He said “May 29 has no significance in the history of Nigeria; President Buhari has decided to make June 12 the real democracy day because M. K. O. Abiola won the freest election ever conducted in this country.

“The former President Obasanjo didn’t want to give glory to somebody from Yoruba, that may be personal; he would have been the first person to declare June 12 as a public holiday and democracy day,” he stated.

The APC chieftain maintained that, “MKO as Abiola was popularly referred to, died out of the June 12 elections, that was actually the democracy day, it was June 12 that Nigerians came to know what democracy is in Nigeria”.

He pointed out that though Abiola’s was a Muslim-Muslim ticket, Nigerians didn’t bother about religion, adding that, “Religion has been an issue in this country; Nigerians look at two of them (Abiola and his running mate, Kingibe, as being the best the country needed and they gave them their votes”.

Takus claimed that since after the annulment of the June 12 elections, Nigeria has never known peace and has been enmeshed in one problem or the other.

He stated, “The recognizing of June 12 as a democracy day is the best Buhari has ever done to my own admiration, as far as democracy is concern, I think it is the best things that ever happened.”

(Daily Post)