The celebration of Nigeria’s iconic June 12, in 2025, offers yet another window of personal thoughts on Nigerians who are 30 years and below do not really know what this date means in the annals of political and democratic struggle in Nigeria. But those of us who lived through that period as hot blooded, aluta-ready university undergraduates, it is worth it if the reason for all that brouhaha and wahala are weighed again. In the months and immediate years that followed the June 12, 1993 presidential election, the event which marked the climax of the struggle for the end of military dictatorship in Nigeria, there were a lot of things worthy of recalling and juxtaposing. For instance, the mantra that characterized Hope 93 electoral campaign of Basorun M.K.O. Abiola, the symbol of that political struggle, was “Farewell to Poverty.”
June 12, 1993 was thirty-two years ago. That day, Nigerians went to the polls and truly voted for the candidates of their choice. On that day, millions of Nigerians physically queued confidently behind their preferred candidates and right before their eyes, their votes were counted, results announced and records taken. That popular Option A4 system of voting introduced by Professor Humphrey Nwosu of the National Electoral Commission easily earned the people’s trust. In our beloved Samonda, Ward 11 of Ibadan North Local Government Area of Oyo State, we together with our parents, brothers and sisters queued behind the poster of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and saw Professor Nwosu’s innovation in action.
Yes, there was palpable hope in Nwosu’s electoral invention, but there was even higher hope and equally great expectations on the assurances of Chief Abiola’s ‘Hope 93’. As the presidential candidate of the SDP, Abiola did not just offer hope, he also held promise because of his antecedents in the Nigerian social circles and well reported philanthropy. It could be easily seen among Nigerians that they believed in him and what he had to offer. To further bring Nigerians at par with the dream country he was aiming to build, he properly packaged his presidential promises in a manifesto he christened “Farewell to Poverty.” It was that simple — farewell to poverty.
And Abiola’s ‘Farewell to Poverty’ was indeed plain, simple and relatable. It was not seen to be about any dodgy slangs or deep, resounding maneuverings. His manifesto resonated with the people and, as we say in the Kegites Club, it was ‘highly karid’. The manifesto contained potent weapons formed against the crippling poverty in the country. President Bola Tinubu himself noted in 2023, on the anniversary of June 12 that the vision Chief Abiola had for Nigeria was one which went all out to promote the welfare of the people and raise the people’s collective concerns above the personal interests of the ruling class. That was the farewell to poverty.
The high hope in Abiola and his presidential movement notwithstanding, it still did not blur the thought among many discerning Nigerians, that General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida (IBB) was still the ‘Maradona’ who could always dribble through the process and puncture the high hopes. Those Nigerians still had fears in their heads and despair hidden in their hearts. That must have been the reason then President Babangida was asked questions along the lines of the doubts they harboured, their forlorn hopes and profound fears of the people in the June 12 process. These were then called “hidden agenda”. Well, General IBB said swore that he had “no hidden agenda”. Indeed, we all know better now.
Farewell to poverty would ordinarily mean an expectant refrain that builds upon the already known and well-reported humanity and philanthropy of Chief MKO Abiola. On that basis alone, people believed he could do it. But the presidential ambition of Chief Abiola could not be actualised. His election was annulled, he was incarcerated, and he didn’t come out of the incarceration alive. While Abiola was in detention, people rolled up their sleeves and fought for his release. The concerned and hounded Nigerians also demanded that Abiola’s election be upheld and that he must be sworn-in as the popularly-elected president of Nigeria. It was a serious ruckus with the military junta, and the best General IBB could do was ‘step aside’ and place Chief Ernest Sonekan at the head of the strange Interim National Government he conjured up.
Among the activists widely recognised to have fought the hardest and had shouted the loudest in that struggle for the actualisation of June 12 is today’s President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. Today, he is the president and commander-in-chief of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Tinubu can be said to have also benefitted from that struggle among the others who were also part of the same struggle and who had also held significant political positions. Of all the people in this category, however, none other than him had been elected as president. He has toed the line to the place of immense profit, his struggle and suffering have not been in vain unlike the case of those who paid the supreme price.
However, President Tinubu is today not toeing the line of Chief Abiola in populist ideals. Through his “Farewell to Poverty” manifesto, Abiola became populist and leaned heavily towards progressivism. Abiola’s ‘farewell to poverty’ was pro-masses but Tinubu is his own man. Although he came from a camp — the camp of those referred to as progressives, who are believed to uphold populist ideals in politics, his manifesto and indeed the programme his government is currently running is not populist. If anything, Tinubu is only telling us to brace up and bid farewell to the thoughts of ‘farewell to poverty’. At best, President Tinubu is only taking a half-hearted peep into Abiola’s approach to the populist dispositions. In 2025, it is farewell to populist governance. Nigerians must brace up and we must now tighten our belts…
Tinubu, according to his acolytes and all in their camp has shown courage by deciding against populist tendencies. “No populist leader has ever made a significant impact” a Tinubu supporter once argued. This supporter insists that we must begin to live like a people who know the value of what they get from government. What do you get from government? What is that public facility or utility that works as it should?
Some people have also suggested the replication of Tinubu in the states. They are of the opinion that this would bring the country to the needed realisation that there is need for all and sundry to brace up and further roll up their sleeves. The current economic quagmire, they argue, is just a pointer to the fact that we as a people had been complacent for too long and had been feeding fat on undesirable advantages given by government. Thus, the courage of Tinubu had snatched the resources from the leechy people and re-directed it to the people at the helm.
Or where have we seen the results of the policies of the Tinubu government yet?
Justice, temperance and wisdom when united with courage are better than courage only,” says The Athenian Stranger. Plato is indeed wise, and we hope that this poignant homily to the current rulers of Nigeria and their acolytes would make sense to them. They have reduced the entirety of the governance of a largely struggling Nigeria to courage only… courage to take away subsidies and brashly hurl Nigerians into a strange economic minefield.
