June 12
Jibrin Ibrahim
June 12th: Democracy and Hardship
Jibrin Ibrahim, Deepening Democracy Column, Daily Trust, June 13 2025
Yesterday was supposed to be a national celebration of democracy remembering the great events that followed the annulled election of 12th June 1993 over 30 years ago. 1993 was a very long time ago, and indeed ancient history for a majority of Nigerians whose median age is 18 years. For those of us of a certain age and a tradition of democratic struggles, it was Nigeria’s rite of passage to becoming a true and enduring democratic society. How many young Nigerians would accept that we have a true and enduring democracy? My generation has constructed the June 12 narrative is a story of great heroes and heroines. They are the winner of the June 12, 1993 presidential election, Chief MKO Abiola; his wife, Kudirat; General Shehu Musa Yar’Adua, Pa Alfred Rewane and so on. Of course, the greatest heroes of June 12 were the millions of Nigerians who came out, contested military rule and literally chased them out of power, gaining a historic victory over military authoritarianism.
The paradox is that the current generation of young Nigerians have difficulties seeing the evidence for defining such people as selfless heroes, who have contributed to consolidating democracy and providing public service. They have literally no experience of seeing selfless heroes that they can look up to. We ourselves can ask whether they were truly selfless heroes or just birds of circumstances, but that question is not for today. The lived reality of the current generation is that the only agency they have seen in centres of power are powered by greedy looters of the public treasury. Our praise singing about our democracy heroes may therefore bounce off the majority of young Nigerians.
There is no surprise therefore that the word on the streets is that June 12 should be an occasion to protest against the hardship Nigerians are suffering from. In the lead up to the day, there were reports that protests against hardship were being organised in at least 20 states in the Federation. The organisers, #TakeItBackMovement saw more value in protesting against hardship rather than celebrating democracy. June 12 was adopted in 2018 by the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari as Nigeria’s Democracy Day in honour of the winner of the June 12, 1993, election, Moshood Abiola. This year’s commemoration marks 26-year uninterrupted democratic rule in the country. The organisers of the protests are saying that what they see is hardship, insecurity and a “shrinking civic space” under the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
A report by Amnesty International says that over 10,000 Nigerians had lost their lives to various security crises since President Tinubu assumed office. Over 133 million citizens are living in multidimensional poverty. Many have been forced out of their homes due to insecurity and attacks by bandit terrorists. It is because of this situation that the organisers say, that: “On June 12, 2025, the people of Nigeria, young and old, working class and unemployed, angry and awake, will take to the streets in peaceful protest against the unbearable insecurity and economic hardship that have strangled this nation”. They add that: “Protesting is not a request; it is a constitutional right. Sections 39 and 40 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) grant every Nigerian the freedom of expression and peaceful assembly. No law gives the police the power to crush or criminalise peaceful dissent.
The Tinubu Administration has used the mid-term review to repeatedly make claims that they have arrived at the turning point in improving the lives of Nigerians. They are talking but are not communicating. The stories Nigerians are talking about today pertain to their lived reality, which is the deepening of poverty, widening inequality, growing insecurity, massive unemployment, poor healthcare and education services. At the same time, Nigeria is witnessing the coercion of the media and the shrinking of civic space. In other words, Nigerians are not enjoying the dividends of democracy they had been promised.
At the same time, opposition party leaders who are massively defecting to the ruling party are being offered an Eldorado they cannot refuse. The rate of one-directional movement into the ruling All Party’ Congress is so massive that many analysts fear that a scenario for single-party rule is being prepared. The scenario being prepared is to evacuate all candidates that are not praise singers to the present regime from presenting themselves as credible alternatives. It is a civilian equivalent of General Abacha forcing all the parties in the Third Republic to declare him as their presidential candidate.
President Tinubu is just about to appoint a significant component of the leadership of the Independent National Electoral Commission. Some of his recent appointments appear to be card carrying members of his party. If INEC is compromised in a context in which opposition parties have been denuded of their strong leaders, the future before us will not be democracy. Let it be known that Nigerians will not accept the demolition of democracy, which is a good and resilient system. It is a normative system that people value for its positive content – political and human rights, civil liberties, participation, equality, rule of law and so on. For this reason, there are always demands for democracy and when countries try to move away from it, epic struggles for its return emerge.
The core challenge to democracy in Nigeria has been the reckless and rising levels of corruption by the political class that is making governance impossible. Even the country’s main source of revenue, petroleum, is stolen and Nigeria is finding it difficult to generate sufficient revenue to carry out governmental tasks. It is getting worse. Increasingly, even the revenue that is available is being embezzled by reckless officeholders. Kleptocracy is making governance impossible, as monies meant for security, the provision of social services and the construction of infrastructure projects are stolen and governance is grinding to a halt. At the same time, current economic policies have created an unprecedented cost of living crisis as so many farmers find it impossible to farm due to rural insecurity. The elimination of a level playing ground for free, fair and credible elections in 2027 poses the risk of provoking system collapse and popular revolt. This is the outcome that all people of goodwill should play a role in avoiding. Nigeria needs to take a new turn in which the governing class wakes up to its sense of enlightened self-interest and takes the war against corruption seriously so that public resources could henceforth be used for the public good. This would create a new situation in which respect for democratic principles and practices return and confidence in the system grows. Why shouldn’t I dream? IT’S HAPPY DEMOCRACY DAY.
Toyin Falola
Sent: Sunday, June 15, 2025 11:21:00 AM
To: 'chidi opara reports' via USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - June 12
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfric...@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDial...@googlegroups.com
Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialo...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/CAPWX8rU6%2BefFC1m%2Bhjq8uRBc%3D3sMN8zuFC_6AorNLRdo9H1Zfg%40mail.gmail.com.
Emeagwali, Gloria (History)
History Department, Central Connecticut State University
Sent: Sunday, June 15, 2025 7:48 AM
To: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - June 12
EXTERNAL EMAIL: This email originated from outside of the organization. Do not click any links or open any attachments unless you trust the sender and know the content is safe.
Jibrin Ibrahim
Dompere, Kofi Kissi
I HAVE POSTED ON THIS FORUM THE SIMPLE QUESTION:
WHAT IS DEMOCRACY?
TALKING ABOUT TYPES OF DEMOCRACY IS RESIDING IN A PHANTOM WORLD WITH ECHO CHAMBERS OF WALLS OF
THE SPACES OF PROBLEM-SOLUTION DUALITIES AND QUESTION-ANSWER DUALITIES RELATIVE TO THE SPACE OF THOUGHT-PRACTCE DUALITIES.
THE AFRICAN PEOPLE HAVE NO MEANING OF WHAT DEMOCRACY CONNOTES WITHIN THEIR NATIONAL EXPERIENCIAL INFORMATION. HOW CAN
THE PEOPLE PRACTICE DEMOCRACY WHEN ITS THOUGHT IS NOT AVAILABLE TO THEM? THIS LEADS TO BLINDNESS IN PRACTICE AND ABUSE OF THE PEOPLE.
CAN SOMEBODY HELP IN PROVIDING THE CHARACTERISTIC DISPOSITION OF DEMOCRACY WHICH IS USEFUL IN THE SPACE OF THOUGHT-PRACTICE DUALITIES.
THANKS.
KOFI.
-----Original Message-----
From: Dompere, Kofi Kissi <kdom...@Howard.edu>
Sent: Sunday, June 15, 2025 4:27 PM
To: Dompere, Kofi Kissi <kdom...@Howard.edu>
Subject: FW: USA Africa Dialogue Series - June 12
-----Original Message-----
From: 'Emeagwali, Gloria (History)' via USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Sunday, June 15, 2025 9:53 AM
To: usaafric...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - June 12
WARNING! Please use caution with this message. If this message seems suspicious, DO NOT CLICK any of the links and/or attachments. Use the Report Phishing option (Report > Report Phishing) which will remove the message from your inbox. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact the ETS Cyber Security Team:ets-cybe...@howard.edu.
Agreed. I think we have to start classifying democracy too.
Neo-liberal democracy is one type and it differs from
that of classical Greece or Eastern Nigeria, to give examples.
Just a thought, if you may.
Professor Gloria Emeagwali
History Department, Central Connecticut State University
Gloria Emeagwali's Documentaries: http://www.vimeo.com/gloriaemeagwali <http://www.vimeo.com/user5946750/videos>
website: http://www.africahistory.net/ <http://www.africahistory.net/>
2019 Distinguished Africanist Award, New York African Studies Association
Founding Co -Chair, Sengbe Pieh AMISTAD Committee Founding Coordinator, African Studies, CCSU
http://www.vimeo.com/938058353
________________________________
From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Toyin Falola <toyin...@austin.utexas.edu>
Sent: Sunday, June 15, 2025 7:48 AM
To: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - June 12
EXTERNAL EMAIL: This email originated from outside of the organization. Do not click any links or open any attachments unless you trust the sender and know the content is safe.
Jibrin:
If politicians dominate, control and manipulate the institutions of democracy, how do you expect good governance?
TF
From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Jibrin Ibrahim <jibrinib...@gmail.com>
Sent: Sunday, June 15, 2025 11:21:00 AM
To: 'chidi opara reports' via USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - June 12
June 12th: Democracy and Hardship
Jibrin Ibrahim, Deepening Democracy Column, Daily Trust, June 13 2025
Yesterday was supposed to be a national celebration of democracy remembering the great events that followed the annulled election of 12th June 1993 over 30 years ago. 1993 was a very long time ago, and indeed ancient history for a majority of Nigerians whose median age is 18 years. For those of us of a certain age and a tradition of democratic struggles, it was Nigeria's rite of passage to becoming a true and enduring democratic society. How many young Nigerians would accept that we have a true and enduring democracy? My generation has constructed the June 12 narrative is a story of great heroes and heroines. They are the winner of the June 12, 1993 presidential election, Chief MKO Abiola; his wife, Kudirat; General Shehu Musa Yar'Adua, Pa Alfred Rewane and so on. Of course, the greatest heroes of June 12 were the millions of Nigerians who came out, contested military rule and literally chased them out of power, gaining a historic victory over military authoritarianism.
The paradox is that the current generation of young Nigerians have difficulties seeing the evidence for defining such people as selfless heroes, who have contributed to consolidating democracy and providing public service. They have literally no experience of seeing selfless heroes that they can look up to. We ourselves can ask whether they were truly selfless heroes or just birds of circumstances, but that question is not for today. The lived reality of the current generation is that the only agency they have seen in centres of power are powered by greedy looters of the public treasury. Our praise singing about our democracy heroes may therefore bounce off the majority of young Nigerians.
There is no surprise therefore that the word on the streets is that June 12 should be an occasion to protest against the hardship Nigerians are suffering from. In the lead up to the day, there were reports that protests against hardship were being organised in at least 20 states in the Federation. The organisers, #TakeItBackMovement saw more value in protesting against hardship rather than celebrating democracy. June 12 was adopted in 2018 by the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari as Nigeria's Democracy Day in honour of the winner of the June 12, 1993, election, Moshood Abiola. This year's commemoration marks 26-year uninterrupted democratic rule in the country. The organisers of the protests are saying that what they see is hardship, insecurity and a "shrinking civic space" under the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
A report by Amnesty International says that over 10,000 Nigerians had lost their lives to various security crises since President Tinubu assumed office. Over 133 million citizens are living in multidimensional poverty. Many have been forced out of their homes due to insecurity and attacks by bandit terrorists. It is because of this situation that the organisers say, that: "On June 12, 2025, the people of Nigeria, young and old, working class and unemployed, angry and awake, will take to the streets in peaceful protest against the unbearable insecurity and economic hardship that have strangled this nation". They add that: "Protesting is not a request; it is a constitutional right. Sections 39 and 40 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) grant every Nigerian the freedom of expression and peaceful assembly. No law gives the police the power to crush or criminalise peaceful dissent.
The Tinubu Administration has used the mid-term review to repeatedly make claims that they have arrived at the turning point in improving the lives of Nigerians. They are talking but are not communicating. The stories Nigerians are talking about today pertain to their lived reality, which is the deepening of poverty, widening inequality, growing insecurity, massive unemployment, poor healthcare and education services. At the same time, Nigeria is witnessing the coercion of the media and the shrinking of civic space. In other words, Nigerians are not enjoying the dividends of democracy they had been promised.
At the same time, opposition party leaders who are massively defecting to the ruling party are being offered an Eldorado they cannot refuse. The rate of one-directional movement into the ruling All Party' Congress is so massive that many analysts fear that a scenario for single-party rule is being prepared. The scenario being prepared is to evacuate all candidates that are not praise singers to the present regime from presenting themselves as credible alternatives. It is a civilian equivalent of General Abacha forcing all the parties in the Third Republic to declare him as their presidential candidate.
The core challenge to democracy in Nigeria has been the reckless and rising levels of corruption by the political class that is making governance impossible. Even the country's main source of revenue, petroleum, is stolen and Nigeria is finding it difficult to generate sufficient revenue to carry out governmental tasks. It is getting worse. Increasingly, even the revenue that is available is being embezzled by reckless officeholders. Kleptocracy is making governance impossible, as monies meant for security, the provision of social services and the construction of infrastructure projects are stolen and governance is grinding to a halt. At the same time, current economic policies have created an unprecedented cost of living crisis as so many farmers find it impossible to farm due to rural insecurity. The elimination of a level playing ground for free, fair and credible elections in 2027 poses the risk of provoking system collapse and popular revolt. This is the outcome that all people of goodwill should play a role in avoiding. Nigeria needs to take a new turn in which the governing class wakes up to its sense of enlightened self-interest and takes the war against corruption seriously so that public resources could henceforth be used for the public good. This would create a new situation in which respect for democratic principles and practices return and confidence in the system grows. Why shouldn't I dream? IT'S HAPPY DEMOCRACY DAY.
Professor Jibrin Ibrahim
Senior Fellow
Centre for Democracy and Development, Abuja Follow me on twitter @jibrinibrahim17
--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin To post to this group, send an email to USAAfric...@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDial...@googlegroups.com
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html <http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html>
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/CAPWX8rU6%2BefFC1m%2Bhjq8uRBc%3D3sMN8zuFC_6AorNLRdo9H1Zfg%40mail.gmail.com <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/CAPWX8rU6%2BefFC1m%2Bhjq8uRBc%3D3sMN8zuFC_6AorNLRdo9H1Zfg%40mail.gmail.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> .
--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin To post to this group, send an email to USAAfric...@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDial...@googlegroups.com
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html <http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html>
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/BYAPR06MB45171814B6179F871C96CF4EF871A%40BYAPR06MB4517.namprd06.prod.outlook.com <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/BYAPR06MB45171814B6179F871C96CF4EF871A%40BYAPR06MB4517.namprd06.prod.outlook.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> .
--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin To post to this group, send an email to USAAfric...@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDial...@googlegroups.com
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html <http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html>
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/MW6PR01MB8272FDAE99535CA770B2D446DE71A%40MW6PR01MB8272.prod.exchangelabs.com <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/MW6PR01MB8272FDAE99535CA770B2D446DE71A%40MW6PR01MB8272.prod.exchangelabs.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> .