June 12 Might Happen Again In Nigeria – Saraki Warns

Former Senate President, Bukola Saraki, has declared that no country in the world can be prosperous with a weak parliament in a democratic setting.

According to him, there is a difference between government opposition and putting checks and balances in place.

Naija News reports that Saraki, who spoke during an interview with Vanguard, said if Nigeria does not build strong institutions, the country may experience another June 12 episode.

He explained that the protests and demands that followed the June 12 presidential election in Nigeria stemmed from people wanting their voices to be heard through the vote.

The former Governor of Kwara State added that it is important for Nigeria to build strong institutions that will outlast strong men and leaders.

Buttressing his point that strong legislatures are not enemies of the state, the former Senate President said a strong legislature promotes transparency, which is a bedrock for a strong and better democracy.

In his words, “To fellow public servants, let us retire the lie that strong legislatures and strong nations are enemies of the state.

“They are the same thing. There has never been a stable, prosperous, free country anywhere in the world built on a weak parliament. Not one. Name me one. There is not one.

“The difference between military rule and democratic rule is the legislative arm of government. We are here today as free citizens of a democratic republic because a generation before us decided that the voice expressed through a vote must be held.

“They did not have strong institutions. But they protested. They demanded. Do we think it is possible for a repeat of June 12? For as long as our institutions are not strong enough, unfortunately, it might happen again.

“Our task for this new generation is to ensure that institutions are strong enough to outlast strong men. By insisting that the legislature is independent, transparent, capable, and close to the people. Democracy is not a single election or a single office. It is a daily act of tending to it and ensuring it survives.”

“A strong legislature promotes transparency. Transparency inspires public trust. Public trust strengthens democratic legitimacy. And democratic legitimacy produces stability. That, ladies and gentlemen, is how we will have a better and stronger democracy.”

June 12 in Nigeria is recognized as Democracy Day, a national public holiday honouring the country’s return to civilian rule. It commemorates the historic, annulled June 12, 1993, presidential election widely considered the freest and fairest in the nation’s history, where Chief Moshood Kashimawo Olawale (MKO) Abiola was the presumed winner.

According to Saraki, the June 12 election was annulled because the country’s institutions that should have protected the people’s votes were weak.

“The lesson is plain: we did not lose democracy in 1993 because the people failed.

“We lost it because the institutions that should have defended the people’s verdict were too weak to do so.

“The remedy is not less politics. It is stronger institutions. At the centre of these institutions stands the legislature,” he argued.

The former Governor urged the legislature to always rise to the occasion as the voice of the people, rather than allowing pressure and frustrations to build up in the polity.

“When citizens are angry, they have representatives to petition. When a community feels abandoned, a senator can raise their name on the floor. When a policy threatens to ignite a region, there is a chamber where it can be debated, amended, softened. Block that valve, and the pressure does not disappear. It finds far more dangerous ways out,” he said.