From a hopeful citizen,

By way of pen and paper.

To those born after June 12,

Wherever they are,

As long as they are Nigerians.

Dear Sir/Ma

TO THOSE BORN AFTER JUNE 12

Every year, on the 12th of June, the victory of Bashorun Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola (MKO) in the 1993 polls is celebrated. Let me remind you that this election has been said to be the most free and fair election that has been conducted on the soils of Nigeria.

The intent of this write-up, is not to add to the multiplicity of voices that have heralded at different times the MKO gospel and mandate. As against that, I want to talk about what this election holds for Nigerians, not everyone in Nigeria though, but for those that were born from the 13th of June, 1993, till now and then forward.

I was having a chat with a much respected senior friend, and that chat has birthed this write up. During the course of the chat, he was jesting at me for having missed the popular June 12 saga. By the way, I was only two months and a week old when the whole saga happened.

I remember very vividly what he and another participant in the chat said…”So, all you know about MKO is all you saw in books”.

Was it my fault that I missed it? NO…I have no say in whatever day I arrive planet earth, or what country I would be born to. If I had that choice, you can be sure of one thing, Nigeria will be a …

Having missed the whole saga, I still have something to boast in though, I was alive when it happened…that I think is why the title of this article is what it is…that I may “in my mind” have an edge on those who were born after the saga. Albeit, this article is about those of us who were not able to participate in the saga, whether living or unborn at the time it happened.

So, to my friends “feeling fly” about being born two years to the saga…as regards this, we are in the same group.

I, and I’m sure you, have heard at different times and in varying quarters the hopes that MKO held for this country. As a matter of fact, in some quarters, it is believed that the future of Nigeria died with MKO. If that is true, then we Nigerians, of all nations are the most miserable.

Little wonder therefore it holds, why Nigerians came out en-masse to defend what they considered as the hope of Nigeria being swept into the drain by a government many consider as callous.

From the different stories I heard about the saga, one thing was constant “Eje Sun”, that means there was the splash of blood. So many people died all in a bid to defend what they felt was Nigeria’s last hope.

As regards whether MKO truly held any hope for Nigeria, I have my opinion, but permit me not to bore you with my stance and why I have taken such.

What is more important to me is the way people defended “their hope”. Not minding the consequences of such, they defended it.

And I know you are, somewhere in your head, asking how this is of any concern to you. Of course it is. If those people think that Nigeria’s hope needed to be defended as such a time which many consider as being better that now, what then should we do as such a time as this when the situation of the country is at an all time low.

We already have missed what I call “the hope saga”, let’s create ours. I’m not asking us to take out to the streets, neither am I asking us not to. I’m only asking that we create our history, not for the sake of satisfying our ego or getting back at those who have laughed at us for missing the saga (they were just having fun), but I’m asking us to create a saga that posterity will remember us for.

We couldn’t do anything about the protests then, but we can create a Nigeria that will be worth defending.

I bet that somewhere in your head, as much as you want to believe that Nigeria is hopeless, you still believe that you have what it takes to succeed. So, what I’m asking is simple, why don’t you join that hope you have in yourself with that of others in themselves.

Let me tell you what this will lead to; if we all can come together as young people and also bring together our individual hopes and aspirations and out of it form a collective mission statement for the country, then in years to come, by striving together with resilience, we would have created the Nigeria of our dreams.

The Nigeria where the generation after us are eager to have dreams because they have a surety that in the collective goal of the country, their personal hopes and aspirations cannot but go unfulfilled.

I am counting on you and myself, generations unborn are counting on us. Let’s forget the struggles of time immemorial and let’s take the first steps, like that of a baby learning to walk, into making the Nigeria we desire

That it might be said concerning us “they missed the MKO saga, but they have created the bliss”.

I think that’s a story far better than participating in the MKO saga. I think that’s the story our kids yet unborn deserve to hear. The story of the new Nigeria created by the generation that missed the MKO saga.

What do you think?

Source: http://www.newsinnigeria.org/2013/01/a-letter-to-those-born-after-june-12.html