20 years after the June 12, 1993 presidential election
which produced the late Chief MKO Abiola as
president, Human Rights lawyer, Festus Keyamo, has
come down heavily on Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole
Soyinka, the late Gani Fawehinmi, the late Beko
Ransome-Kuti and a host of other activists involved in
the June 12, struggle, stating that their selfishness led
the country to its current messy state.
Keyamo, who stated this in an interview with an
online medium, noted that the failure of the activists
to take control of the political situation in the country
in 1999, at the inception of the country’s democracy,
as was the case in South Africa, where activists in the
anti-apartheid movement formed the African National
Congress, led to the emergence of undemocratic
elements in government.
“The June 12 was not managed at all in the post-1999
period. The people who were at the epicenter of June
12 struggle failed to seize power and abdicated their
roles for funny characters who came from absolutely
nowhere. That is why you can see all forms of
undemocratic forces in power today,” he said.
Keyamo stated that the June 12 activists had formed
splinter groups where “everybody wanted to project
his ego and himself,” ahead of the 1999 return to
democracy, noting that “our greatest problem were
the factions in the ranks of the progressives. Where
you had JACON, NADECO, the G34, all kind of groups,
there was no unity of purpose. The thing is that they
progressives were not prepared for power. This was
because our leaders in the progressives had their
individual agenda.
The lawyer berated the development in the country
whereby people, who had never been part of the
struggle for democracy, were the ones calling the
shots in the country today,, noting that Nigerians had
formed the view that activists could not run
government because of the abdication by those who
agitated during the June 12 days.
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