Shehu Sani, activist and senator representing Kaduna
central, says most of the people in power have not
paid any price for democracy in the country.MKO
Abiola’s men who forced the military out of power
were the same men who ejected the Peoples
Democratic Party (PDP) in 2015.

Speaking at the Lagos residence of MKO Abiola on
Monday, Shehu said but for the likes of the late
politicians, there would have been no democracy in
Nigeria.

He said Abiola’s men who forced the military out of
power were the ones who ejected the Peoples
Democratic Party (PDP) in 2015.

The even was part of activities to commemorate the
June 12 1993, election, which Abiola won by a
landslide.

“He (Abiola) was a victim of a brutal military regime
and a fractured political class. A political class that
started with him and left him. The Nigeria of today, the
democracy we are savouring today was not a gift
given to us by the military,” he said.

“It was a product of struggle sacrifice. From Kano to
Kaduna, Lagos to Ibadan, Enugu and Port Harcourt,
Nigerians trooped out to vote for Abiola, and in the
same cities organised protest, civil disobedience
campaigns to force the military out of power.

“Without the struggle of June 12, there would not have
been democracy in Nigeria. The change that we
experience in 2015 election was part of the seed of
June 12. It was the same forces that forced the
military out of power that rallied Nigerians to eject the
PDP out of power.”

He said Nigerians must always remember the
sacrifices of Abiola and other people who fought for
democracy.

“We must always remind ourselves when we can;
where did we come from? We come from a moment
when Nigeria was in a moment of darkness when
hundreds of activists were thrown in jail, when the likes
of Chief Gani Fawehinmi of blessed memory, Dr Beko
Ransome Kuti, Olisa Agbakoba, and several others
were all sent to jail.

“At a time, I can remember, Tell Magazine had a map
of Nigeria, where they would state the name of every
political activist and the prisons they were kept. That
was the species of Nigerians who sacrificed their life to
free this country.

“This democracy was the sacrifice of conscious and
awakened Nigerians. Nigerians who were genetically
not compromising.”

Sani added that the fifth national assembly made a
resolution that the Abuja National Stadium be renamed
after MKO Abiola, but nothing of such had been done.

TheCable