The acting national chairman of Social Democratic Party, Professor Tunde Adeniran has assured Nigerians of SDP’s commitment and capability to banish poverty from the system and enthrone a nation run on truth, justice, reconciliation, integration and national unity.
He stated this on Wednesday when Nigerians and the International community congregated to dwell on June 12, 1993 Presidential election won by late MKO Abiola on the platform of Social Democratic Party.
The election, considered the freest and fairest was annulled by then military government headed by retired General Ibrahim Babangida.
SDP, in its Democracy Day commemoration message tagged “Beyond the Symbolism of June 12,” signed by Adeniran, the party commended President Muhammadu Buhari for taking the bold step in making the historic day a national holiday even as it chided past democratic administrations for glossing over the date.
Taking a trip down memory lane, the party described June 12 as a day religious fault lines counted for nothing as Nigerians of different faith rallied round a Muslim-Muslim ticket to cast their ballot in an election believed as the most freest and fairest in the political history of the nation.
“We must commit ourselves to ensuring that no more shall any Nigerian be too poor to access the very basic necessities of life.”
Further, the statement said “It is widely believed across the country as well as in the outside world that Nigeria would have made real progress in critical areas of infrastructural development and welfare of Nigerians if he (Abiola) was allowed to lead the country as President and to implement his grand ideas. In the annals of our nation’s political history and democratic evolution, the date, June 12, has come to symbolize the most epochal national event of contemporary Nigeria. It was a historic day when Nigeria truly existed as a nation through the unprecedented action of her disparate people who demonstrated, through the power of the ballot, the right sense of nationhood that transcended our bifurcating polarities. The momentous event of that day was, perhaps, one of the finest moments of our national life. June 12 epitomizes unbreakable will of the people.”
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