Democracy Day: June 12, Honor the Mandate, Secure the Legacy, Sustain the Day
Open Letter To The President His Excellency, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR
Democracy Day: June 12, Honor the Mandate, Secure the Legacy, Sustain the Day
By Mashood Erubami
Open Letter To The President
His Excellency, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR
June 12, 2026 – Honor the Mandate, Secure the Legacy, Sustain the Day
June 12, 2026
*Dear Mr. President,*
Today Nigeria marks the 8th observance of June 12 as Democracy Day. It is a day born in blood, betrayal, and defiance. It is a day that demands more than speeches. It demands justice, memory, and action.
*June 12, 1993* was the moment Nigerians tore down the walls of tribe, religion, and region to vote as one people for Chief Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola, GCFR. He won decisively. He won in Kano. He won in every conscience that believed in the ballot. That victory was annulled, and with it, the trust of a nation was stabbed in broad daylight.
We remember the dungeons, the torture, the exile, and the bullets. We remember the men and women who chose Nigeria over their safety. You were one of them under NADECO. When the state turned on you, you fled for your life while others stayed behind as foot soldiers in the Campaign for Democracy, CD. We kept the fire alive in Abiola’s living room in Ikeja until the jackboots left in 1999.
June 12 took its highest toll from the Abiola household. MKO Abiola was murdered in custody. Kudirat Abiola was gunned down on June 4. Scores of others died so that you and I could argue, vote, and disagree freely today.
We acknowledge what has been done: the GCFR honour, the renaming of the National Stadium, and the declaration of June 12 as Democracy Day. These are steps. But steps do not close a wound. Only truth and restitution do.
*Mr. President, the circle remains open.*
The struggle will not feel complete until Chief MKO Abiola is officially declared posthumously as the winner of the June 12, 1993 election and his portrait hangs in the gallery of former Presidents where it belongs. Anything less is half-measure. Anything less tells Nigerians that the will of the people is still negotiable. The time for symbolism without substance is over. Do it now, while you have the power and the moral authority.
*On your watch, Nigeria has moved.*
Three years into the Renewed Hope Agenda, the hard choices have begun to bite and to yield. Subsidy removal and FX unification have tripled sub-national revenues and eased the debt chokehold. Security forces have pushed back bandits, kidnappers, and insurgents from the levels you inherited. Labour unrest is down. Universities are staying open. Abandoned roads and projects are being completed. Student loans, local government autonomy, state police frameworks, and forest rangers are no longer slogans but policy directions.
These are not excuses for complacency. They are the baseline for what Nigerians now expect: relentless war on insecurity, hunger, and poverty; institutions that cannot be bought; and elections that cannot be stolen.
*Mr. President, history will not ask if you were a participant in June 12. It will ask if you completed it.*
You sit at the intersection of memory and power. The Hope ’93 mandate and the Renewed Hope Agenda are linked. One was stolen. The other must not be wasted.
*Therefore, as we mark June 12, 2026, we demand the following to sustain the day and its meaning:*
1. *Official Declaration and Recognition*: Issue a presidential proclamation formally declaring Chief MKO Abiola the winner of the June 12, 1993 presidential election. Place his portrait in the Presidential Gallery without further delay.
2. *Institutionalize June 12*: Enact legislation to make June 12 a permanent, non-negotiable Democracy Day, with funding for civic education in schools and public institutions on its history and meaning.
3. *Justice for June 12 Martyrs*: Establish a Presidential Panel to review the cases of all June 12 activists killed, detained, or exiled, and provide state recognition and reparations where due.
4. *Electoral Integrity*: Use the remainder of your term to deliver electoral reforms that make rigging impossible and make every vote count. The best way to honour June 12 is to ensure it never happens again.
5. *Accountability on Renewed Hope*: Publish a midterm-to-date scorecard on security, inflation, jobs, and infrastructure, with clear timelines and consequences for non-performance. Nigerians deserve truth, not spin.
6. *National Unity Pact*: Convene a non-partisan national dialogue to reaffirm the June 12 principle that Nigeria works only when every tribe, faith, and region sees itself in the state.
Mr. President, the blood of June 12 is not a campaign slogan. It is a covenant. Sustain the day by matching memory with action. Sustain it by refusing to let power become the thing that killed the mandate in 1993.
On behalf of those who bled, those who died, and those who still believe, we say: finish what was started. Honour the mandate. Secure the legacy. Make June 12 UNTOUCHABLE.!
*Happy Democracy Day. Nigeria is watching. History is writing.*
Respectfully,
*Comrade Mashood Erubami*
Past President, Campaign for Democracy (CD) AND STRONG
NADECO ALLY,
President & Convener, Nigeria Voters Assembly, (VOTAS) AND
Coalition for Democracy in Nigeria,(CODIN). CODIN
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