Adegboruwa Condemns Democracy Day Speech
A Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa, has condemned President Bola Tinubu’s June 12 Democracy Day speech, describing it as simply a retelling of historical events, noting that none of the country’s urgent national concerns were tackled.
Adegboruwa made these remarks during an interview on Channels Television on Wednesday.
He said, “I listened to the speech of the president, unfortunately, I am unable to agree that anything has changed.”
The senior lawyer stated that, despite recognising the significance of June 12, 1993, which marks the annulled presidential election thought to have been won by MKO Abiola, the government has made no concrete progress in safeguarding democratic values.
Adegboruwa said, “I am sorry, I am not impressed in anyway at all by the speech of the President, in the sense that it is just rehearsing history.”
He added that more is expected from President Tinubu, who was at the forefront of the democratic struggle and who now is at the helm of affairs.
“For me, looking at the past one year and indeed, our collective history from the time we started agitating for democracy, things have gotten worse, nothing has changed at all,” he said.
According to the human rights lawyer, the June 12 struggle was motivated by a desire to see the 1993 election, which was annulled by the military, recognised.
According to him, the dream was to ensure that subsequent elections were practically better than those held in 1993, a dream he claims has been postponed for far too long, given that even the polls that brought Tinubu to power raised numerous questions, some of which remain unanswered one year later.
Adegboruwa said, “I expect that on a day like this, all Nigerians who are being held in custody wrongfully should be released”.
He added that on a day like this, constituent units of the nation should be engaged to ascertain if truly what Nigeria practices are the principles of a true federation.
Adegboruwa stated that the June 12 occasion should provide Nigerians with a road map for achieving true democracy, a critical component of the day’s celebration that he believes the president overlooked in his speech.