Opadokun, Okunniyi Demands Return to Democratic System of Government

Elder statesman and former National Secretary-General of National Democratic Coalition (NADECO), Chief Ayo Opadokun, and the Convener of the June 12 Democracy Movement, Wale Okunniyi, have urged the country to return to a democratic system of government to enable ethnic nationality in the country.

They stated this Monday while playing guests on Arise TV Morning Show. They stressed that if it is done, the nation will utilise its resources to serve its people for progress and development, and anything short of that would amount to chasing shadows.

On his part, Opadokun lamented that the military frustrated the hopes and aspirations of the June 12, 1993 election through their surrogates and loyalists who had taken charge of the political and economic space of Nigeria. 

He said that though the country operates a civilian or democratic system of government, it does not seem to be running as one.

He said: “This is a deliberate slap on the face of those of us whom God used to fight for the campaign to call the military back to the barracks. There is so much regionalism going on in the country today. Most of the current actors were hand in glove with the military and are still pursuing the military agenda. That is why people like me are hurt by the consequence of Nigeria remaining an underdeveloped country 61 years after independence. A country with its human and natural endowments that have exported crude oil for at least 20 years at an average price of $100, and two million barrels of oil, cannot boast of any commensurate social services, including education, medical care, food and housing.”

Opadokun said: “The agenda of the crop of politicians that we have now are not genuine. They are only dancing around the grave of Chief MKO Abiola, the martyr of democracy.

“Nigeria, to date, is not on the right course. All the characters and elements are busy going to accept the evil design the military imposed on us since February  1966, and they keep on behaving as if God commanded it. The federal constitutional governance upon which Nigeria secured its independence has been substituted with military decrees, particularly decrees 1 to 9, ‘which states that you militarise governance in Nigeria’.”

“From all indication, the government of the day is of the rich, by the rich, and for the rich,” Opadokun said, adding that Nigeria’s problem is systemic.

Meanwhile, Okunniyi had said Nigerians fought for democracy on June 12, but the military circumvented it while foisting on the people what is manipulated and undemocratic.

He states, “What we have today is a civil rule, and in the last 29 years, instead of us moving forward, we are receding. We now have money politics or plutocracy,” adding that Nigeria’s unity, which the movement fought for is absent.

He added: “It is really sad, more so,  Nigeria’s unity that we fought for is not there.  We are divided that nobody believes in Nigeria anymore. We have not facilitated a united country. We are yet to have that through the constitution of the Nigerian people because what was foisted on us in 1998 was a military decree number 24, regarded as a constitution.”

Speaking further, he said he believes that such cannot drive democracy, and Nigeria can only have democracy if there is a truly democratic people’s constitution.