Remembering that historic Buhari’s apology

Recall that President Muhammadu Buhari, on June 12, 2018, the anniversary of the annulment of the presidential election of June 12 1993, had done what three presidents before him were either not willing or unable to do. Not even President Olusegun Obasanjo, the kinsman of the presumed winner of that election, the late Chief Moshood Kashimawo Olawale (MKO) Abiola, gave a thought to honouring this political matyr. But Buhari, 25 years after, was able to do so.

At an investiture ceremony to honour heroes of June 12, Buhari apologised to the family of Abiola and confered on him a posthumous honours award of Grand  ommander  f the Federal Republic (GCFR). This was how the President explained his action: “It is aimed at starting a national healing process and reconciliation of the 25-year festering wound caused by the annulment of the June 12 elections. I earnestly invite all Nigerians across all our national divide to accept it in good faith. Our action today is to bury the negative side of June 12; the side of ill-feelings, hate, frustation and agony. What we’re doing is celebrating and appreciating the positive side of June 12.”

Buhari’s gesture has gone down well with members of Abiola’s household and June 12 sympathisers. This was what Abiola’s son, Kola, said about the apology on  investiture night: “(It is) a decisive measure to strengthen our democracy and guarantee our future by reconciling our past”. At the same, there followed critics, including Nobel Prize laureate Wole Soyinka, who think the President’s actions were self serving. They suspect that

Buhari’s gesture was offered with his sights set on the 2019 presidential election, then forthcoming. One month earlier in February, 2018, Buhari had then announced his intention to seek a second term. Soyinka, particularly, considered the President’s action “confusing”. He said, “It is not possible to honour MKO Abiola in one breath and admire his tormentor in another breath…”. By “tormentor”, Soyinka was referring to the late Head of State Gen. Sani Abacha who put Abiola in prison.

Whether done for a selfish poltical reason or under pressure from Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, the National Leader of the ruling APC party, Buhari’s actions should be commended.

The nation needed to put behind it the sad memory of June 12 and move on.

If what Buhari did came close to an election in which he would be a participant, it was not a crime. Former President Shehu Shagari did it in 1983 when he pardoned the villain of the Civil War, Chukwuemeka Odemugwu Ojukwu, his party even giving him a ticket to run for a seat in the Senate.

Rather than castigate Buhari, we should commend him for taking the first concrete step toward heeling a national wound that has festered for a long time, threatening national cohesion. Well done, Mr. President!