‘Our democracy must not be taken for granted,’ Tinubu speaks on significance of June 12

All Progressives Congress National Leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, on Tuesday appraised Nigeria’s democratic evolution, saying as important as it is, May 29 does not carry the weight of significance that June 12 carries in the country’s democratic sojourn.

He said what the country had been commemorating on May 29th of every year since the democratic restoration of 1999 has been the day of the handover of power from the military regime to the elected civilian administration.

As important as it certainly is, “May 29 does not carry the weight of significance that June 12 does in Nigeria’s democratic evolution. May 29th is at best an arbitrary date on which the military chose to hand over the reins of power to an elected civilian government in 1999,” he pointed out.

Asiwaju Tinubu stated this in a special statement on the occasion of June 12 celebration which he personally signed.

In the statement titled “June 12: The Truth that Sets Democracy Free in Our Land,” the APC leader said observing May 29 as Democracy Day delinks the country’s democratic experience since 1999 from the protracted and bitter struggle against military dictatorship from June 12, 1993, till the forced exit of the military in 1999”.

Read also: On June 12 we stand

According to him “without those who stoutly stood on June 12 and sacrificed life, limb, freedom, economic ruin, psychological devastation and more in the battle against tyranny, there would most certainly not have been any May 29, 1999, handover to commemorate”.

He urged Nigerians not to take the democracy we enjoy today for granted or do anything to threaten its existence because it was not won on a peaceful and comfortable “platter of gold”.

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