June 12: 24 YEARS AFTER!

I do not know how I escaped all the beatings and harassment that followed the annulment of June 12. I was in secondary school,  St. Helen’s Unity secondary school, Ondo, Ondo-state. I was fully aware of how our Princicipal Mrs Adeleye and her Vice, Mrs Ojuawo did everything they could to protect us,  an all girls, all boarders school, but, there was little they could do.
The protesters of course admist them were hoodlums, overpowered the security men and made their way through the gates to classrooms and hostels, beating, pushing and even molesting some of the girls. I really don’t know how i escaped, not even one stroke of cane hit me,maybe because of my ‘size-kolie frame’,lol!

And when you begin to think of all the sacrifices, mostly, supreme, all of which is meant to keep this country together, some people are still asking for war. June 12 was nothing compared to 1976 ( I was told o, i wasn’t even born yet,lol) I saw a bit of June 12 and I never wish it to ever happen again.
Despite having uninterrupted democracy for 18 years, we are still struggling to match the records of June 12, 1993. The freest and fairest election ever in Nigeria.  If we believe and know we are stronger together, a part of a whole body that makes the system function, we must continie to mend the helms of that garment till we get it right!

Is it still possible to achieve the June 12 victory, is it still possible to have a Presidential candidate or even a President that can be the rallying point for all the Geo-political zones,can Nigeria be great again, can we still go back to sleeping with all our eyes closed in comfort…. I believe the answer to these questions and many more unspoken ones is YES, as we are told and we believe, nothing is new under the sun, if it has happened before, it can happen again, only if we play our part.
We need to love ourselves genuinely not only based on what we can benefit from one another, we need to be our brother’s brother, not keeper…keepers keep to make ‘use’ for selfish reasons.
We need compassionate leaders who have genuine interest of the populace at heart, same with citizens. The bane of our society is, we were raised not to question ‘Constituted-authorities’, when we begin to ask questions and our leaders ensure they are accountable, we just might begin to have a headway!
May the souls of the departed and the symbol of June 12, Bashorun MKO Abiola rest in peace.