Posted by According to Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu, the country gained its second independence in 1999.
To honor the occasion of this year’s Democracy Day, Tinubu gave a speech during his first statewide broadcast.
He likened the relentless assault for democracy that was launched against the nullification of the presidential election that took place on June 12, 1993 to the “battle against colonial rule by our founding fathers that resulted in the gaining of Nigeria’s independence in 1960.”
After resistance by a resurgent civil society against the unjust annulment of widely acknowledged free and fair Presidential election held on June 12, 1993, which was presumably won by the late Moshood Abiola, the President of Nigeria referred to the return of democratic governance in 1999 as the country’s “second independence.” This occurred 24 years after the return of democratic governance in 1999.
According to Tinubu, “Just like the anti-colonial movement, the pro-June 12 vanguard demonstrated, once again, the enduring validity of the 19th-century historian Arnold Toynbee’s eternal postulation, that civilization and societies experience progress as they are forced to respond to challenges posed by the environment.” Tinubu was referring to the idea that civilization and societies experience progress as they are forced to respond to challenges posed by the environment.
“The unjust annulment of a widely acknowledged free and fair election was a challenge that elicited resistance by a resurgent civil society,” which “led ultimately to the attainment of our’second independence,’ as exemplified by the return of democratic governance in 1999,” according to the author of the article.