The senator representing Ekiti Central Senatorial District, Senator Opeyemi Bamidele, has said the concept of June 12 has united Nigerians in all spheres, irrespective of religious and tribal sentiments.
The Chairman, Senate Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters, maintained that the annulled election and everything it stood for has strengthened the bond of unity among people across the nation.
Bamidele made this known in a statement on Friday to commemorate the Democracy Day celebration, while saluting the martyrs and victims of the presidential election, especially Chief MKO Abiola and other pro-democracy Nigerians who lost their lives.
“June 12, 1993, was so symbolic in Nigeria’s political history. It represented a day when all Nigerians eschewed ethnic and tribal considerations and voted a candidate of their choices in the most recognisable democratic fashion.
“The fact that the late Abiola of the Social Democratic Party and a Yoruba man of the Southwest extraction could win in Kano, where his Chief opponent, Alhaji Bashir Tofa, hailed from, indicated that the poor masses cared less about ethnicity and tribalism.
“After the cancellation of the result by the then Military Junta, the people across South, West, East and Northwest, East and Central stood in unity to condemn the action and they all called for the revalidation of the poll results.
“The lesson from this was that, our leaders should stop misleading the masses through divisive tribal and ethnic politics.
“An average Nigerian cares less about tribe, all they quest for is improved standard of living from any leader, wherever he may have come from.
“The task now for our leader is to devise ways of healing the wound inflicted on our nation by politicians , who looked for ethnic and religious faultlines to rip the country apart.
“Our leaders must return us to the pre and pro June 12, 1993 days for our nation to regain its strength of unity and bounce back to global reckoning as a nation that waxes stronger in unity,” Bamidele advised.