Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa, has voiced his criticism of President Bola Tinubu’s recent June 12 Democracy Day speech, stating that it merely recounted history without addressing the current issues at hand.
During an appearance on Channels Television’s Morning Brief, Adegboruwa expressed his disappointment, emphasizing that the speech failed to tackle the pressing challenges that Nigeria’s democracy is facing.
“I carefully listened to the president’s speech, and unfortunately, I cannot agree that anything has changed,” Adegboruwa asserted.
He argued that despite commemorating the significance of June 12, which marks the annulled 1993 presidential election believed to have been won by MKO Abiola, the government has not made substantial progress in upholding democratic principles.
“I regret to say that I am not impressed by the President’s speech, as it merely revisits history,” the Senior Advocate remarked, emphasizing that greater expectations are placed on someone like Tinubu, who played a prominent role in the democratic struggle and now holds a position of power.
“In my opinion, looking at the past year and our collective history since the fight for democracy began, things have worsened, and nothing has changed,” the rights activist emphasized.
The Human rights lawyer stated that the June 12 struggle aimed to ensure the recognition of the annulled 1993 election by the military. He added that it also sought to establish true federalism in Nigeria.
According to him, the dream was to ensure that subsequent elections would be better than the one in 1993. However, Adegboruwa argues that this dream has been deferred for too long, as even the elections that brought Tinubu into power raised various unanswered questions, even after a year.
Adegboruwa expressed his expectation that “on a day like this, all Nigerians who are being held in custody wrongfully should be released.”
