Besides invited heads of government, none of Nigeria’s former president nor heads of state attended the June 12 Democracy Day celebration which held o
Besides invited heads of government, none of Nigeria’s former president nor heads of state attended the June 12 Democracy Day celebration which held on Wednesday at the Eagle Square, Abuja. The former presidents and Heads of state were scheduled to be seated at the venue of the event at 9:35 a.m., but they were all conspicuously absent at about 10:06 when President Muhammadu Buhari arrived the venue.
The event is the first since Buhari approved June 12 as Democracy Day in honour MKO Abiola, the presumed winner of the 1993 presidential election. It would be recalled that May 29 had been observed as democracy day since the return of democracy in the country in 1999. Buhari took his oath of office for his second term on May 29, but major events of the programme were moved to June 12.
While Yakubu Gowon, former head of state, attended the May 29 event, Abdulsalami Abubakar, Ibrahim Babangida, Ernest Shonekan, former interim president, Olusegun Obasanjo and Goodluck Jonathan, were all absent at the celebration. At the June 12 celebration, none of them turned up.
The African presidents in attendance at the Democracy day celebration were President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz of Mauritania; President Paul Kagame of Rwanda; President George Weah of Liberia; President Denis Sassou Nguesso of Congo; and President Nana Akufo-Addo of Ghana.
President Macky Sall of Senegal; President Adama Barrow of Gambia; President Mahamadou Issoufou of Niger Republic; President José Mário Gómes Vaz of Guinea-Bissau and President Patrice Talon of Benin Republic were also present at the celebration.
