Shehu Sani: Most of the people in power haven’t paid any price for democracy

Shehu Sani, activist and senator representing Kaduna central, says most of the people in power have not paid any price for democracy in the country.MKO Abiola’s men who forced the military out of power were the same men who ejected the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in 2015.

Speaking at the Lagos residence of MKO Abiola on Monday, Shehu said but for the likes of the late politicians, there would have been no democracy in Nigeria.

The event was part of activities to commemorate the June 12 1993, election, which Abiola won by a landslide.

“He (Abiola) was a  victim of a brutal military regime and a fractured political class. A political class that started with him and left him. The Nigeria of today, the democracy we are savouring today was not a gift given to us by the military,” he said.

“It was a product of struggle sacrifice. From Kano to Kaduna, Lagos to Ibadan, Enugu and Port Harcourt, Nigerians trooped out to vote for Abiola, and in the same cities organised protest, civil disobedience campaigns to force the military out of power.

“Without the struggle of June 12, there would not have been democracy in Nigeria. The change that we experience in 2015 election was part of the seed of June 12. It was the same forces that forced the military out of power that rallied Nigerians to eject the PDP out of power.”

He said Nigerians must always remember the sacrifices of Abiola and other people who fought for democracy.

“We must always remind ourselves when we can; where did we come from? We come from a moment when Nigeria was in a moment of darkness when hundreds of activists were thrown in jail, when the likes of Chief Gani Fawehinmi of blessed memory, Dr Beko Ransome Kuti, Olisa Agbakoba, and several others were all sent to jail.

“At a time, I can remember, Tell Magazine had a map of Nigeria, where they would state the name of every political activist and the prisons they were kept. That was the species of Nigerians who sacrificed their life to free this country.

“This democracy was the sacrifice of conscious and awakened Nigerians. Nigerians who were genetically not compromising.”

Sani added that the fifth national assembly made a resolution that the Abuja National Stadium be renamed after MKO Abiola, but nothing of such had been done.