Baba Aye's

The "June 12 struggle" was an interesting period in Nigeria's history. The story of the struggle goes beyond the election that was annulled and its custodian. And the story of the election and the roles different personages and organisations played in the high drama starts well before the six-year democratic revolution unfurled with the annulment.  I've written a bit about this important, somewhat tragic, somewhat farcical, but none the less definitive moment in Nigeria's history. One of the two articles one might be interested in looking up are " Nigeria: the six year revolution " which which was first published in 2008 in the Working People's Vanguard and again in 2015 in the Socialist Worker . The other is " The shadow of June 12 : June 12, the left and Nigeria's democratic revolution", which was published in the Republic in 2022 and which has been republished in its latest special print issue "Nigeria Imaginary", marking t...

Introduction Twenty years ago, what has been described as “the freest and fairest elections” in the history of Nigeria, held on June 12, eleven days after it was annulled and for six years, the country was never the same again. Bashorun MKO Abiola, the June 12 "custodian" Diverse views have been expressed by different interest groups on what “June 12” symbolizes. We shall put in perspective the events, class interests and developments within those six years of struggle, from the world view of the working class, drawing lessons for our struggles today and our historic goal of social change. 1986-1992: Prelude to a revolution The 1985 palace coup which brought the General Babangida junta to power was welcomed by most Nigerians, due to the neo-fascist character of the Buhari-regime, which most Nigerians had expected a lot from after the corruption-ridden and visionless 4-years episode of the second republic. IBB, who once described himself as an evil genius, pro...