Wole Soyinka performs experiment to prove that June 12 is greater than May 29. June 12 is the darling of civil society groups and personalities in Nigeria. Everything – from speeches to interviews to rallies – is done on that day to ensure that it gains a more prominent place in the consciousness of Nigerians that May 29, the day democracy finally returned to Nigeria with the swearing-in of Olusegun Obasanjo as president in 1999. Wole Soyinka, Nigeria’s Nobel Laureate, has charged Nigerians to attach more significance to the celebration of June 12 as it is more valuable than the day officially celebrated as Democracy Day in the country. Soyinka said: “We need to remind ourselves what June 12, 1993 represents. It is neither mere date, nor sentiment. It is simply – Human Spirit. What a futile undertaking it is then, when some individuals attempt to deny or crush it. Yet it was the power of this very Spirit that brought such out of relegation or obscurity, even from the jaws of death, and bestowed upon them relevance and prominence. “What June 12 possesses is exactly what May 29, or any other day, lacks. The former was a spirit of unified purpose, the latter simply an egotistical appropriation of the gift of the former. June 12 embodies unity of purpose, equity and justice, the manifestation of the sovereign will of a people. It remains forever a watershed of Nigerian history, no matter what the future holds.” To prove his point, Soyinka urged Nigerians to “try a simple experiment: narrate the story of May 29 to a child and watch his or her reaction. On that day – that child would concede – an individual was installed as a compromise president following a compromise election. So, what’s new? “Now move on to unfold the tapestry of June 12. Run your finger along its traceries of citizen resolve, upheavals, of individual and group heroisms, of sacrifices and martyrdoms, the timeless narrative of human resilience. Watch the difference in that child’s responses. Yet, even the beneficiaries of that day persist in their futile effort to kill the date and supplant it with another.”
Posted on: Wed, 19 Jun 2013 01:52:31 +0000
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