Civil Rights activist and president, Women Arise (WA), Dr. Joe Okei-Odumakin, has said June 12 was a struggle against election fraud.
Odumakin, however, lamented that such fraud has since become the countrys political culture, pointing out that election space had been totally militarised and monetised as people, according to her, speak about hundred million Naira being spent like sachet-water and thousands of dollars for delegates in the face of an impoverished populace.
Besides, the rights activist, who noted that the occasion would afford the opportunity to remember heroines and heroes, said that the answer to the most strident question of what changed remained “both nothing, and everything!”
Okei-Odumakin said this yesterday, in an issued statement, titled: June 12: A weight on our collective conscience, just as she further noted that election cases had also not faired well before the countrys judiciary when one considers the curious possibility of a candidate ending up in the governors office from the fourth position on the ballot.
Okei- Odumakin declared that the transformation of the winner of the June 12, 1993, presidential poll, Chief Moshood Abiola, was unforgettable, saying history had also recorded the rest who joined in the struggle for the actualisation of the mandate and their roles.
However, the WA president, while noting that June 12 presents itself to us as a status mark on the global timeline where we have been left behind even by some African countries, charged that now was the time to draw breath and pursue a restructuring of the country.
According to Okei- Odumakin, who lamented the only missing item in June 12 struggle is the finishing as the civil society entrusted the politicians with its success, no single region of the country could make restructuring possible, adding that those who had seen the vision couldnt afford to wait for those who had not.
Speaking further, Okei-Odumakin posited that it was not enough to just remember June 12 as was bring done on yearly basis, saying that rather, it must be taught and approval should not be sought to teach kids their past.
