June 12: Tinubu’s speech rehearsal of history, nothing has changed — SAN, Adegboruwa

Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa, has described President Bola Tinubu’s speech on the June 12 Democracy Day as a mere rehearsal of history, saying none of the nation’s pressing national issues was addressed.

Adegboruwa stated this in an interview on Channels Television on Wednesday.

He said, “I listened to the speech of the president, unfortunately, I am unable to agree that anything has changed.”

The senior lawyer said despite commemorating the significance of June 12, which marks the annulled 1993 presidential election believed to have been won by MKO Abiola, the government has not made tangible progress in upholding democratic principles.

Adegboruwa said, “I am sorry, I am not impressed in anyway at all by the speech of the President, in the sense that it is just rehearsing history.”

He added that more is expected from President Tinubu, who was at the forefront of the democratic struggle and who now is at the helm of affairs.

“For me, looking at the past one year and indeed, our collective history from the time we started agitating for democracy, things have gotten worse, nothing has changed at all,” he said.

The Human rights lawyer said the June 12 struggle was borne in a bid to see that the 1993 election annulled by the military was recognized.

According to him, the dream was to make sure that subsequent elections will practically be better than what took place in 1993, a dream which he argues has for too long now been deferred, seeing that even the polls which brought Tinubu into power had various questions, some still unanswered one year one.

Adegboruwa said, “I expect that on a day like this, all Nigerians who are being held in custody wrongfully should be released”.

He added that on a day like this, constituent units of the nation should be engaged to ascertain if truly what Nigeria practices are the principles of a true federation.

Adegboruwa noted that the June 12 occasion should give Nigerians a road map of steps to be taken to achieve true democracy, a fundamental part of the day’s commemoration which he opines that the president failed to reflect in his speech.