As Nigeria marked the anniversary of the June 12, 1993 election, widely regarded as the freest in the nation’s history, the pan-Yoruba sociopolitical group Afenifere has renewed calls for constitutional restructuring, urging President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Nigeria’s political elite to make it a top priority ahead of the 2027 general elections.
In a strongly worded statement, Oba Oladipo Olaitan, Afenifere’s leader, lamented the state of Nigeria’s democracy, describing it as a “pseudo democracy,” and declared that only a comprehensive reconfiguration of the country’s political structure could address the long-standing consequences of the June 12 annulment.
“Another anniversary confirming that June 12, 1993 evidently happened to Nigeria is here again.”
“Chief M.K.O. Abiola and his pan-Nigerian mandate were killed by the self-serving political wing of the military and their collaborators. Very many innocent lives were lost,”
Afenifere said in its commemorative statement.
The group argued that Nigeria has remained a “mere geographical expression” since the 1914 amalgamation and warned that without meaningful restructuring into a true federation, progress would remain elusive.
It also took aim at the political system, particularly the winner-takes-all approach and the expensive governance model, blaming these for widespread injustice, ethnic tension, and national disunity.
“There must be a fundamental shift away from the ‘winner-takes-all, buy-and-sell modality of capturing political power.”
“A new governance framework to be embodied in a new constitutional order is the silver bullet that will likely restore order to what we all know as a mere geographical territory,”
the statement added.
Afenifere expressed deep concern over what it termed the “unbridled latitude” of the Nigerian presidency under the 1999 Constitution, arguing that the office has become both excessively powerful and financially unsustainable.
“It is no longer sustainable to maintain the large paraphernalia of office and bureaucracy at the expense of the masses.”
“A new constitution has become the irreducible minimum to guarantee the shift of emphasis towards rapid infrastructural development to the benefit of ordinary citizens,”
the group declared.
Despite the daunting nature of overhauling the current political structure, Afenifere insisted that time still permits the drafting and adoption of a new constitution before the 2027 elections, calling it the most viable path toward restoring Nigeria’s democratic promise.
