Why did Tinubu omit Odigie-Oyegun from his list of NADECO chieftains in his Democracy Day broadcast? By Imadiyi Osemwekha

In his address broadcast on Democracy Day, 12 June 2024, in commemoration of the 25th anniversary of unbroken civilian rule and 31st year of the annulment of the 1993 presidential election adjudged to have been won by Chief Moshood Abiola of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), President Bola Ahmed Tinubu applauded the heroes – dead and alive — of the struggle by pro-democracy advocates for the reversal of the annulment. He recalled: “For at least six years, they bore the pains and difficulties of life in exile.” He also extolled the contributions of “their comrades at home” who “sustained the pressure on the military brass hats”

However, missing from the lists are several notable Nigerians who risked their lives fighting the cause. Perhaps the most memorable of these – both because of his national profile and stature before and now — is John Odigie-Oyegun.

A couple of those who felt unjustifiably omitted from the mentions have openly protested the slight. What makes the omission even harder to swallow is the fact that John Odigie-Oyegun is one of the co-founders, with President Tinubu, of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2014; on which platform Tinubu’s predecessor, Muhammadu Buhari, became president in 2023.

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However, the ever reticent, humble and equanimous 84-year-old bureaucrat, activist and politician would be the last to echo a protestation. He’s wont, typically, to take it in his dignified strides.

But lovers and respecters of historical exactitude are concerned. They wonder:

• Who doesn’t know John Evboyomwan Odigie-Oyegun?

When he retired from government service in the mid-1980s, Chief Odigie-Oyegun went into politics and was elected governor of Edo state on the platform of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in 1992-1993. Following the overthrow, by the Sani Abacha junta, of the Interim Government installed by Ibrahim Babangida in 1993, his governorship in Edo state came to an abrupt end in November 1993

• Who doesn’t know the Nigerian public servant of distinction-turned politician, who is fondly remembered as the man who led an opposition party, as APC chairman, to unseat an incumbent president for the first time in Nigeria’s political history?

• Who doesn’t recall how Chie Odigie-Oyegun teamed up with other patriots to resist the annulment by the military junta of the June 12 1993 election?

Who doesn’t know that Chie Odigie-Oyegun co-founded the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO) to take on the military head-on great personal pains to its leaders?

Elected chairman of the Odigie-Oyegun led the opposition party to secure for Muhammad Buhari, a former military head of state, victory over incumbent president Goodluck Jonathan of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in 2015. He served until 2018.

• Who doesn’t know that John Odigie-Oyegun went into exile overseas, where he was, for four years, the executive secretary of the coalition in London?

If his omission from the lists of NADECO pro-democracy activists in his Democracy Day 2024 broadcast was inadvertent, President Tinubu must genuinely reach out to Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, with whom he was in exile in the United Kingdom during the tumultuous period, with a bagful of sincere apologies to the elder statesman.

However, if the omission was deliberate, those behind the contrivance will stand condemned for disservice to historical exactitude.

• Osemwenkha is of New Nation (Nigeria?) Engagement Platform (NNEP), a global initiative for constructive ideas to reform Nigeria’s politics and governance.