Thirty-three years have passed since General Ibrahim Babangida’s junta annulled Nigeria’s freest and most credible presidential election on June 12, 1993. The following year, business mogul Moshood Abiola was illegally arrested and held in solitary confinement without trial for four years under General Sani Abacha’s brutal regime. This sparked a wave of popular sentiment and struggle against military rule that still resonates today.
But the story of June 12 didn’t begin with that election. Its foundations were laid years earlier, in the classrooms and streets of Nigeria, where students dared to challenge military authority. The April 1978 ‘Ali-Must-Go’ uprising, led by the National Union of Nigerian Students (NUNS), shattered the myth that military governments were invulnerable. It gave birth to the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) and changed the student motto from mere criticism to active resistance: “An Injury to One is An Injury to All.”
The struggle intensified through the 1980s. In 1989, NANS organized a fierce nationwide ‘Great Anti-SAP Uprising’ against structural adjustment policies. Students sang Peter Tosh songs, chanting “Down pressor man where you gonna run to on that day” and demanding “equal rights and justice.” When police threatened to shoot, protesters dared them: “Join us or shoot us!” The military was eventually deployed to crush the uprising, but the damage was done. Civilians no longer feared soldiers; the uniform had lost its mystique.
By 1993, when the June 12 election was annulled, the groundwork had been laid. Former student leaders populated the print media, civil society, and law firms, bringing their experience from years of anti-military activism. They commanded street protests and faced illegal arrests. The June 12 struggle was not an isolated event but the culmination of a long war against military rule.
Today, as Nigeria honors heroes and heroines of June 12, questions linger. What criteria determined these honors? Was the struggle truly for democracy, or did some simply fall out with despots? If the government is serious about June 12, it must declassify security reports so that emancipatory forces can study and act on them. The legacy of those who fought—from the ‘Ali-Must-Go’ uprising to the streets of 1993—demands nothing less.
