Every June 12, Nigeria confronts a scar that refuses to heal. For those who lived through it, the date evokes a stolen mandate, crushed by military boots. For younger generations, it carries the weight of sacrifice and an unfinished story.
More than three decades after the annulment of the 1993 presidential election won by Chief MKO Abiola, June 12 remains a stark reminder that democracy was never handed down—it was clawed from the grip of tyranny, paid for with exile, prison, and blood.
This year’s Democracy Day carried a peculiar irony. President Bola Ahmed Tinubu bestowed national honors on pro-democracy activists, NADECO veterans, and soldier-democrats who stood against General Sani Abacha’s dictatorship. Among them was Colonel Sambo Dasuki (rtd), former National Security Adviser and a figure often overlooked in Nigeria’s democratic struggle.
On the surface, the recognition seemed fitting. But for those familiar with the twists of Dasuki’s journey, the honor stirred more than celebration. It reopened questions about loyalty, sacrifice, and the unforgiving nature of power. Both Tinubu and Dasuki were frontline fighters in the resistance against military rule.
Tinubu, then a senator in the aborted Third Republic, became a key financier and leader of NADECO. Forced into exile after the Abacha regime targeted opposition figures, he helped sustain the international campaign for democracy.
Dasuki’s path was equally perilous. As a serving military officer, he openly opposed the annulment of the June 12 election and later challenged military rule. Forced into exile by Abacha, who also deposed his father as Sultan of Sokoto, Dasuki worked behind the scenes with pro-democracy groups abroad, keeping international attention on Nigeria’s struggle.
Yet Dasuki’s story neither begins nor ends with June 12. One of the greatest ironies of Nigerian politics is that the man later imprisoned under President Muhammadu Buhari was among those who helped bring Buhari to power in the first place.
In a revealing 2018 interview, former Emir of Gwandu, Alhaji Mustapha Jokolo, who served as Buhari’s Aide-de-Camp after the 1983 coup, disclosed that Major Sambo Dasuki played a pivotal role in the military takeover that ended Nigeria’s Second Republic. According to Jokolo, Dasuki mobilized support, secured resources, and coordinated key aspects of the operation that installed Buhari as military Head of State.
“It was Sambo Dasuki who facilitated it,” Jokolo said. “He did a lot, honestly speaking. Sambo was the one getting money from Aliyu Gusau and Chief of Army Staff votes to support the coup.”
Decades later, Dasuki’s commitment to Buhari’s political ambitions remained intact. In his book, An Encounter with the Spymaster, PR practitioner Yushau A Shuaib recounts Dasuki’s extraordinary efforts to persuade opposition leaders to support Buhari’s presidential aspiration ahead of the 2011 election. Dasuki personally appealed to then Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) leaders, including Chief Bisi Akande and Bola Tinubu, urging them to support Buhari as the consensus joint presidential candidate.
According to Shuaib, Dasuki “knelt down begging Baba Bisi Akande,” insisting that “Buhari is a man to be trusted.” The account was corroborated by Chief Bisi Akande in his 2021 book, My Participations.
History, however, took a different turn. When Buhari emerged as Nigeria’s democratically elected president in 2015, Dasuki became one of the first major casualties of the new administration’s anti-corruption campaign. Accused of involvement in the diversion of funds for arms procurement during his tenure as NSA to President Goodluck Jonathan, Dasuki was arrested and detained. Despite multiple courts granting him bail, the orders were ignored. He remained in detention year after year.
His incarceration became a symbol of a troubling contradiction: a democracy struggling to reconcile its anti-corruption agenda with respect for constitutional rights and judicial independence. Dasuki consistently maintained his innocence, challenging the legality of his prolonged detention.
Contrary to widespread belief that Dasuki led the team that arrested Buhari during the 1985 coup, former Borno State military governor, Colonel Abdulmumini Aminu (Rtd), publicly clarified that he led the three-man team that arrested the then Head of State.
Dasuki was eventually released in December 2019—after Buhari had secured re-election and passed the most politically vulnerable phase of his presidency.
How does a political ally become a political prisoner? Perhaps only Buhari could answer that. The man many had helped elevate turned against one of his most committed supporters.
That irony is now part of Nigeria’s democratic history. Tinubu’s decision to honor Dasuki on Democracy Day carries significance beyond ceremony. It underscores the reality that Nigeria’s democratic journey is neither simple nor linear. Heroes become villains. Allies become adversaries. Victims rise again. And power reshapes relationships in ways that defy logic.
As Nigeria marks another June 12, Dasuki’s story stands as a cautionary tale about the fragility of political loyalty and the enduring complexity of democratic struggles. Democracy may have triumphed over military rule, but the human stories woven into that struggle remain unresolved. Perhaps none is more poignant than that of a man who helped bring a leader to power—twice—only to spend years wondering why that same leader chose to imprison him.
