Abdulmumuni, son of the late Chief MKO Abiola, has bemoaned the lack of progress in the country since 1993.
Speaking on the June 12 (Democracy Day) the late Alhaja Kudirat Abiola’s son lamented that the education and health sectors had collapsed.
President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday signed into law the Public Holiday (Amendment) Bill, making June 12 a public holiday in the country.
It also becomes the country’s official Democracy Day, replacing May 29, which hitherto was a public holiday.
The President took the decision to honour the presumed winner of the June 12, 1993 presidential election, MKO Abiola.
But Abdulmumuni said June 12 should be a day of national sober reflection for Nigerians as the “people are getting poorer and the poverty rate is increasing”.
Abdulmumuni, who was at the National Centre for Women Development in Abuja on Monday to receive an award on behalf of his late mother, who was inducted into the Nigerian Women Hall of Fame alongside 21 others, said, “The recognition of June 12 as Democracy Day will get people thinking.
“I don’t think it should be a day of celebration. It should be a day of reflection of where we are as a country and where we are going. It is important that we should know that for the decisions we make today, there are consequences.
“This is because those who made the decisions to truncate the Nigerian people’s yearning for democracy in 1993 would now see that sometimes when you make certain decisions, you must see the consequences.
“The country is worse off than it was in 1993. My father was trying to address certain issues like poverty eradication and free education. But what is going on in the country now? The education system is dilapidated. The health care system is nothing. People are getting poorer and the rich are getting richer. The poverty rate is increasing. I think the idea is that June 12 should be a day of reflection and I believe we can get out of this situation.”
The Director-General of the NCWD, Mrs Mary Ekpere-Eta, said the objective of the induction was “to showcase the unique and immense productive capacities of Nigerian women and make their achievements more visible in national development records”.
The late Dr Stella Adadevoh, Senator Oluremi Tinubu, Senator Binta Garba and Mrs Folorunsho Alakija were among the inductees.
Punch
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