June 12: Yoruba Coalition To Honour Tinubu, Uba Sanni, Others

President-elect, Asiwaju Ahmed Bola Tinubu, will on June 12 this year be conferred with Distinguished Award for Courage as part of the activities to mark the 30th anniversary of the June 12, 1993 presidential election annulment.

Others listed for awards are the governor-elect of Kaduna State, Comrade Uba Sani, Ekiti State Governor Abiodun Oyebanji, Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo Olu and other front runners whose names will be announced soon.

Also for posthumous awards are Pa Alfred Rewane, Chief Anthony Enahoro, Pa Abraham Adesanya, Dr Beko Ransome Kuti, Pa Adekunle Ajasin and Comrade Chima Ubani among others.

In a statement in Lagos, Alliance of Yoruba Democratic Movements (AYDM), a coalition of 121 community-based and human rights groups in the old Western Nigeria, by far the largest Pan Yoruba coalition, said the award is in recognition of the role played by Tinubu, Uba Sani and others in the struggle for the actualisation of the June 12 election.

According to them, the award also takes into consideration the key political figures who stand out in the consolidation of democracy.

The AYDM said since 1960, Nigeria has never produced a president from the rank and file of the radical pro-democracy movement until the February 2023 elections adding that past civilian presidents of Nigeria haven been largely rookies of the military who imposed them on Nigerians making it difficult for the country to break the jinx of underdevelopment and godfatherism.