Former Minister of Foreign Affairs Sule Lamido has criticized President Bola Tinubu over the selection of individuals honoured for their roles in the June 12, 1993 election struggle, accusing him of recognizing the wrong people.

In a statement titled “June 12” from a Participant sent to the Nigerian Tribune over the weekend, Lamido argued that many of those who truly fought for the actualization of the June 12 mandate were sidelined, while others who “fled the country or stayed silent” during the height of the crisis were rewarded.

Lamido, who served as national secretary of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) during the historic election, said President Tinubu’s Democracy Day speech ignored the real actors who laid the groundwork for the election that produced MKO Abiola as president-elect.

He said: “Amusingly, all known June 12 activists, who were then docile or ‘sidon look’ or who had taken refuge outside Nigeria for fear of Abacha, are now among those celebrating and claiming the victory of June 12.

“And those who resisted every effort by Babangida to continue after annulling June 12, as well as those who fought Abacha, are now shamelessly being ignored, all in an attempt to rewrite history. No amount of deconstruction and reconstruction to stand history on its head can bury the truth.”

Lamido quoted parts of his recent autobiography Being True To Myself, noting that the struggle for June 12 did not start on that date, but began with the groundwork laid as early as June 11.

He said: “It must be clearly understood that there was June 11 before June 12.

“All the heroes listed in the speech by President Tinubu on the 2024 Democracy Day speech — none but a very few were in SDP on June 11.”

Lamido also questioned Tinubu’s involvement in the early campaigns.

“In the campaigns we undertook in all the states of the federation, none of them was there, not even President Tinubu himself. Babagana Kingibe can attest to this,” he said.

He accused the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO) of hijacking the June 12 narrative and reducing a national struggle to a sectional one.

“The June 12 was a national accomplishment. The elements in NADECO simply snatched away the finished product, at the end of the mill, and by so doing sectionalized, trivialized, and diminished an otherwise national sacrifice, bereft of today’s religious, regional, ethnic, and ephemeral politics.

“Typical of their character, they believed more in the bathwater than the baby,” he added.