Democracy Day is a national public holiday in Nigeria to commemorate the restoration of democracy in 1999, commemorated on 12 June. ^[1] Until 2018, ^{[2] [3]} it was celebrated annually on May 29. ^[4] It is a tradition that has been held annually, beginning in year 2000. June 12 was formerly known as Abiola Day , celebrated in Lagos and some south western states of Nigeria. ^{[5] [6]}

History [ edit ]

Background [ edit ]

Nigeria gained independence from Great Britain on 1 October 1960. ^{[7] [8]} For most of its independent history, Nigeria was ruled by a series of military juntas , interspersed by brief moments of democratic rule (for example from 1979 to 1983 with Alhaji Shehu Shagari ). The last major military ruler was Gen. Sani Abacha , who died suddenly on Monday in 1998. ^[9] His successor, Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar promised a transition to democracy, and accordingly a new constitution was adopted on May 5, 1999. Elections were held and retired Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo, who had previously governed Nigeria as a military ruler, was elected the new president.

Democracy Day [ edit ]

May 29 was initially the official democracy day in Nigeria, marking when the newly elected Olusegun Obasanjo took office as President of Nigeria . On June 6, 2018, eight days after May 29, 2018, had been celebrated as Democracy Day, the government of president Muhammadu Buhari declared June 12 to be the new Democracy Day. ^[10] This was done to commemorate the democratic election of Moshood Abiola on June 12, 1993, which were wrongly cancelled by the government of Ibrahim Babangida . Abiola was later detained after he rightfully declared himself the president.

Others [ edit ]

The Nigerian Democracy Day theme song was written by Attih Soul on the directives of the Buhari led administration in 2017 as part of the celebration to mark the day. ^[11]

See also [ edit ]

• Democracy Day in other countries.

References [ edit ]