Presidential candidate for the National Rescue Movement (NRM), Esther Okereke, has urged Nigerians to look beyond the calendar when reflecting on June 12. She argues that this day represents a collective stand for democracy that transcends political affiliations.
In her Democracy Day address, Okereke recalled how, three decades ago, citizens from diverse ethnic and religious backgrounds came together not for a party, but for a shared national dream. She paid tribute to figures like Chief MKO Abiola, Kudirat Abiola, China Ubani, Gani Fawehinmi, Beko Ransom-Kuti, and countless unsung heroes—students, journalists, and activists—who risked everything for a Nigeria where children can learn in safety, mothers can access healthcare without begging, and young people can find jobs through merit, not connections.
“To forget them is to betray their sacrifice. Today, we remember. But remembrance without action is just mourning, and Nigeria is tired of mourning,” she declared in a statement released on Friday.
Okereke did not shy away from the nation’s challenges. “I will not deceive you. Democracy is in distress,” she said. “The courts you trust may falter. The votes you cast may disappear. The market where a mother sells garri sees her profits vanish to inflation by evening.”
She highlighted that 100 million Nigerians living in poverty is not a mere statistic—it is a neighbor, an orphan she helped last week, “it is you and me.” She insisted that pretending everything is fine would be dishonest, but stressed that Nigeria can recover through hard work, not magic. “Hope is not wishful thinking—it is a decision. I have made mine; now you must make yours.”
The NRM candidate called on the youth not to flee the country but to flee fear. “Your coding skills, your music, your entrepreneurial drive—that is the new oil.” She urged civil servants to serve with renewed pride and asked the diaspora to return home, not out of pity but in partnership and with shared resolve.
“Fellow Nigerians, the heroes of June 12 did not die so we could argue on social media. They died so we could work together effectively,” she concluded.
