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• ‘How to regain it, avoid repeat of June 12 tragedy’
• Makes case for strong institutions
• Says he was a victim for standing for N/Assembly independence
By Olayinka Latona
Former Senate President Bukola Saraki has issued a stirring defence of the National Assembly’s role as the “load-bearing wall” of Nigeria’s democracy, arguing that the legislature must be strengthened and protected if the nation is to avoid a repeat of the June 12, 1993 tragedy. Speaking at The Platform Nigeria, organized to celebrate Democracy Day, Saraki opened his address by invoking the significance of June 12 — a date, he said, “the Nigerian state preferred to forget.”
“For a long time, this date was deliberately left out of the calendar of national memory. But yet, the people would not let it die. Year after year, citizens kept faith with its meaning,” the former Senate President said. He recalled the
