National Assembly passes bill to make June 12 Democracy Day

The Senate on Thursday concurred with the Public Holiday Act (Amendment) Bill passed by the House of Representatives, which approved June 12 as the new Democracy Day.

This followed a presentation of conference report by Leader of the Senate, Sen. Ahmad Lawan, at plenary on Thursday.
In his remarks, the President of the Senate, Dr Bukola Saraki put the conference report to a voice vote and it was adopted by the lawmakers.

NAN reports that in the bill, which was passed by the House of Representatives on Nov. 26, 2018, the current democracy date, which is May 29, was deleted and replaced with June 12.
On June 12, 1993, presidential election was held and adjudged to be the freest in the country’s history.
However, the results were annulled by the then Head of State, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida.

In the process of reclaiming his mandate, one of the presidential candidate who was reported to have polled most votes, Mr Moshood Abiola lost his life.
NAN reports that 25 years after, President Muhammadu Buhari in 2018, announced that the nation’s Democracy Day would hold on June 12 of every year as against current arrangement where the ceremony holds on May 29.
The National Assembly however needed to amend the public holiday act to give the directive a legal backing, to make it binding.
Meanwhile, the Senate concurred with five other House of Representatives bills.
They are: Federal Capital Territory Area Councils Service Commission, Nigeria Natural Medicine Development Agency, Projects Development Agency Enugu PRODA, Data Protection Bill.