June 12: Babangida devoured our democracy like Saturn

Festus Adedayo dropped a heavy piece yesterday on how democracy in Nigeria has been like Saturn devouring its own child. He recalled sitting in Aso Rock back in 2000/2001 waiting for Obasanjo's media chat and his mind went to Francisco Goya's painting of Saturn eating his son. He said that painting fits Ibrahim Babangida perfectly because inside that same Aso Rock Babangida tried to gobble the democratic Nigeria we fought for during the June 12 crisis.

Nigerians thought May 29 1999 was our arrival from Egypt to the promised land. We sang victory songs like "Ìwonpápá, ìwonnà/A ti m'óyè yìí je/Ìwonnà…" thinking the khaki nightmare was over. But 27 years later look at us. The same military boys just changed into agbada and continued the same work. The broken bottle on our forehead and bludgeon on the back that Adedayo talks about is still very much our reality today.

Be honest. Has democracy actually given us anything different from what we had under the generals?