The supreme sacrifice that nurtured democracy : MKO

Across the length and breadth of the country, Nigerians of voting age, came out to elect Chief Moshood Abiola on June 12, 1993, who despite running alongside a fellow Muslim, garnered sufficient votes to win the presidential poll. In a dramatic twist however, the military government cancelled the election, sparking violent skirmishes nationwide, which culminated in the arrest, imprisonment and eventual death in mysterious circumstance of Abiola five years later. In this piece, DIRISU YAKUBU examines the significance of June 12 in the nation’s political history

Some have described it (June 12) as the biggest singular event, trailing perhaps only the attainment of independence in 1960. On June 12, 1993, 14 million Nigerians came out to exercise their civic responsibility and they did so with relish. Everywhere, Nigerians in their numbers craved an end to military dictatorship and were patient enough to ensure General Ibrahim Babangida’s maradonic transition programme to democracy eventually came to fruition. They were wrong! The phased transition programme, which took the form of diarchy, had already seen elected governors sworn-in at the various states, with the presidential election left to send the military back to the barracks. In his usual crafty disposition, gap-toothed Babangida, working hand-in-gloves with some civilian collaborators had disqualified the leading presidential candidates, Mallam Adamu Ciroma of the National Republican Convention and Shehu Yar’ Adua of the Social Democratic Party. As it were, the reasons advanced for their disqualification rested on allegations of fraudulent electoral manipulation in the primaries conducted by the two parties. Their disqualification would later pave way for the emergence of billionaire businessman and philanthropist, Bashorun Moshood Abiola for the SDP and Kano-based businessman, Bashir Tofar for the NRC. Both men were friends of IBB; a development the retired general complained bitterly about in his conversation with veteran journalist, Dan Agbese. As captured by Agbese in his brilliant biography of the Minna-Born General, titled, “Ibrahim Babangida: The Military, Politics and Power in Nigeria,” IBB recalled sharing with his trusted allies his worries that the standard bearers in the two-party system he foisted on the nation were his friends. “I told him (Tofa) in the presence of about 13 of his colleagues. I advised him not to seek election, I didn’t support him. He was not a winning candidate,” Agbese quoted the self-styled former military president as saying. As it were, Abiola was certainly not in the league of his NRC’s counterpart, having made himself popular with financial donations to worship centres (mosques and churches inclusive), sporting events as well as sponsorship of financially-handicapped children in elementary, secondary and higher institutions of learning across the land. Tofa, who had picked a southern Christian, Sylvester Ugoh, as his running mate was tipped by many pundits to clinch the grand prize just as Abiola’s decision to run on a joint ticket with a fellow Muslim, Babagana Kingibe, was labelled insensitive. But despite the religious plurality of the Nigerian State, Abiola was coasting home to victory when the election was annulled by General Babangida, on the advice of Arthur Nzeribe-led Association for Better Nigeria. The annulment sparked violent protest across the nation as democracy advocates, the media, civil society organisations among others, put their lives on the line in demand for the announcement of the result of the exercise. Unable to stand the heat, the military dictator “stepped aside” and handed over to London-trained lawyer, Ernest Shonekan, as head of the Interim National Government, who barely a few months in the saddle, was shoved aside by General Sani Abacha. There are unverified claims that Abacha had promised to restore Abiola’s mandate but with no visible commitment to deliver on that pledge, if ever he made one, Abiola took his destiny in his hands by declaring himself the President of Nigeria. Events that followed would culminate in the death of Abiola in 1998 in questionable circumstances after the dark-goggled General had joined his ancestors a year earlier. The man who succeeded Abacha, General Abdulsalami Abubakar, inherited a pariah state. The International community, having ostracized Nigeria and impose a legion of sanctions against her during the bloody rein of Abacha, rendered Abubakar with no choice than to find ways of righting the wrongs collectively inflicted on Africa’s largest nation by the duo of Babangida and Abacha. The military for the first time, agreed that the South-West whose son, Abiola, was not only denied his mandate but had his wife, Kudirat killed in broad day light by suspected agents of the state and died himself while in government custody, should be allowed to produce an elected President. They brought in the civil war hero, General Olusegun Obasanjo, who would go on to win the election on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party in 1999 and repeated the feat four years later in 2003.