MKO Abiola |
Today, marks the 21st anniversary of the
June 12, 1993 presidential elections. On that day, millions of
Nigerians trooped out to perform their civic duty of voting in what
arguably remains the best election ever conducted in Nigeria’s history.
For the first time since gaining political independence from British
colonial masters, Nigerians looked beyond their ethno-religious bias to
participate in an electoral process which, in spite of the then ruling
General Ibrahim Babangida-led military junta’s insincerity to relinquish
power, was properly planned and well conducted. Nigerians, who were
obviously tired of military rule, were united in their resolve to send
the military back to the barracks where the men and women in uniform
truly belong.
Continue reading after the cut.....
Twenty-one years after, the election,
which was sadly truncated by the IBB junta, is still being talked about
because for the first time in the nation’s history, contestants were
made to face the public through quality debates and healthy campaigns
that followed. Long before the Prof. Humphrey Nwosu-led electoral body
began a state by state announcement of the results, it was obvious to
Nigerians and the international community that Chief Moshood Kashimawo
Olawale Abiola had won the contest.
The late multi-millionaire businessman
and philanthropist, who contested on the platform of the now defunct
Social Democratic Party, carved a name for himself in the field of
philanthropy. The impact of his generosity was felt by individuals
within and outside his immediate community. Abiola, an Ogun State
indigene, was so accepted nationwide that he defeated the National
Republican Convention candidate, Alhaji Bashir Tofa, on his Kano
stronghold. When it became apparent that Chief MKO Abiola was coasting
to victory, Tofa was reported to have conceded defeat and sent him
congratulatory messages.
Nigerians trusted Abiola’s judgement so
much that no one raised an eyebrow when he picked a fellow Muslim,
Ambassador Baba Gana Kingibe, as his running mate. There were also
recorded cases of people giving out free gifts to strangers on receiving
news of an impending Abiola victory.
The nation was primed to begin a journey
into a new democratic order when the self-styled “evil genius,” General
Ibrahim Babangida, and his hardliner colleagues decided to throw
spanner in the works, by annulling the elections as they cited
irregularities only he and his anti-democratic colleagues saw.
Babangida’s irresponsible behaviour
threw Nigeria into chaos and pushed the nation to the brink of war.
Twenty-one years have not wiped out the memory of a golden opportunity
missed. Soon after the annulment, Nigerians across ethno-religious
divides again came together to denounce the military and called for a
return of the mandate they freely gave to Abiola. A former Military
Governor of Kaduna State, Colonel Dangiwa Umar, resigned his commission
in protest of the Babangida-induced June 12 debacle.
There were protests in most cities of
the country. Several Nigerians lost their lives in the street marches
and clashes with armed military personnel; some were forced into exile
as a result of the crackdown which followed. However, there were
individuals who worked hand in glove with the military to truncate the
people’s will.
A cabal made up of top military brass
and their cohorts in the political class who obviously felt threatened
by an Abiola Presidency, secretly plotted against him. Babangida was
forced to abdicate and install the lame duck Ernest Shonekan-led Interim
National Government. After waiting for over a year with his mandate
nowhere in sight, Abiola took his destiny in his hands when on return
from a search for foreign support to claim his mandate, declared himself
the lawful President of Nigeria on June 11, 1994. His address, which he
delivered in Epetedo, Lagos, included an announcement that he has
formed a Government of National Unity (GNU) which he was to head.
Abiola declared, “Our patience has come
to an end. As of now, from this moment, a new Government of National
Unity is in power throughout the length and breadth of the Federal
Republic of Nigeria, led by me, Bashorun MKO Abiola, as President and
Commander-in-Chief. The National Assembly is, hereby, reconvened. All
dismissed governors are reinstated. The State Assemblies are
reconstituted, as are all local government councils. I urge them to
adopt a bi-partisan approach to all the issues that come before them. At
the national level, a bi-partisan approach will be our guiding
principle.
I, hereby, invoke the mandate bestowed
upon me by my victory in the said election, to call on all members of
the Armed Forces and the Police, the Civil and Public Services
throughout the Federal Republic of Nigeria, to obey only the Government
of National Unity that is headed by me, your only elected president.”
Shonekan’s government was kicked out by
the then Secretary of Defence, General Sani Abacha, who subsequently
purged the military of his real and imagined enemies and ordered Chief
Abiola’s arrest and detention. This led to more protest marches and an
unprecedented industrial action by oil workers, followed by civil
servants and civil society groups. Scores of people died in the struggle
to actualise that mandate, which some of those who are today direct
beneficiaries of the struggle, would want to wish away, but has remained
engrained in the hearts and minds of Nigeria’s democrats.
The struggle to actualise the mandate
came at a great personal cost to the Abiola family. They did not only
lose their patriarch and breadwinner, who died mysteriously after years
in detention, his wife, Kudirat, was gunned down by state sponsored
agents.
Abiola died at a time many thought he
would be set free from detention to claim his mandate after Abacha died
in mysterious circumstances. An Abiola ascension to power was not to be
as the anti-democratic evil cabal had plans of their own, leading to a
mysterious death of the late extraordinary philanthropist.
Nigerian politics has never been the
same since then. Although both Abiola and Abacha, his
tormentor-in-chief, are dead, the nation appears to still be paying for
the injustice mated out to the former, in particular, and Nigerians in
general.
The divisive ethno-religious/regional
politics is back. Much as most politicians would prefer to live in
denial, the nation is today at crossroads. The political crisis
currently rocking the body polity has taken a regional dimension with
northern politicians claiming it is their turn to rule. The south,
particularly the South-South, is insisting that incumbent President
Goodluck Jonathan, has a right to seek for another terms and must be
allowed to do so.
An activist, Awual Musa Rafsanjani
argues that those who reduce the June 12 1993 elections to the person of
Abiola were missing the point. He noted that Abiola remains a symbol
because his candidacy united Nigerians across most of what many consider
fault lines which has stunted Nigeria’s socio-economic and political
growth over the years. He said, “What we should look at today is the
opportunity which that election offered us as a people.
Those who went out to vote, those who
joined in the campaigns, those who went on exile, those who were
imprisoned and those who paid the ultimate price did not make this
sacrifice because Abiola was Yoruba or that he picked Kingibe, another
Muslim as running mate. We all came together because our collective
mandate which we freely gave was snatched in the most insulting manner.”
Campaign for Democracy, one of the
several groups which gained prominence during the struggle to actualise
the June 12 mandate, said Nigeria would benefit greatly from imbibing
the spirit of June 12. President of CD, Dr. Joe Okei-Odumakin, said it
was regrettable that 21 years after the heroic election adjudged
globally as the best in the political history of the nation, “nothing
substantially has changed” about our politics.
She said, “As we celebrate the heroes
and heroines of Nigeria’s democracy and as Nigeria marks yet another in
the history of her democratic watersheds, CD once again harps on the
need for patriotic and democracy-loving Nigerians to go back to June 12
for the answers to the myriad of problems that are currently confronting
our nation state, chief among which is to get our politics right.”
Okei-Odumakin stressed the need for all
Nigerians to rededicate themselves to the struggle for genuine democracy
through credible elections, an enduring constitution and adopting
measures that will hold our leaders accountable.
On the whole, what we need to do as a
people is for us to be told the truth about what happened, then we
should collectively acknowledge it, and make amends. This way, we would
learn from our mistakes and genuinely set the nation on the path to
greatness.”
-Punch
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