And it came to pass that since the annulment of the June 12, 1993 election, more presidential elections have been conducted, winners inaugurated, Bashorun MKO Abiola officially recognised as an elected president with a post-humous national honour to boot, monuments named after him, national holiday declared, frontline activists elected into office or rewarded with appointments, and national honours conferred on pro-democracy campaigners… that is quite some progression, isn’t it? When then are we going to draw a line under the bitter memories of June 12 and progress with our nation-building project? Or should we spend the next 100 years trading blame and revising history?
I am saying this because I was puzzled with what Alhaji Sule Lamido, former governor of Jigawa state, said recently about President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. By the way, Lamido was the national secretary of the defunct Social Democratic Party (SDP), the platform on which Abiola contested and won the June 12, 1993 presidential election. He was left out of the national honours conferred on prominent June 12 supporters. Lamido and his mentor, the late Alhaji Abubakar Rimi, ex-governor of Kano state, were instrumental in Abiola’s victory in Kano and Jigawa. It is important to note that the late Alhaji Bashir Tofa, the presidential candidate of the National Republican Convention (NRC), was from Kano state.
Speaking to Arise recently, Lamido said: “Luckily, we were all there and participants in that affair of political history. I was in the middle of it. Tinubu became relevant and noticeable after Abacha took over the government. With all respect to him, he was part of those people who supported Babangida’s annulment of June 12. He was part of them. His own mother, Hajia Mogaji from Lagos, organised the Lagos market women to Abuja to support Babangida. I’m saying this because it is history. I mean no harm or disrespect. I feel highly entertained by Tinubu’s rhetoric, the way he is dramatising his own role in Nigerian democracy. He was actively hand-in-glove with Babangida.”
There are some things I know about June 12, either directly or from what I heard from the key actors. There are things I do not know. I will comment on what I know. As for Tinubu being hand-in-glove with Babangida over the annulment, I do not know. I never heard such a story. As for what Tinubu’s mother told Babangida in private when she met with the military president after the annulment, I do not know either, so I cannot comment on it. But as per Tinubu’s mother mobilising market women to Abuja to support the annulment, that must have happened on the moon. I was old enough then, having done national service in 1992/93 and started by journalism career in the middle of the crisis.
Tinubu’s aides have responded to Lamido’s allegations and denied his disingenuous claim that Tinubu did not play any role in the June 12 election. They also quoted what Tinubu, then a senator, said on the floor of the senate concerning the annulment, which he condemned in strong words. They recalled how he worked with other senators in trying to reconvene the senate after the National Assembly was shut down by Gen Ibrahim Babangida in the wake of the annulment. They narrated how he was arrested and detained. These are on record and verifiable. Olusegun Adeniyi’s latest book, ‘The Ghost of June 12’, is a robust compendium on the events around the historic election.
There were two sides to June 12: before and after the annulment. What Lamido did not say was that after the annulment, he and the late Chief Tony Anenih, the SDP chairman, met with the military government and traded away the mandate, negotiating instead for the formation of an interim national government (ING) to conduct a fresh presidential election. In fact, on the eve of Babangida’s departure (“stepping aside”) from office on August 26, 1993, leaders of the SDP, including Anenih and Lamido, and those of the NRC, including Chief Tom Ikimi (chairman) and Alhaji Usman Alhaji (secretary), issued a joint statement calling for an ING to be set up to fill the looming power vacuum.
But we should also remember that Anenih was not in Abiola’s corner: he was the pick of the Shehu Musa Yar’Adua camp for party chairmanship. Still, we must understand that SDP and NRC were military creations and were run as parastatals, funded by the government. Only brave politicians could dare the military rulers. The Anenih angle had a context, though. At the SDP convention in Jos in March 1993, Abiola needed two rounds to clinch the presidential ticket. He won the first round with 3,617 votes while Kingibe came second with 3,225 and Alhaji Atiku Abubakar (Yar’Adua’s candidate) was third with 2,066. (Delegates voted for three candidates each, in order of preference.)
The second round was a run-off between Abiola and Kingibe. Abiola did a deal with the Yar’Adua camp and secured their support, polling 2,683 votes to Kingibe’s 2,456 in the keen contest. Anenih, from the Yar’Adua camp, then got the SDP chairmanship. With Abiola failing to pick Atiku as his running mate, the Yar’Adua camp felt betrayed. It was, therefore, not surprising that the Yar’Adua camp was unhappy and reluctant to warm up to Abiola after he picked Kingibe. From what I heard, it was Gen Olusegun Obasanjo, to whom Yar’Adua was eternally loyal, who persuaded his former second-in-command to support Abiola in the presidential election. Indeed, it was like an order.
But when things began to fall apart with the annulment of the election, the Yar’Adua camp swiftly moved on and Anenih was ever ready to do a deal with the military government for an ING — which itself was said to have been the brainchild of Obasanjo who wanted “to save Nigeria from another civil war”. The annulment of a presidential election was a new experience for Nigerians — it had never happened before. Babangida had previously annulled the presidential primaries of the SDP (won by Yar’Adua) and NRC (ahead of a run-off between the late Alhaji Adamu Ciroma and the late Alhaji Umaru Shinkafi) on allegations of widespread irregularities, as if we ever had perfect elections.
Kola Abiola said in 2019 that Tinubu lobbied for appointment under Gen Sani Abacha who overthrew the ING in November 1993. That could be true. Actually, many politicians who worked for his father’s election were made ministers by Abacha. This clearly had Abiola’s blessing. Lamido’s mentor, Rimi, as well as Kingibe, Alhaji Lateef Jakande, and Chief Ebenezer Babatope were Abacha’s ministers. Lamido himself got a plum job in a government agency. Abiola visited Abacha at Dodan Barracks in company with Tinubu after the coup. I was shocked as I watched Abiola go soft on Abacha on NTA after the meeting, but the word in town was that Abacha would restore the mandate to him in April 1994.
With Abacha consolidating power after gaining credibility with Abiola’s associates in his cabinet, Abiola began to lose out. April 1994 came and went, no dice. The National Democratic Coalition (NADECO), led by Chief Anthony Enahoro, was founded in May 1994 to fight for the restoration of the mandate. The NADECO phase blasted into full swing and Abiola went on to declare himself president in June 1994, after which he was arrested. He never saw his home again until his body was brought back in a coffin in July 1998. When the NADECO era started in 1994, Abiola’s associates were asked to pull out of Abacha’s cabinet, but they refused, insisting that they were serving Nigeria, not Abiola.
In truth, they were afraid of Abacha’s guns. Abacha fired Chief Olu Onagoruwa, his attorney-general, for publicly disowning nine decrees issued in one day by the government. Onagoruwa’s son was thereafter murdered by gunmen who reportedly escaped in the vehicle of a military officer. Many June 12 campaigners, including Tinubu, fled the country as Abacha launched a campaign of targeted assassinations and arson. As time went by, many of Abiola’s erstwhile political associates, including Rimi and Lamido, decided to participate in Abacha’s transition programme. Both were detained for criticising the programme when it became apparent it was a charade to perpetuate Abacha in power.
In the end, there were no perfect actors in the June 12 series. That is why we have to end the bitterness, draw a line and face the future. It is an integral part of our history but we must not allow it to hold us down. Nation-building is not a tea party. It could be a long, winding, hard and painful process. The most important thing is to keep making progress per time. And we cannot make progress for as long as we get stuck in the past, reopening old wounds and trying to re-write or manipulate history. I do not in any way advocate that we should forget our history. We cannot. We must not. I am advocating that we should let the wounds heal in peace. There is still a tomorrow.
AND FOUR OTHER THINGS…
GOOD NIGHT, C.O.
Chief Cornelius Olatunji (“CO”) Adebayo, the former governor of the old Kwara state, died at the age of 84 on Wednesday. I enjoyed a few weeks of UPN’s free education when he was briefly governor in 1983. I got one or two text books. I also recall attending a service at UMCA, Gaa Akanbi, Ilorin, circa 1988, where he, as guest preacher, told the story of an artist who painted Jesus and the 12 disciples and asked someone to point out Judas. The person tried to pick the worst-looking disciple. But, in fact, Judas looked like a regular guy, like you and me. And that was the message. It was the only time I saw “CO”, but his reputation as an upright Nigerian leaves indelible marks on my memory. Adieu.
UMAR GONE-DUJE
The sudden resignation of Dr Abdullahi Umar Ganduje as the national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has sent tongues wagging. Although he gave “medical grounds” as his reason, the 75-year-old former governor of Kano state has obviously been worsted by the weight of Dr Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, who is expected to return to the APC which he co-founded in 2013 after leaving the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Ganduje was deputy to Kwankwaso from 1999-2003 and 2011-2015 before governing Kano from 2015-2023. Theoretically, Kwankwaso will come to the APC with roughly one million votes in his pocket. Ganduje will struggle to garner half a million. Intriguing.
TAXING REFORMS
President Bola Tinubu has finally pushed his signature tax reforms through by signing the four major bills into law: the Nigeria Tax Act, aimed at simplifying tax and eliminating duplication; the Tax Administration Act, for ease of collection; the Nigeria Revenue Service Act, to create the Nigeria Revenue Service (NRS) in place of FIRS; and the Joint Revenue Board Act, to improve co-ordination and create a dispute resolution mechanism for tax payers. There will be six months of public education before the laws become into effect. Some low income earners will be exempted from income tax. Luxury consumers will pay more. Let’s hope the reality will not be taxing. Observing.
NO COMMENT
Members of the Ghana Drunkards Association (GDA) will go on a nationwide demonstration any moment from now over the rising cost of alcohol. The cedi, the Ghanaian currency, recently appreciated against the dollar, so the drunkards expected alcohol prices to drop. Instead, they rose by about 15 percent. Mr Moses Drybones, president of the GDA, asked President John Mahama to engage with them within three weeks or face nationwide demonstration by “approximately 16.6 million members”. My gut feeling is that Drybones was heavily drunk when he made the threat. In that case, maybe their protest should be to boycott beer and be sober for three weeks. Hahahaha.
•Written By Simon Kolawole
