PHENOMENAL! This ten-letter word
best describes the June 12, 1993 presidential
election presumably won by the late Chief
Moshood Kashimawo Abiola, fondly called
MKO.
Of all elections that preceded the exercise in
Nigeria, June 12 stood out in every sense.
Indeed, the making of the event as a political
memorial and source of unending national
debate was a direct fall out of the actions of
some principal characters.
They are but not limited to Gen Ibrahim
Babangida (retd), Abiola, Alhaji Bashir Tofa,
Alhaji Babagana Kingibe, Chief Sylvester Ugo,
Chief Tony Anenih, Chief Tom Ikimi and Chief
Ernest Shonekan.
Others are Chief Frank Ovie-Kokori, Paschal
Bafyau, Sen Arthur Nzeribe, Justice Bassey
Ikpeme, Justice Dahiru Saleh, Abimbola Davies,
Prof. Omo Omoruyi, the late Gen Sani Abacha,
Chief Clement Akpamgbo, SAN, and Alhaja
Kudirat Abiola.
As each anniversary of June 12 struggles to put
the event in proper perspective in Nigeria’s
largely chequered socio-political narrative,
Smart360news beams its searchlight on the
dramatis personae. What has happened to them
since the poll, described as a watershed in
Nigeria’s political history, and where are they
now?
Babangida
For students of history, the name Babangida has
been a recurring feature in any discourse on
June 12.
This was primarily provoked by his position as
the President and Commander- in-Chief of the
Armed Forces at that time on whose desk the
buck stopped.
As head of the then Armed Forces Ruling
Council – the highest decision making organ of
the military junta - IBB, as he is fondly called,
claimed the regime annulled the poll in the
“interest of the state.”
In his June 26, 1993 broadcast to the nation, IBB
said: “In the circumstance, the administration
had no option than to respond appropriately to
the unfortunate experience of terminating the
presidential election. Our actions are in full
conformity with the original objectives of the
transition to civil programme.”
His administration was acclaimed to have
conducted the freest and fairest election in
Nigeria history but ironically annulled same.
Lately, rumour of his death had been making the
rounds but the former President debunked the
speculation from Germany.
Since stepping aside on August 26, 1993,
Babangida has been living in his Hilltop Mansion
residence in Minna.
Abiola
Abiola was believed to have won the June 12
presidential election and was pronounced so in
June 2008, 15 years after, by the chief electoral
umpire at the time of the poll, Prof. Humphrey
Nwosu.
That was also ten years after Abiola’s death.
Abiola, a business mogul, became the
presidential candidate of the defunct Social
Democratic Party, SDP, having emerged after a
fiercely contested primary on March 27, 1993 in
Jos, that had Babagana Kingibe and Atiku
Abubakar as his fellow aspirants. One of richest
Nigerians at that time and with great influence
on military rulers, it was easy for Abiola to
become the frontline aspirant.
His colourful campaigns across the country
proved it.
With the slogan, ‘Hope 93’, he tapped from his
extensive goodwill arising from his legendary
philanthropy across the country.
Abiola was known to have been conferred with
chieftaincy titles from many places across the
ethnic and religious divides. It was no surprise to
many Nigerians that he won the poll by 58
percent.
But his decision to reject the annulment was the
beginning of what is now known as the June 12
crisis.
Indeed, it is believed that had Abiola accepted
the annulment, June 12 would have become like
one of the several other political reversals that
characterized the transition programme of the
Babangida regime.
The election would have passed for any other
national event. But by insisting on his mandate,
the man, who abandoned the comfort that his
money could guarantee to seek public service,
largely made the event a watershed in the
nation’s history.
His July 7, 1998 death at the verge of freedom
literally brought to an end, the struggle for his
mandate. Many issues thrown up by his travails
are still unanswered till date.
Tofa
He was a largely unknown political figure at the
point of his nomination as the candidate of the
National Republican Convention (NRC) for the
June 12 presidential election.
The Kano based businessman was, however,
known as a very wealthy man who had
connections to the then ruling military class. His
money, connections and political clout were,
however, no match for Abiola who defeated him
in his home state of Kano.
The suggestion that Tofa would play the good
sportsman by conceding defeat failed and he as
such played into the hands of those in the
military who did not want the election to stand.
He has continued to defend the annulment to
the effect that the agitation for the mandate was
nonsense and the whole brouhaha about June
12 was fiction.
“People who have nothing to offer this country
or have nothing better to say can go on talking
about June 12 because they have nothing else to
say to help this country move forward,” Tofa had
famously said.
Tofa currently resides in Kano where he
sometimes comments on national issues.
Kingibe
Kingibe was the Chairman of the SDP, the
platform on which Abiola contested the election.
With immense influence upon the SDP
governors, he became a major factor in the run
up to the SDP presidential primary which Abiola
won.
The governors were nevertheless determined to
foist him on the ticket as Abiola’s running mate,
a decision Abiola took at the expense of Atiku
who was a loyalist of the powerful Shehu Musa
Yar‘Adua.. It was the first time Nigeria would
have a Muslim/Muslim presidential ticket but
nonetheless successful. Following the annulment,
Kingibe initially stood with Abiola but confidence
in him among the pro-June 12 agitators
gradually ebbed following his acceptance to
serve in the Abacha administration. A Kanuri
man like Abacha, some believed he betrayed
Abiola by participating in the government that
detained Abiola for five years.
The respected bureaucrat resurfaced on the
national scene in the administration of the late
President Yar’Adua as Secretary to the
Government of the Federation. He reportedly
fell out with that administration following what
observers described as high-wire internal
wrangling at the then Presidency.
Anenih
After Kingibe exited the office of National
Chairman of the SDP, the lot fell on Anenih, who
retired from the police over three decade ago
and entered into business and politics.
Anenih was anointed the Chairman of the SDP
with the blessing of the late Shehu Musa Yar‘adua
being that he was also a member of the Peoples
Democratic Movement, PDM, one of the
strongest blocs within the SDP led by Yar’ Adua.
Though Anenih motivated his party to victory in
the June 12 election, not long after the results
were annulled, he was seen to have abandoned
the cause of the SDP.
While political leaders and rights activists were
agitating for revalidation, Anenih reportedly
looked the other way, and, according to some
sources, turned into a strategist for the military
regime that detained the standard bearer of his
party.
Having played key roles in the Peoples
Democratic Party,PDP, since 1999, the Edo State
born political tactician is believed to have exited
from active politics after his party’s defeat at the
2015 presidential election.
Ikimi
Ikimi was the National Chairman of the NRC who
led his party to defeat in the June 12, 1993
election.
Like his party’s presidential candidate, Tofa, he
refused to concede defeat and echoed the words
of the military to justify the annulment of the
results.
In his capacity as the NRC Chairman, Ikimi was
allegedly a member of the committee that
prepared the plan which produced the Interim
National Government, ING.
The Igueben-born politician also served in
Abacha’s administration as Foreign Affairs
Minister.
At the moment, he is a chieftain of the PDP
having dumped the APC over the allegation that
the party had been hijacked and issues relating
to the emergence of the party’s current National
Chairman.
Shonekan
Chief Ernest Shonekan, a respected figure in
the business community of that era, through his
successful stewardship at the UAC, one of
Nigeria’s leading blue chip companies, carved a
niche for himself.
He was appointed by the Babangida
administration to head the transition cabinet at
the beginning of 1993 known as the Transition
Council.
With the annulment, Shonekan, a Yoruba of the
Egba extraction like Abiola, was made the
Chairman of Interim National Government, ING,
which was supposed to arrange another
presidential election.
His ING was eventually declared illegal-a
development Abacha said informed his
November 17, 1993 coup.
His acceptance to head the 32-man ING at the
expense of his kinsman, Abiola, infuriated many,
who dismissed him as an obstacle to social
justice. The octogenarian currently lives in his
Ikoyi home in Lagos, where he is a regular face
at high profile events and National Council of
State meetings.
Nzeribe
The Oguta-born mercurial figure had carved a
contentious reputation as a spoiler through his
Association for Better Nigeria, ABN.
In the days leading to the poll, he navigated the
courts with several actions aimed at stopping the
election. Alongside one Abimbola Davies and the
mysterious Dr. Atkins, he raised fears among
many Nigerians.
His action in obtaining a midnight court
injunction on June 10 stopping the election in a
court presided over by the late Justice Bassey
Ikpeme was one of the reasons given for the
annulment.
At the dawn of the Fourth Republic, Nzeribe was
elected into the Senate. His failure at getting re-
elected, in 2003, kick-started the decline of his
presence on the national scene.
Ikpeme
Ikpeme made a ruling a few hours to June 12,
1993 to stop the presidential election from
holding in a development that earned her the
sobriquet ‘’Midnight Judge.’’
The ruling is believed to have contravened
Decree No. 13 of 1993, which did not recognise
the jurisdiction of the court on the matter.
Ikpeme is deceased.
It was her first pronouncement on June 7, 1993
which suggested that the election was likely to be
scuttled.
She had ordered Nwosu, Akpamgbo and
Babangida to appear before her to justify why
the exercise should hold after which she gave
the judgment.
Saleh
An Abuja High Court, presided over by Justice
Dahiru Saleh, ordered the then National
Electoral Commission, NEC, to stop further
announcement of election returns and
subsequently declared the entire poll illegal on
the grounds that it was held in contravention of a
subsisting court order.
Defending his action in 2008, Saleh said both the
late Ikpeme, who first ordered NEC not to
conduct the election, and himself were only
doing their job.
Abacha
Abacha came to national limelight as the
announcer of the military coup that ousted
Second Republic President Shehu Shagari from
office in 1983.
Following that, he became a permanent feature
in the military political chess game till
November 17, 1993 when he acquired maximum
power.
It was claimed by some that Abacha and Abiola
reached an agreement for military intervention
that would eventually lead to the transfer of
power to him. Even if true, Abacha apparently
did not have any interest in honouring it as his
regime exploited the June 12 crisis by
dismantling all democratic institutions and
suppressing the agitation for the actualisation of
the mandate.
His regime brought a reign of near bestiality that
had never been seen in the country as the
government used all instruments of power to
sustain Abacha in office. Opponents were thrown
into detention or forced into exile, and some
were killed.
Abacha held on to power until he died in office
on June 8, 1998.
Prof Humphrey Nwosu
Nwosu was the Chairman of the National
Electoral Commission, NEC.
His supervision of the National Assembly and
state legislative houses and the governorship
elections were hailed as a huge success. Even
though the June 12, 1993 presidential election
was also largely successful, Nwosu’s failure to
speak up in defence of the poll conducted by
him, even if he was reportedly under military
coercion, led many to lower the impression of
his earlier actions.
Nwosu, now a retired Professor of political
science, was silent on June 12 for about 15
years, until he spoke in 2008 revealing that he
was putting down the events of June 12.
Till date, Nigerians are still awaiting Nwosu’s
documented narrative which he said ‘’will
generate a lot of discourse all over Nigeria.’’
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