Former military president of Nigeria, General Ibrahim Babangida, has claimed that he annulled the June 12, 1993 election won by businessman, MKO Abiola because he was afraid he might be killed and a civil war would break out.
This emerged as the former president launched an autobiography “A Journey in Service” and a Presidential Library in Abuja on Thursday.
The event held at Transcorp Hotel was graced by crème-de-la-crème of the society including President Bola Tinubu, former President Olusegun Obasanjo, who chaired the occasion, former heads of state, Generals Yakubu Gowon and Abdulsalam Abubakar, and former civilian President Goodluck Jonathan and former military leaders and captains of industry such as Alhaji Aliko Dangote.
Others included former Vice Presidents Atiku Abubakar, Namadi Sambo and Yemi Osinbajo, the Labour Party’s presidential candidate in the 2023 poll, Mr Peter Obi and the Presidential candidate of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), and former governor of Kano State, Rabiu Kwankwaso.
From outside Nigeria came such dignitaries as Nana Akufo-Addo, former President of Ghana who was the keynote speaker, and former President of Sierra Leone, Ernest Koroma.
There were several serving governors in attendance, just as the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Senator George Akume, also graced the occasion.
Former President Babangida, admitted that Abiola of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) beat Alhaji Bashir Tofa of the National Republican Convention (NRC), and won the election.
Babangida admitted he was solely responsible for the annulment of the election considered the freest and fairest presidential poll in Nigeria’s history.
He, however, claimed that he took the decision because of the orchestration by forces in his administration led by late General Sani Abacha, his Chief of Army Staff and later Minister of Defence.
Babangida also admitted that his team underestimated the consequences of the action.
Babangida wrote in the launched autobiography: “Although I am on record to have stated after the elections that Abiola may not have won the elections, upon deeper reflection and a closer examination of all the available facts, particularly the detailed election results, which are published as an appendix to this volume, there was no doubt that MKO Abiola won the June 12 elections.
“Upon closer examination of the original collated figures from the 110,000 polling booths nationwide, it was clear that he satisfied the two main constitutional requirements for winning the presidential elections, mainly majority votes and geographical spread, having obtained 8,128,720 votes against Tofa’s 5,848,247 votes and securing the mandatory one-third of the votes cast in 28 states of the federation, including Abuja.
“Unfortunately, the forces gathered against him after the June 12 elections were so formidable that I was convinced that if he became President, he would be quickly eliminated by the same forces who pretended to be his friends.
“While I accept that the unfortunate denial of his mandate amounted to a subversion of the will of the Nigerian people, I was petrified that if Abiola got killed, it could lead to a civil war.
“Having participated in one civil war, with all its horrors, pains and devastation, I wasn’t prepared to see another.
“I am gratified that the Buhari administration finally recognised MKO Abiola as a ‘former head of state.”
He admitted that ‘mistakes were made in the handling of the June 12 elections and their aftermath, for which I take full responsibility as President and Commander-in-Chief.”
He said one of his biggest mistakes was failing to firmly secure the support and firm commitment of his military colleagues to the Transition programme from the beginning.
“We completely underestimated the deep opposition to civil rule within the military top hierarchy. We underestimated the damage that the extended stay in the political arena, with all its perks, had done to the military psyche and the psychological shock that would accompany an eventual withdrawal from much temptingly appealing political positions.
“We further underestimated what it would take to return the military to the barracks and its non-political and non-partisan role.”
“Looking back now, the June 12 saga was undeniably the most challenging moment of my life and in certain respects, one of the most painful. I don’t remember who first said that ‘sometimes, life can only be understood backwards.’
“However, faced with the circumstances of those moments as President and Commander-in-Chief, painful as it seemed, I did what was in the country’s best interest, for which I take full responsibility.”
Babangida said that the annulment of the election also nearly cost him his life.
He recalled that on the morning of June 23, 1993, he had travelled from Abuja to Katsina to condole with the Yar’Adua family following the death of their patriarch, Alhaji Musa Yar’Adua. While there, he received an alarming report that the June 12 election had been annulled.
“Even more bizarre was the extent of the annulment because it terminated all court proceedings regarding the June 12 elections, repealed all the decrees governing the transition, and even suspended NEC (National Electoral Commission)!” he said in the book.
He said he was particularly disturbed by the unceremonious manner in which the announcement was made.
“Admiral Aikhomu’s press secretary, Nduka Irabor, had read out a terse, poorly worded statement from a scrap of paper, which bore neither the presidential seal nor the official letterhead of the government, annulling the June 12 presidential elections.
“I was alarmed and horrified,” he stated.
Before they decided to annul the election, he said various options had been tabled and considered following the deadlock in announcing the election results, including the possibility of fresh elections.
Babangida said he insisted that outright annulment was only one of several possibilities.
“But to suddenly have an announcement made without my authority was, to put it mildly, alarming. I remember saying: ‘These nefarious inside forces opposed to the elections have outflanked me.”
He disclosed that he realized the annulment was carried out by powerful elements within his administration, led by Abacha, who was his minister of defence.
He said the situation put him between “the devil and the deep blue sea!”
The cancellation of the election adjudged to be the freest and fairest in the history of Nigeria set off a political crisis that plunged Nigeria into years of instability.
There was immediate public unrest, international condemnation, and general tension which Abacha seized upon to seize power in a palace coup in 1993 after Babangida was forced to step aside.
“Tensions in the country were compounded by baseless conspiracy theories meant to justify the annulment. One such theory was that Abiola had pencilled down a list of top military officers to be dismissed upon assuming office as president.
“Another conspiracy theory was that the government had let the June 12 elections go ahead in the knowledge, based on security reports, that Tofa would win. However, once Abiola won, the government sought a way to frustrate his mandate.
“These were spurious theories circulated by those opposed to an Abiola presidency. Some persons indeed expressed their reservations about an Abiola presidency before the elections.
“There were times when, deep down inside me, I even feared that Abiola might not be an effective president. However, having allowed the process to go ahead in which Abiola appeared to have emerged victorious in an election deemed the freest and fairest in our country’s history, I was committed to ensuring that the results should stand. To do otherwise would amount to a subversion of the will of the Nigerian people.”
“But I also knew we were dealing with a delicate situation that could lead to national disintegration. The military was factionalised into rival groups between those opposed to the transition to civil rule, particularly an Abiola presidency, and those who thought the military should keep its word and hand over to a democratically elected government.
“The military was awash with rumours of plots by those who wanted to depose me to have Abiola installed and those who wanted to take me out violently to ensure that the annulment stayed.
“There were rumours of a third group, made up of sworn and implacable enemies of Abiola, a hard-line faction, who threatened that Abiola could only be President over their dead bodies! And if it meant taking me out violently to effect their threat, they were willing to do so.
“It was painful for me to discover later that apart from Abacha, some of my closest colleagues were knee-deep in the plot to eliminate me.
“The only reason those disparate forces did not strike against me was that it was feared, and rightly so, that since I still enjoyed the support of a sizable proportion of the armed forces, any attack on the government or my person would lead to a bloodbath.
“The polarization within the military was so fraught with danger that the best I could do in the circumstance was to project a united front as government in the face of the stiff opposition I faced as President.
“Although the annulment took all by surprise, as Commander-in-Chief, I took responsibility for it. In my speech on June 26, tepid and disingenuous as it may seem, I attempted to justify the annulment in the face of supposed nationwide widespread electoral malpractices during the elections! What mattered at the time to me as President and Commander-in-Chief was the unity of the army and my conviction that if the army was united, it could safeguard the country from disintegration.”
“After several brainstorming sessions with various groups, I contacted M.K.O Abiola to find a way forward. At one of my several meetings with Abiola, arranged this time by some traditional leaders, I offered Abiola an interim position pending when we could resolve the situation.
“Not surprisingly, Abiola turned down my offer. How could anyone blame him? Since he was convinced that he had won the elections that the annulment had denied him, it seemed overtly inappropriate to accept an interim arrangement.
“For him, it was a matter of once bitten, twice shy. At another meeting, this time a more private meeting of both families, I articulated that our lives were in danger of being snuffed out by lurking forces that wished both of us ill.
“Unfortunately, Abiola turned his back on any form of rapprochement with me and embraced the gimmicks of deceitful ‘friends’ who hid their real intentions from him.
“I read somewhere, I believe, in one of Abiola’s newspapers that Abiola thought that the moment these ‘friends’ overthrew me, the elections would be de-annulled and that he would be installed as President by his coup-plotting friends.
“As it turned out, Abiola was advised by these same ‘friends’ to leave the country to avoid death threats from fictitious military elements. Abiola’s departure paved the way for his ‘friends’ to consolidate their conspiratorial positions, eventually leading to another military takeover.
“Without question, one of my biggest headaches at this time was Sani Abacha. I knew that Abacha was ambivalent about a return to civil rule. But I thought, in retrospect now, naively, that he would support our transition to the civil rule programme.
“As I said earlier, Abacha and I had come a long way. We were good friends, and he had indeed been nice to me. As I have said elsewhere, he saved my life once and also risked his life to ensure that I took over in 1985. I could never forget those details.
“But it’s also correct that he was a complex character. He was capable of bottling up a lot inside without giving a hint of where he was. And then, suddenly, the bottle bursts, and we begin to see a different person. I obviously didn’t know everything about him.
“For instance, I was alarmed to discover that he and a handful of others mobilised negative opinions against me within the military, portraying me as the problem. That campaign was geared towards a violent military coup to remove me as President forcefully.”
Babangida admitted that his administration’s actions set the country back but added that the country ultimately recovered.
