•Says IBB wanted Pascal Bafyau or Maitama Sule as MKO’s vice
Chief Abimbola Moyosore Aboderin, son of the First Republic politician and businessman, the late Olola Moyosore Aboderin, in this encounter with some journalists, gives an untold account of how the June 12 struggle began, reports Oziegbe Okoeki.
THE story of June 12 will continue to be told over and over again as the dramatis personae begin to come out of their shell one after the other to give fresh angle and insight into the events immediately preceding and following after the June 12, 1993 election won by the then business mogul, the late Chief Moshood Kashimawo Abiola but nullified by then Military President, General Ibrahim Babangida.
One of such persons who knew and was part of the genesis of the struggle, which he said was later hijacked by National Democratic Coalition (NADECO) was Chief Abimbola Moyosore Aboderin, son of the First Republic politician and businessman, the late Olola Moyosore Aboderin, who founded and financed the Ibadan Peoples Party and also a foundation member of Action Group.
Aboderin himself has twice contested but lost the senatorial seat of Oyo South Senatorial District, first on the platform of then All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), in 2003 and in 2014 under the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Aboderin told our correspondent that four of them, the late MKO Abiola, the strong man of Ibadan politics, the late Chief Lamidi Adedibu, himself and Abiola’s lawyer then, who is now an Oba in Ibadan, Oba Abimbola Ajibola, were the four people who started the June 12 struggle which was later taken over by NADECO completely sidelining them except Abiola who was the arrowhead of the struggle. According to him the four of them took decisions and executed them and they used to meet regularly in Adedibu’s house. And against the earlier decision they took that Abiola should dialogue with the then powers that be about the nullified June 12 election, NADECO came in with activism and opted for confrontation, shielding Abiola from the remaining three.
In recognition of his struggle for the actualisation of MKO’s presidential mandate, Aboderin received an award of Champion of Democracy/Personality of the year 2018 at the 12th Nigeria Media Nite-out Award.
Aboderin’s story on June 12: “I knew Abiola through my father, who was a politician and businessman and we became good and close friends; Adedibu, the then strong man of Ibadan politics, was more or less like the father of politics in the country then; everybody used to come to him to discuss politics, but he was my father’s boy or political son; he learnt from my father and that is how we became close, Chief Abimbola Ajibola was then Abiola’s lawyer.
“When the Social Democratic Party (SDP), 1993 Jos convention was getting close, as I went to Adedibu’s house which I visit regularly, I met MKO there and he told me he was worried about the convention because the North had more delegates and if that is the case, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, who was contesting the position of president with him will definitely win and that is why he has come to see Baba Adedibu. I encouraged him and told him God will do it. From there, Adedibu became his political godfather.”
Aboderin said he was in Jos for the convention as a special monitor to monitor the election and “to do whatever I can to ensure that MKO wins, but as voting was going on, it was clear that Atiku was winning.
“Atiku was winning because he was using the late Shehu Musa Yar’Adua’s political structure, remember Yar’Adua had won the first election of SDP, which was cancelled by Babangida. Yar’Adua was Atiku’s boss. Adedibu confessed that we cannot win the election; that we have to do something. Yar’Adua was in Jos waiting for the outcome of the election.
“So, Adedibu went to see Yar’Adua in the night while voting was still going on but glaring that Atiku was winning. He told the late General that in the last election, which he won, he Adedibu made all the Southwest delegates to vote for Yar’Adua and that this time around the retired General should do something for him that he should ask Atiku to step down for his candidate, MKO.”
Aboderin said it was a very difficult situation for Yar’Adua but he had no choice than to accept Adedibu’s plea and that was how Atiku stepped down and MKO Abiola emerged as the presidential candidate of SDP.
“But Atiku’s people were not happy that we won the election; they almost lynched us. We had to sneak out of Jos but before then, I was given a letter of thank you for Yar’Adua which I handed over to him in his house in Jos, thanking him for his support and ensuring MKO’s victory.
“We came back to Ibadan and campaign started. We put everything in place, even organised a campaign fund raising event at Premier Hotel, Ibadan on 16th May, 1993 with me as secretary of the fund raising committee where together with previous campaign donations we realised N350m in cash, which was kept in my custody over night before we drove down to Lagos and handed the money over to Abiola”.
All this time, Aboderin said things were still rosy between Babangida and MKO; they were still very good friends and interacting well.
“All this time, Babangida and MKO were good friends and I don’t think he deliberately wanted to scuttle his election but the issue that started the whole wahala was the issue of who becomes Vice President to MKO Abiola.”
Aboderin said Abiola told him that IBB gave him two names to choose from but Adedibu changed it saying they were not even politicians. The two names were the former Labour leader, Paschal Bayfiau and the cerebral Maitama Sule “but Adedibu said it should be given to the SDP Chairman, Babagana Kingibe, arguing that as the party chairman, he could mess things up for SDP and that MKO should go and tell IBB. I think IBB was not happy, that was the beginning of the wahala.
“At this time, IBB was no longer happy with Abiola but he kept his cool.
“The election came and it was very peaceful; it was in fact the best election in the history of this nation. And we had already started celebrating victory in MKO’s residence at Ikeja when we heard that the election has been annulled and we were shocked.
“The first reaction was to mobilise Adedibu’s traditional fighters and other groups like Agbekoya in Ibadan into the street and Ibadan people were ready to fight but were prevailed on to hold their peace and MKO didn’t want war.
“We advised for dialogue with the government so that some concessions can be made and we also advised MKO to go outside the country and declare himself president in exile; if he had done that, he would have become president eventually.
According to him, it was at this point NADECO came in and hijacked the struggle. “They penetrated MKO and it became difficult for us to even see MKO. They jettisoned all our advise for dialogue and opted for confrontation. I believe if there had been dialogue with IBB, there would have been solution.
He identified some of the NADECO members as Senator Adesanya, Alfred Rewane, Ekwueme and others.
On the declaration of June 12 as Democracy Day by President Muhammadu Buhari, Aboderin said what Buhari did is good “because it is time for us to get things right but you know you cannot satisfy human beings; there are some who are happy with the development while some others are not happy, but I say ‘well-done’ to Buhari.
“However, those of us who started the struggle with Abiola have not been compensated while NADECO members who only hijacked the struggle midway have been duly taken care of; we have the real story of June 12.”
Aboderin, who said he loves Buhari as a person, believes that the president means well for the country and that despite some observable shortcomings of his administration, like insecurity, especially killings by herdsmen, which he believes is the handwork of some people out to sabotage the president, he however said something must be done to stop the killings, general insecurity and poverty in the country.
