It has been thirty-two since the June 12, 1993 presidential election was annulled. The pain remains in the heart of the Nigerian political history. The dashed hope of those who faced the fire to restore democracy after years of military dilly-dallying still hurts.
Although some of the principal actors in the annulment saga have been consigned to the dustbin of history, their misadventure deeply threw many Nigerians in the throes of a rascal decision by a few megalomaniacs.
But, as goes the Yoruba saying, a lie may travel for a thousand years, the truth will catch up with it in a single day. Those who indulge in prevarication only defraud themselves, and not their victims. From history, it is evident that the human conscience imposes the worst punishment on the guilty, especially deceitful leaders. They suffer a psychological burden. The cunning may savour gerrymandering in the beginning, but their lies will ultimately explode in their faces. It will birth an ignominy.
The truth has finally demolished the edifice of falsehood erected thirty-two years ago on the quicksand of political machination. The truth was never hidden; only the facts were distorted.
Truth and conscience have hunted the annuller, who wrecked a monumental havoc on the anxious country by dashing their hope of returning to civil rule through an election. It is a lesson to those in power. Those who loomed large in the past have now seen the vanity of life and the fleeting of power.
Former Military President Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, IBB for short, has surrendered, at last. During the public presentation of his book, titled: A Journey in Service, on Thursday in Abuja, he admitted that the June 12, 1993 poll was credible, free and fair. The former leader acknowledged that the exercise conducted by the National Electoral Commission (NEC), chaired by the late Prof. Humphrey Nwosu, was transparent. But he did not apologise to the nation for annulling the election. To those you suffered bruises during the demonstration, IBB presented ‘A Journey in Deservice.’
The former military leader, who prided himself as the Evil Genius, only admitted the gross error of canceling the results of the poll won by the late business mogul, Bashorun Moshood Kashimawo Olawale (MKO) Abiola, who ran on the platform of the defunct Social Democratic Party (SDP). IBB confessed that he lied when he told Nigerians in a broadcast that the ballot box was abused by money. He also lied when he said the court misbehaved when it intervened in the political process.
Babangida was not a neonate in 1993. He only took Nigerians for a ride as a lord of the manor.
Nigerians had endured the over eight years of his political meandering. But the annulment was the turning point. The unwise decision destroyed the legacy of the charismatic General who forfeited a hallowed place in history through one moment of miscalculation.
Many were taken aback when the gap-tooth General with fake smiles refused to vote on poll day. He avoided legitimising the credible process so that he could later have an excuse to abort the transition programme.
The conspiracy was tick. It was the story of a great betrayal by soldiers of fortune who waged a war of licentiousness against the people. The toll was huge. The pain was deep. The scars have not healed. For families that bore the brunt, the agony has not eased.
The nation was enveloped in anxiety. Schools were closed for one year. Politicians were tossed around, banned, unbanned, and banned. The political class that had invested so much resources, time, and hope in the formation of 14 associations was thrown into disarray. All the political parties were proscribed. Then, two parties – the SDP and the National Republican Convention (NRC) – were imposed on them. The electoral procedures, from zero party council poll to the presidential election, were deliberately made Herculean. Then, diarchy was introduced. Those with guns and trembling civilians were lumped together in an inexplicable Transitional National Council that ran parallel to a superior Armed Forces Ruling Council (AFRC). Never have Nigerians been patient with a very challenging and elongated political experimentation. As the late sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, warned, when Nigerians imagined that the new dawn had arrived, they were woken up to a new transition nightmare.
People voted for democracy, but the military served them with regrets and sorrows. The symbol of the struggle and his devoted wife, Kudirat, were murdered. The yearning for a new dawn became a mirage. In the end, 1993 became a year of wasted expectation and lost hope.
In 1999, when civil rule was restored, the main inheritors of the gains of the struggle were the symbols of the military, ably supported by civilian collaborators who subverted the legitimate agitations.
After five years of serious protest, the slogan of the battle changed, following the mysterious death of the election winner in detention. The people insisted that the military must just go. Nigeria ultimately entered the second phase of the struggle under IBB’s pre-determined successor, General Sani Abacha, the pretentious interim contraption headed by Chief Ernest Shonekan, notwithstanding.
Lamentably, the labours of pro-June 12 crusaders were in vain. But references would always be made to the contributions of the leaders and arrowheads of the campaigns at home and abroad. Many of them have passed on. But they left a memorial. Their survivors are still keeping hope alive, especially in this period of ‘Renewed Hope Agenda.’
These leaders include Chief Adekunle Ajasin, Chief Anthony Enahoro, Chief Bola Ige, Rear Admiral Ndubudi Kanu, Air Commodore Dan Suleiman, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu (incumbent President of Nigeria), Chief Ayo Adebanjo, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, Prof. Bolaji Akinyemi, Col. Dangiwa Umar, Prof. Wole Soyinka, Gen. Alani Akinrinade, Ayo Opadokun, Olu Falae, Frank Kokori, Fredrick Fasehun, Kofoworola Bucknor-Akerele, Ayoka Lawani, Gani Fawehinmi, Femi Falana, Chief Cornelius Adebayo, Chief Ganiyu Dawodu, Sir Olaniwun Ajayi, Olawale Oshun, Mohammed Arzika, Amos Akingba, Balarabe Musa, Ibrahim Tahir, Walter Carrington. Wahab Dosunmu, and the ‘Epetedo Declaration’ forces comprising Femi Lanlehin and Tokunbo Afikuyomi, Chief Segun Adegoke, Olisa Agbakoba, and Justice Dolapo Akinsanya, who declared the Interim Government illegal.
The list is inexhaustible. The leaders of the titanic struggle suffered many bruises, particularly intimidation, oppression, repression, detention, and trials before many of them went into exile. In those days, killer squads were on a rampage. State-sponsored assassins were on the prowl. The fear of bombing was the beginning of wisdom.
But, apart from these leaders, many demonstrators at home also paid the supreme price in the process of sustaining the campaigns. While some leaders abandoned the struggle for a morsel of porridge, many activists, students, and ordinary people faced the bullets and endured military tribulations to the end. Most of them are unknown and remain unsung in life and death.
The interim government was another joke. It was the structure that filled the void after IBB reluctantly stepped aside. Its head, Shonekan, was initially given the title of ‘Head’ without the accompanying powers of Commander-in-Chief, a position held by Abacha, a tough nut, an impatient Minister of Defence, and Chairman of the Joint Service Chiefs. After three months, the inept Head of the interim government was shoved aside. In a panic, he hurriedly vacated the Presidential Villa – more or less as an impostor.
The battle became hotter as the maximum ruler, Abacha, unfolded his self-succession agenda. Scores of protesters died as soldiers opened fire on them on Ikorodu Road in Lagos in 1994. IBB was deceptive, though diplomatic and approachable. Abacha brooked no opposition. No fewer than 174 demonstrators were wounded. A year later, some students of Edo State University were killed by soldiers for asking for democracy.
The military caged the media. But it was fruitless. Many editors became guests of intelligence agencies. Press freedom was curtailed. Up came guerrilla journalism, which was nevertheless, costly. The family of Bagauda Kaltho is still in deep lamentation that the body of the murdered journalist is yet to be found.
Reflecting on the ordeals of the forgotten heroes of June 12, Oshun, the Third Republic’s House of Representatives Chief Whip, wrote in his book: The Open Grave: NADECO and the Struggle for Democracy: “Too bad today, those who died then are now remembered in figures than in name.” Their deaths were not less poignant than those of Chief Alfred Rewane and Kudirat as they too were murdered in cold blood by blood-thirsty operators of the dictatorship.
Little is known about the brave Nigerians who agreed to serve as couriers, ferrying messages and documents across the border for pro-democracy movements. They were silent patriots who sustained the struggle, despite the risks.
Some of them were intercepted. A case in point was that of Mr. Laiyemo, a personal assistant to Chief Cornelius Adebayo. He was bearing a letter from the former Kwara State governor to a friend when the military arrested him. He spent 36 months in detention.
The same fate would have befallen Rev. Tunji Adebiyi, who was bearing a letter from Lagos NADECO leaders to Ajasin in Owo, Ondo State. He was caught in Maryland during a stop-and-search operation. It was Kudirat who made a passionate appeal for his release.
Who remembers the man called Uncle Johnson, who was drawn from his retirement by Akinrinade to manage Radio Kudirat in exile, or the information technology expert, Gbolahan Olalemi, who installed and ran Radio Freedom in Nigeria, with all its attendant risks? Olalemi had the misfortune of being caught and detained. He was kept in an underground cell, flogged by soldiers, and even used as a bait to access Dapo Olorunyomi’s home in Mushin.
During the dark period, Tinubu’s aides – Benson Akintola and Akeem Apatira – were picked up by security agents in 1994 and detained at the Federal Interrogation and Investigation Bureau (FIIB) at Alagbon in Lagos for three months. They were looking for information about Senator Tinubu, who had gone underground and later into exile.
When soldiers stormed the Ikeja residence of Akingba, the former university don was nowhere to be found. They pounced on his nephew, Peter Ogunyamoju, who was detained at Alagbon. The military planted a bomb in the house; it exploded, killing Nelson Kassim and Dr. Omatsola.
A NADECO chieftain, who had escaped abroad, Chief Ralph Onioha, was helpless as news got to him that one of his boys, Abayomi Kehinde, was arrested as a pro-democracy agent. Also, for having anti-military leaflets and posters, Abdulsalam Danladi was detained in Lagos between May and June 1998. Another June 12 traveller, Samuel Asogwa, was detained for three weeks for circulating pro-democracy posters and literature. He was charged with sedition.
The same fate befell Ebun Adegboruwa, a lawyer in Gani Fawehinmi Chambers. He was detained between November 1997 and June 1998 “for being in possession of subversive documents”. His 75-year-old father was previously held in lieu of him for failing to honour a summons by the Directorate of Military Intelligence (DMI).
A similar scenario played out in Ijebu-Ode where Ayomide Lijadu was arrested in place of her father, who had organised a rally to protest Kudirat’s assassination.
Adegboruwa’s colleague at the Bar, Bamidele Aturu, was detained for a month because his client, Isaac Osuoka, had posters denouncing Abacha’s self-succession plan.
For 18 months, Prince Ademola Adeniji-Adele languished in detention for his NADECO activism. Captured as a prisoner of war at Ibadan, Lam Adesina lost his freedom between May and June 1998.
Between May 1995 and July 1998, Kunle Ajibade had the worst experience of his life. He was jailed 15 years for being “an accessary after the fact of treason” over a story by The News, where he was the editor.
It was not the best of times for journalists. Chris Anyanwu lost her freedom between June 16, 1995, and June 15, 1998. She was charged before a military tribunal for accessory after the fact of treason. Her Sunday Magazine’s coverage of the phantom coup trials was infuriating to Abacha. She was initially jailed for life. Later, the sentence was commuted to 15 years.
Another journalist, Moshood Fayemiwo, was detained for a year and seven months. His paper published materials that revealed the looting of the treasury by the military while also campaigning for the revalidation of the June 12 election.
For Nosa Igiebor, it was a hell of a time. For seven months, he was detained. His offence was that his Tell magazine published a story exposing Abacha’s plan to ‘punish’ neighbouring countries that showed sympathy for pro-democracy movements.
Labour activist Joseph Akinlaja was detained for days for partaking in “an illegal meeting” where bombing of oil refineries and depots were discussed and for being in a crowd of pro-June 12 crusaders.
A soldier, Major Akinloye Akinyemi, was detained for four years for alleged coup plotting. But it was believed that he was picked up for being the younger brother of Prof. Bolaji Akinyemi, a NADECO chieftain. The elder Akinyemi stayed in exile for four years.
Eminent banker and politician Olabiyi Durojaye’s case was pathetic. He was detained for seven months. The reason was unknown. “They told me they were just directed to keep me here (detention),” he said.
For declaring the Abacha regime illegal, Senator Polycarp Nwite was detained for one year. The NADECO member was accused of planting bombs. In 1995, Rev. Peter Obadan was also held for seeking the revalidation of the annulled poll.
Others detainees include Prof. Omo Omoruyi, who was shot and wounded for calling for the revalidation of June 12; Babafemi Ojudu, for his anti-Agacha stance; Soji Omotunde for decrying dictatorship; Mrs. Iluyomade, wife of Gen. Iluyomade, and daughter, who lost a pregnancy in detention; Arthur Nwankwo, for harbouring anti-Abacha pamphlets; Olorunyomi’s wife, Ladi, held in lieu of her husband; 80-year-old Chief Solanke Onasanya, who was asked to explain what he did not do; Abdul Oroh, of Civil Liberty Organisation (CLO) for his links with Soyinka and pro-June 12 campaigns; Onome Osifo-Whiskey, for criticising Abacha; Bayo Osinowo, for his association with Abiola; Niyi Owolade, for anti-government May Day riot at Ibadan; Chima Ubani, for allegedly inciting Nigerians against the military government, and Lam Adesina, who became a prisoner of war.
Others are: Nike Ransome-Kuti, Solomon Sobande, Emeka Ugwuoke – for circulating pro-democracy posters; Olusegun Mayegun, Popoola Ajayi, and Jerry Yusuf – for hijacking a plane in protest against the Interim National Government and calling for the restoration of Abiola’s mandate.
Human rights leaders – Beko Ransom-Kuti, his brother, Prof. Olikoye Ransom-Kuti, Femi Aborisade, Chima Ubani, Joe Igbokwe, Olisa Agbakoba, Ayo Obe, Bishop Mathew Hassan Kukah, Osagie Obayuwana, Felix Tuodolo, Debo Adeniran, Ima Niboro, Babafemi Ojudu, Bayo Onanuga, Akinola Orisagbemi (Personal Assistant to Mrs. Kudirat Abiola), Innocent Chukwuma, Bunmi Aborisade, and numerous activists under the banners of the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA), Nigeria Medical Association (NMA), the divided Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN), Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), Kayode Fayemi of Radio Kudirat, Lagos Justice Forum, June 12 Collective, the media, and he National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) made invaluable contributions to the struggle. The list is endless.
Evidently, the restoration of civil rule was not achieved on a platter of gold. It was a collective enterprise involving the mighty, the low, and the suppressed masses: professionals, youths, students, artisans, peasants and the ordinary man in the street.
Nigeria has witnessed a successful transition from civil to civil rule. The accompanied crisis and stress were also managed. But the fruits are inadequate.
Asiwaju Tinubu was a great financier of pro-democracy activities at home and abroad. The onus is on him to reposition the country by building strong institutions, ensuring politico-electoral reforms, security, restructuring and restoration of federal principles and abolition of poverty, which was Abiola’s cardinal objective.
If these goals are accomplished, then, the unsung heroes will heave a sigh of relief that the struggle was, after all, not totally in vain.
Those who masterminded the reckless annulment for selfish reasons should be made to regret their action for life by giving the country good governance. But an effective government that works for all Nigerians is the best legacy to immortalise those who paid the supreme sacrifice in the June 12 struggle. This generation and the future ones deserve to have a better country the soldiers of fortune failed to bequeath to them. This is what the June 12 struggle stood for.
