President Muhammadu Buhari’s apology over the annulment of the June 12, 1993 presidential election that Bashorun MKO Abiola won, came as a shock: not because it was the wrong thing to do, but because the right thing is seldom done.
It was on June 12, 2018, during the conferment of Nigeria’s highest national award, Grand Commander of the Federal Republic (GCFR), on the late Abiola, and the second highest, Grand Commander of the Order of the Niger (GCON), on Abiola’s running mate, Ambassador Baba Gana Kingibe, and the late Chief Gani Fawehinmi, SAN. The man popularly called Gani fought for the actualisation of the June 12, 1993 election result till he breathed his last.
In many camps, it was an occasion still too surreal to believe: June 12 proclaimed as Nigeria’s Democracy Day from 2019, in lieu of May 29 put in place by former President Olusegun Obasanjo; and Chief Abiola’s presidential win tacitly acknowledged, by awarding him the national honour reserved almost exclusively for past presidents. Still, many continue to push for the full results to be declared; and Abiola formally, if posthumously, recognised as president-elect.
Then, the apology, during President Buhari’s speech at the special investiture ceremony, came from the blues: “Accordingly, on behalf of the Federal Government, I tender the nation’s apology to the family of the late MKO Abiola, who got the highest votes; and to those that lost their loved ones in the cause of the June 12 struggle.”
That elicited a counter-apology from the Abiola family, through Hafsat Abiola-Costello, who spoke on their behalf, in reaction to the president’s gesture: “Who would have ever believed that given the relationship that you had with Chief MKO Abiola, that you would be the instrument God will use to honour this man and to bring recognition and healing to the country,” Mrs Abiola-Costello said, adding: “let me use this opportunity, on behalf of Chief MKO Abiola because I know what he would have done … to apologise to you, to apologise to your family for anything that he might have done to harm you and to harm your family.”
It was the therapeutic catharsis of penance; and it was as beautiful as it was spiritually uplifting! It was a rare softening in Nigerian power space that, if fully annexed and followed up upon, could lead to a good, clear and genuine path of national reconciliation, in a polity where about everyone has had his or her own share of injustice.
Yet, compare the situation to 25 years ago when the June 12 annulment was visited on the country. Pressured back then to back-track, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida counter-boasted he was not only in “office, we are also in power.” To him, the noble act of contrition and penance after a wrong, and apology to express it, was infra dig. By doing so, he must have thought, a military government would appear to be weak!
Still, see what penance and apology would have done to Nigeria, 25 years ago: Abiola’s mandate would have been restored. Babangida would have left office with somewhat less disgrace, buoyed by the sympathy of many who would have hailed him for bravely righting a wrong. Surely, Babangida would have wrestled with far less guilt in his old age than he appears to be wrestling with now!
Nigeria would have escaped the plague of the Abacha dictatorship: a government defined by state killings and maiming; and its head, whose memory is defined by sleaze. Olusegun Obasanjo would perhaps not have come back as elected president. But he would have retained the respect, of even those not his friends, of being the first Nigerian military head of state to quit power and hand over to civil authorities, instead of the latter-day disgrace he faces for his part in the conspiracy to bury June 12 by hoisting May 29.
Chief Ernest Shonekan would have entered and exited the Nigerian public space as a business voice of reason, not as a political quisling as June 12 lore would record him for history, for accepting to head the Interim National Government (ING), knowing it was nothing but political fraud. Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar would have escaped the burden of guilt, that MKO Abiola died in custody under his care, a notoriety even Abacha is free of. And certainly, Nigeria would perhaps have been free of that mutual ethnic, religious and regional suspicions that have plagued it since the aftermath of the June 12 annulment!
If a simple apology is so difficult, that it took 25 years after to offer, and after needless havoc had been done, perhaps a culture of penance would inculcate a culture of deep introspection and careful thinking in public policy and actions. If the Babangida junta had been imbued with such, it is doubtful if it would ever have sapped the country with a reckless and hare-brained annulment; and proceeded to run in deluded circles to maintain and sustain it with tragic consequences. It would therefore have realised the futility of impunity.
Following the president’s apology on the June 12 annulment, this polity can do with a new spirit and culture of grace and penance. Prime agents of the Nigerian state must steer clear of reckless actions; and imbue themselves with deep scruples and introspection. But in the event of any mistake, the state must have the humility and grace to apologise before that mistake snowballs into a needless crisis.