Now, has the ghost of June 12 been finally laid to rest? Is MKO’s vision for Nigeria alive in Tinubu’s presidency? Vice President Kashim Mustapha Shettima thinks so… Speaking during the public lecture commemorating the 26th year of unbroken democracy, VP Shettima said that decades after the June 12 debacle, providence passed the baton of Abiola’s struggle for a better Nigeria to “one of his most trusted lieutenants — President Tinubu.”
Around this period in 1993, precisely on June 12, the day of that historic election, I operated in two different but mutually reinforcing capacities. While I was the Political Correspondent of the old Daily Times, covering the then-unfolding electoral process in Abuja, I was also an officer in the Nigerian Election Monitoring Group, overseeing the poll in the federal capital. It was an important day in the nation’s life, as it was in my journalism career. The late Professor Omo Omoruyi, an intellectual giant and the brains behind General Ibrahim Babangida and his transition programme, who designed most of the electoral ideas introduced by that regime, including Option A4, had put the election monitoring group together.
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I had an uneasy sense of foreboding when the then National Electoral Commission, which had been announcing the results of the election on a display board mounted at its headquarters, which was then at Area 10, Abuja, suddenly stopped adding new results after those from 14 states had been announced. I promptly filed a story on this strange and disturbing development. The next day, the late Dr Femi Sonaike, editor of the Daily Times at the time, ran a front-page editorial demanding the continuation of the publication of the results. I was besides myself in ecstasy at the NEC HQ, celebrating the editorial and Mr Sonaike’s bravery and boldness. For a government-owned newspaper, the editorial was an unforgivable affront to the military. As it turned out, that was the last edition Sonaike edited at Daily Times. He was instantly removed from office.
Then began a sad spiral of events, culminating in an announcement formally annulling that free and fair election. A dark pall descended on the nation. The country erupted in turmoil, with almost daily protests against the election’s annulment. The rest did not simply become history, as they say, but a profound history with compelling lessons.
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This piece is not an odyssey around my journalism career. It’s about President Bola Tinubu and his undocumented contributions to June 12, particularly after that annulment. Tinubu played a frontline role in the conception and later agitations of the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO), which stridently fought for the de-annulment of June 12.
At the time of the election, he was a senator of the Federal Republic. In defiance of the military, he and others reconvened the Senate that had gone on recess, during which they demanded for the de-annulment of the poll or the immediate termination of military rule.
For his agitation, the military hounded him. His residence on Balarabe Musa Crescent in Victoria Island, Lagos, was petrol-bombed by agents of the junta, who thought he had been burnt alive. However, he escaped abroad and continued the agitation, providing direction and funding for NADECO chieftains who had similarly fled the country. All of that have been widely publicised and commended.
Addressing the National Assembly last Thursday, President Tinubu again commended Buhari for this critical decision: “Let me pay tribute to former President Muhammadu Buhari for reaching back into history to rectify a national misdeed by making June 12 Democracy Day and by officially acknowledging Chief Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola and his running mate, Babagana Kingibe, as the victors and thus duly elected president and vice president respectively of Nigeria after the June 12, 1993 elections.”
Many may also recall that iconic and viral picture, which once circulated online, in which Asiwaju Tinubu was seen behind the late Bashorun MKO Abiola, who had gone to confer with the late dictator, General Sani Abacha, on the June 12 matter. The significance of that event depicts Asiwaju’s relationship as a trusted ally of MKO Abiola, and his essential role in the then-unfolding struggle. Asiwaju Tinubu, it was learnt, warned the late MKO Abiola to tread cautiously and be wary of Abacha or the military over June 12. As he often says, the military uniform is called camouflage, which is a synonym for deception.
It is thus unsurprising that much of his contributions, particularly after June 12, remained indelible years after the death of Abiola, the owner of the stolen mandate. The profundity of June 12 is evident in the fact that its ghost has refused to go away, years after the restoration of democracy in 1999. President Olusegun Obasanjo, who inherited power on a silver platter, alongside his Peoples Democratic Party, carried on as though oblivious of the historical import of June 12 and the ominous pall that its years of neglect had cast on the nation’s democratic system.
Although the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua inaugurated the Justice Muhammed Uwais panel to reform the nation’s electoral process, after admitting that his election in 2007 was flawed, he battled ill-health for the better part of his presidency and was too personally distracted to have had time to think of June 12. President Goodluck Jonathan also remained seemingly unfazed about that annulled poll. For 16 years after the democratic renewal, the PDP government carried on with the utter neglect of June 12 and its symbolic place in our democracy.
However, President Buhari took bold steps to resolve the June 12 conundrum and restore Abiola in his rightful place, even in death. Recognising him as the winner of June 12 and as a Nigerian president, Buhari bestowed on MKO Abiola, posthumously, the highest national honour of GCFR, which is reserved for presidents. He also declared June 12 a national public holiday. Buhari gave Abiola’s running mate in the election, Ambassador Babagana Kingibe, the second-highest honour of GCON. Buhari’s gesture won him admiration and commendations.
Many didn’t know that Asiwaju Tinubu had made the recommendation to President Buhari.
Addressing the National Assembly last Thursday, President Tinubu again commended Buhari for this critical decision: “Let me pay tribute to former President Muhammadu Buhari for reaching back into history to rectify a national misdeed by making June 12 Democracy Day and by officially acknowledging Chief Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola and his running mate, Babagana Kingibe, as the victors and thus duly elected president and vice president respectively of Nigeria after the June 12, 1993 elections.”
President Tinubu completed the restitution of Abiola and other heroes of democracy that Thursday. He conferred posthumous national honours on Kudirat Abiola, MKO’s wife, and other heroes. Agents of the then military junta killed Kudirat on the streets of Lagos in the wake of the June 12 struggle.
The work is not entirely done. Although the recent resolution of the National Assembly adopting June 12 of every year for the Presidential Address is a step in the right direction, as it will help in institutionalising June 12 and immortalising Abiola. I think MKO deserves full recompense for his contributions and for paying the supreme price for Nigeria’s democracy. The government should pay the debts, if it actually owes Abiola some money, as his family claims.
It is relevant to state that certain things are instructive about President Tinubu and June 12. Tinubu became president in 2023, which was 30 years after June 12. Was this simply a coincidence or divinely ordained?
The late MKO Abiola christened his campaign manifesto, “Hope 1993: Farewell to Poverty.” President Tinubu called his own Renewed Hope Agenda for a Better Nigeria.
Now, has the ghost of June 12 been finally laid to rest? Is MKO’s vision for Nigeria alive in Tinubu’s presidency? Vice President Kashim Mustapha Shettima thinks so.
Speaking during the public lecture commemorating the 26th year of unbroken democracy, VP Shettima said that decades after the June 12 debacle, providence passed the baton of Abiola’s struggle for a better Nigeria to “one of his most trusted lieutenants — President Tinubu.”
He affirmed that, based on the final account of Abiola’s life, the military could not take away or extinguish hope. “It is this faith in the promise of Abiola’s vision that has renewed the hope of this nation,” he said.
The work is not entirely done. Although the recent resolution of the National Assembly adopting June 12 of every year for the Presidential Address is a step in the right direction, as it will help in institutionalising June 12 and immortalising Abiola. I think MKO deserves full recompense for his contributions and for paying the supreme price for Nigeria’s democracy. The government should pay the debts, if it actually owes Abiola some money, as his family claims.
In the meantime, President Tinubu’s pronouncements last Thursday, in the hallowed chamber of the National Assembly, stand as homage to resilience and a bold reminder of what might have been.
Tunde Rahman is a senior assistant to the president on Media and Special Duties.
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