Twenty-three years ago, on June 12, 1993, the military junta in a streak of authoritarian madness cancelled a presidential election adjudged to have been the freest and fairest in the history of Nigeria. It remains a mystery to Nigerians why the milestone election, which the late philanthropist and business mogul, Chief Moshood Kashimawo Olawale (MKO), Abiola was poised to win, was annulled, but it was probably the most wicked act perpetrated against this nation by then military ruler, General Ibrahim Babangida (IBB). A traumatized nation, poised for a real taste of joy, still reels in the pain of a cruel and unnecessary abortion. The scars are still deep and healing is far from complete. No election has been credible in Nigeria like the June 12 election. Only Buhari’s election was close to the in terms of credibility. It therefore stands to reason that a national monument should be built to preserve the sanctity of June 12 and immortalize Chief Abiola, its winner. June 12 should henceforth be declared a national public holiday as the authentic Democracy Day!
June 12 was certainly a milestone in Nigeria’s quest for its true identity.The historic event in which Nigerians shunned religious, ethnic and tribal differences to freely chose who they wanted to lead them, has since become the most symbolic day in the political history of Nigeria. On that day, the presidential election was held as part of the long and highly controversial political transition program by the military. The two-party system introduced at that time produced two Muslim candidates; Chief Abiola, a Yoruba Muslim was the flag bearer of the then Social Democratic Party (SDP) while Alhaji Bashir Tofa, a Hausa-Fulani Muslim from Kano was the National Republican Convention (NRC) candidate. Although the late Abiola picked another Muslim from the north, Ambassador Baba Gana Kingibe, a Kanuri man from Borno as his running mate, Nigerians ignored the apparent lopsidedness in the SDP ticket, which meant that both the president and his vice would be Muslims; and voted massively for the SDP.
Unofficial results showed Abiola won 19 of the 30 states, but the military annulled the election on June 23, 1993, even as the Prof Humphrey Nwosu-led National Electoral Commission (NEC) was still tallying the final results. The public outcry and condemnation by pro-democracy and human rights groups was unprecedented. Even members of the NRC were up in arms and called on the military to de-annul the results and declare Abiola the winner. The annulment was predictable because of IBB’s sinister machinations when he imposed the two-party system and obliged Nigerians to join either of them. After presidential primaries were conducted, northerners emerged as the leading contenders in both parties – Adamu Chiroma and Umaru Shinkafi (NRC) and Shehu Musa Yar Adua (SDP). Ostensibly to prevent a “northernization” of Nigeria, IBB annulled the primaries, and set the stage for the annulment of June 12; when Chiroma and Shinkafi were detained and disqualified from the re-conducted primaries, in which Abiola emerged as the flag bearer of the SDP, while Alhaji Bashir Tofa, emerged as the NRC flag bearer. In the June 12, 1993 presidential elections, Abiola defeated Tofa.
June 12 was the manifestation of the hopes and aspirations of all Nigerians to be governed by leaders chosen on the basis of democratic principles. On that day in 1993, Nigerians also said goodbye to parochialism and primordial considerations that had governed the country. An all-Muslim ticket was not seen as an incongruity; but simply as a Nigerian ticket. Nigerians voted for Abiola and Kingibe, despite their religious affiliation, in a classic statement of an end to the usual appeal to base instincts and the dawn of a New Nigeria. Indeed, a new nation was being born in which there was only one ethnic group: Nigeria and only one religion: Nigeria. At the time, a truly detribalized Nigerian won the hearts of all Nigerians from North to South and East to West. Abiola’s generosity was so well known, that ordinary Nigerians across tribal and religious divides had no trouble campaigning for and voting for him.
But the Nigerian military annulled that great movement of history and pulled Nigeria into the abyss of despair and in the process; a once united country was bifurcated along Muslim-Christian, North-South and East-West divides. General Sani Abacha, who seized power in the ensuing anomie, placed Nigerians under siege. A reign of terror was unleashed on the country and Nigeria became a pariah nation, under multilateral sanctions. The real reason IBB annulled June 12 remains largely unknown. It is just enough to say with that singular action, Nigeria succeeded in snatching defeat from the jaws of victory and the nation’s manifest rendezvous with glory was halted by a mindless dictator. Twenty-three years on, there is democracy without true democrats. Elections have held, but the will of the people has not had the kind of expression it had on June 12, 1993. Leaders have come, but none has come free of religion or ethnic baggage as was the case on June 12, 1993. The result has been a Nigeria still questioned by many Nigerians; a nation full of promise but still in doubt of itself.
The annulment was a tragedy of dashed hopes and a coup against Nigeria’s collective democratic aspirations. Twenty-three years after, our democratic failures have only made the wounds look fresh as if they were inflicted freshly. But the sum total of it all is that we are today paying the price of compromise which the political class committed in 1999 by jumping into Gen Abdulsalami Abubakar’s transition without having a road map when all that was required was to bring the June 12 struggle to its logical conclusion. Under the guise of a transition, Abubakar spent eight months to ensure consolidation of the anti-democratic forces as another soldier; Olusegun Obasanjo took over power and permanently sealed the annulment of June 12.
After apostles of OBJ’s failed tenure elongation took power, the same people who killed June 12 and resurfaced as born-again democrats in 1999, are back in charge dominating the democratic space with another soldier, Gen Buhari as president. Nothing good can come from their congregation. The country remains a pathetic sight careering dangerously to the precipice of hopelessness with clueless leaders leaving the country on autopilot as they keep helping themselves and their hangers on, even as many as 27 of the 36 states currently owe their workers salary arrears ranging from three to eight months.
The SDP that catapulted Abiola to victory was one of the most sophisticated political machines ever assembled in Nigeria. It was an umbrella amalgam of political godfathers from every Nigerian tribe which included: Musa Yar’Adua, Olusola Saraki, Alex Ekwueme, Abubakar Rimi, Sule Lamido, Anthony Anenih, Jim Nwobodo, Osaigbovo Ogbemudia, Solomon Lar, Atiku Abubakar, Bamangar Tukur, and Baba Gana Kingibe among others. Nigerians of goodwill must step forward and create a credible pan-Nigerian platform and build a movement for change beyond slogans. That is the only way to re-enact June 12 and change Nigeria.
