*Saying Abacha Annulled The Election Is Tales – Another Tackles Babangida
ONE of the sons of the acclaimed winner of the annulled June 12, 1993, presidential election, the late Chief Moshood Abiola, Lekan, has disclosed that former military president, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida (rtd), apologised to the family for annulling the election.
Lekan disclosed this on Thursday, June 12, while addressing journalists on the sidelines of the MKO Abiola Memorial Symposium and preparations for the launch of a forthcoming book, MKO Abiola: Symbol of Democracy, held in Lagos, said the family felt a sense of relief following Babangida’s public acknowledgement and apology.
“We returned from the United States of America, we have met IBB and he has apologised privately to us. When he came out publicly to say that he was sorry for annulling the election and that MKO won the election, he did what he had done privately in public.
“Every year, he always sends someone to come and represent him here on the June 12 occasion.”
He stressed the symbolic significance of the public apology, describing it as long overdue, adding: “Before now, for the private apology, there was nothing we could do about that. It is as though someone punched you in public and said sorry in private.”
He said Babangida’s public admission helped to clarify the legitimacy of Abiola’s electoral victory, putting to rest longstanding doubts and controversy.
“For him to come out publicly to admit that MKO did win the election makes us feel at ease publicly.
“This is because some people are always saying, ‘are we even sure he won the election?’ But now, he has released the full results. Officially, it is now known that MKO won the election, and that is no longer a controversy,” Lekan stated.
But his brother, Jamiu, who is the Senior Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Linguistics and Foreign Affairs, criticised Babangida for claiming that late head of state, Gen. Sani Abacha, actually annulled the election, describing such claim as “tales by moonlight,” wondering why the former militery ruler had to admit only recently that Abiola won the election in his book, A Journey in Service.
Recall that following the annulment of the election, Abiola was arrested and imprisoned for allegedly attempting to overthrow the then military regime.
Abacha died on June 8, 1997, while Abiola died on July 7 the same year.
Speaking on a television programme, Jamiu said former head of state, Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar, should have made the announcement after Abacha died and his father should have been allowed to have access to proper medical checkup.
He stated: “He (Babangida) mentioned that the election was annulled by Abacha, but all of that is tales by moonlight.
“If that was the case, nothing stopped him from bringing up that when Abacha died, to Abdulsalami, who is also from Niger State and a good friend of his, to say, ‘I was forced to annul this election because Abacha wanted to kill Abiola.
“Now, Abiola is in jail. Why don’t you release him to get a medical checkup, as opposed to him eventually dying in jail?’
“Even if he didn’t tell Abdulsalami to de-annul the election, at least let him go to have a medical checkup and Abacha was dead.
“If Abacha was the problem, they could have come up with the result. This result that was announced in his book could have been announced when Abdulsalami came into power and they could have allowed him to get a medical checkup.
“Maybe he would have survived.”
Nigeria Would Have Been Better Had MKO Abiola Become President — Son
Jamiu was optimistic that Nigeria would have become far better, economically, if Abiola was allowed to become president in 1993.
He stated: “Nigeria would have been better, because at that time, it was a very special time in global times; that 1993 period was a time when the world itself was having an international economic boom. We could have tapped into that.
“But what did we get in return? We got a kleptomaniac as head of state. I am not going to talk about Abacha, because he has his problems wherever he has found himself.”
According to Jamiu: “I wrote a book in 2015 because I came to realise that my father’s name was becoming like a memory that was becoming distant and people were hellbent on rewriting the history of Nigeria without him.
“People would come from abroad, foreign presidents, they would mention Yar’Adua and others and they would not mention Chief MKO Abiola. Some people wanted to bury his name. Like my father would say, ‘they wanted to shave his head in his absence.’
“So, I now wrote a book, The President Who Never Ruled, so that his name cannot be forgotten.”
In 2018, Abiola was posthumously awarded Grand Commander of the Order of the Federal Republic (GCFR) by then President Muhammadu Buhari, who also declared June 12 Democracy Day.
During his address to the National Assembly to commemorte the June 12 anniversay, also known as Democracy Day, Tinubu honoured some of those who contributed immensely in the strglle to actualise the June 12 election outcome, or paid the supreme price in the process, including Abiola’s wife, Jamiu mother, Kudirat, who was assassinated in 1996, with a posthumously awarded of Commander of the Federal Republic (CFR).
