In his book, ‘My Life and
Nigerian Politics’, Tony Anenih, who was the national chairman of the Social
Democratic Party (SDP) when the June 12, 1993 election was held, made a number
of claims on the crisis.
Ibrahim Babangida, then military
president, annulled the results of the presidential election presumed to have
been won by MKO Abiola, the SDP candidate.
Anenih, in the book launched in
2016, said Abiola told him repeatedly that Babangida was trying to embarrass
him.
“On the issue of June 12, Chief
MKO Abiola had called me on the phone to come for an urgent meeting in Ikeja. I
flew to Ikeja and met Alhaji Baba Gana Kingibe, Dr Dele Cole, and Kola, MKO’s
son,” he wrote.
“At the meeting, Chief MKO told
us that his friend, Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, planned to embarrass him. He
kept repeating this without stating the type of embarrassment.”
IBB NOT PICKING ABIOLA’S CALLS
Later, Abiola insisted that they
must leave his house for Kola’s.
“He was terribly frightened and
depressed. We all moved to Kola’s house in Maryland. Right from this time,
Chief Abiola was trying to get President Babangida on the phone, but each time
he tried (Halilu) Akilu (then director-general, National Intelligence Agency)
received the call,” Anenih wrote.
“We could hear Chief Abiola
telling Akilu to tell his friend (IBB) that they were still friends, and that
he should allow him to be president even for one day, and he would resign
thereafter; that all the photographs they took together were still all over his
house, and that he should not forget the past, and that God would bless him.
“MKO would repeat Akilu’s words:
‘You mean I should call back in 30 minutes? Okay, I will call back in 30
minutes’. This went on till 7pm when the national anthem was sung on the
television and MKO hysterically was saying, ‘Do you see my friend? You see him?
You see my friend? He wants to embarrass me. Pointing to the television and
there was IBB with a piece of paper in his hand. It was the annulment speech of
June 23, 1993, by which President Babangida annulled the election and repealed
Decree NO 13 of 1993 and 52 of 1992 on which basis the election had been
conducted.”
Anenih said that at a meeting,
Babangida made it clear that the military would not accept Abiola as its commander-in-chief.
“He (Babangida) told the meeting
that the military would not accept MKO Abiola and Alhaji Tofa as their
commander-in-chief of the armed forces and that we should go and prepare for a
fresh presidential election with new candidates,” he said.
“He directed that the SDP and NRC
should arrange fresh conventions to pick new candidates. He gave the two
political parties six weeks to conduct fresh primaries, confirm the nomination
of their candidates and hold fresh elections – an action President Babangida
knew would not be possible.”
‘ABIOLA WOULD HAVE BEEN ALIVE’
Anenih also said Abiola’s
persistent refusal to listen to his advice landed him in jail and ultimately
led to his death.
Anenih said he advised Abiola
against declaring himself president, but that he refused to listen.
He said Abiola reached a secret
agreement with Sani Abacha, former head of state, to take over from Ernest
Shonekan, interim president, but he fled the country when things were heating
up, leaving his supporters behind.
He said when Abiola came back to
the country frustration drove him to declare himself president after his
scheming to succeed Shonekan had failed.
‘ABIOLA KEPT US IN THE DARK’
Anenih said the late businessman
kept the leadership of the party out of his negotiations with the military.
“It is a pity indeed, that Chief
Abiola kept the leadership of the party away from his arrangement with General
Ababcha to take over from Shonekan. If he had brought it to the notice of the
leadership of the party, he would have been advised well,” he wrote.
“In a similar but not exactly
identical set of circumstances, I had advised Chief Abiola against declaring
himself the president of this country when frustration arising from Abacha’s
refusal to hand-over to him drove him into that extreme line of thought. I
spoke to him on telephone pointing out that the army was not there to back him
up. He had no police support, and not even the immigration or customs would
back him.
“It was clear to me that the
course of action to which Chief MKO Abiola was heading was not only going to be
self-destructive, but also ruinous. He was play into the hands of the military
and offer himself as a sacrificial lamb by delivering himself to those who for
various and obvious reasons, very much wanted him out of the scene.
“Chief Abiola did not listen. The
result of his line of action landed him in jail.
“I wished he had listened to my
advice not to declare himself president of this country. If he did, I believe
he would, in all probability, still be alive today. Frustration arising from
the collapse of his scheming drove him into extreme step which, in the end, set
up a chain of events that ultimately caused him his life.”
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