Independent editorial June 12 December 28, 2006 | posted by Nigerian Muse (Archives)

Sunday Independent

June 12, 2005

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The significance of June 12

 

   Today the 12th of June is another anniversary of that famous election that was conducted under the regime of General Ibrahim Babangida and was won by the late Bashorun M.K. O. Abiola on the ticket of the SDP. His opponent was Alhaji Bashir Tofa who competed under the ticket of the NRC. Unfortunately, the result of that election, locally and internationally attested as the fairest and freest election ever conducted in Nigeria, was rudely annulled by a north-dominated military clique that had vowed that the will of the people of Nigeria that had chosen Abiola to rule over them was never going to be realised.

The details of this annulment as recorded by a very key insider of the Babangida regime, Prof. Omo Omoruyi, contained in his very revealing treatise, The Tale of June 12: The Betrayal of the Democratic Rights of Nigerians 1993, confirms that MKO Abiola won that election clean and clear but certain vested interests within that regime were very unhappy about the result for many selfish reasons. The June 12 election was to have returned Nigeria to a truly popular democracy in which a candidate genuinely won the election all across the length and breadth of the nation. There were no ethnic or religion factors openly at play on June 12. The election was also to carry out a fundamental geopolitical power shift of power from the northern to the southern parts of the country without any conditionality or the usual unfair trade-offs like the types that had more or less frustrated the ‘good intentions’ Obasanjo presidency as dictated by those who routinely claim they “made him president”.

Perhaps more importantly, there were certain military officers who did not want a return to democratic rule in Nigeria or were not prepared for the discipline needed to serve a civilian democracy. Their decision was based on the fact that nothing serious would happen if they canceled the results because they had previously canceled several past national elections and the spineless politicians, rather than fight for democracy, habitually abandoned the electorate and allied with the military to continue the thieving dictatorship. Of course, there was no doubt that a lot of people benefited from the chaos and ensuing dictatorship and would therefore wish that the military dictatorship continued in perpetuity.

But what they did not reckon with this time around was the massive resistance that was awaiting them in the streets of Lagos and elsewhere. Needless to say, that those who annulled the elections met the greatest shock of their lives as Nigerians resisted their illegal act with all the determination that the occasion deserved: their lives and blood!  

There was no reason on earth other than the delusion of grandeur and the conqueror’s mentality that had begun to dominate the minds of certain army officers, especially those from the northern parts of Nigeria, for that annulment. According to Omo Omoruyi insider’s account, General Babangida had come to the realization that there had been too many annulments and nobody was going to listen to the lies he was going to tell as justifications for canceling the election whose winner was already a matter of common knowledge to the whole world. 

According to the recorded dialogue that took place between Omoruyi and IBB on the eve of the annulment, it was clear that the military was daring the civil society by their decision to toy with the result of that election. In IBB’s own words, “Sani (meaning Sani Abacha) is opposed to a return to civilian rule. Sani cannot stand the idea of Chief Abiola, a Yoruba, becoming his Commander-in-chief at all. Sani seems to have the ears of the Northern leaders that no Southerner, especially from the SouthWest, should become the President of this country. Sani seems to rally the Northern elders to confront me on this matter. He is winning; the Sultan and the Northern leaders are of this frame of mind. Where do I go from here? They do not trust me. Without Sani, I will not be alive today; without the North, I would not have become an officer in the Nigerian Army and the President of Nigeria”. (Omoruyi, 1999, p.165-66)

Not done, Babangida continued “Sani, you know, risked his life to get me into office in 1983 and 1985; if he says he does not want Chief Abiola, I will not force Chief Abiola on him. I just have to end the whole matter and go back to the place of my birth. That is the way I feel now.”  Beside, Abacha and the Northerner elders, he also named retired Generals Dogonyaro and David Mark as those who have sworn that Abiola must never be allowed to claim his electoral victory freely given to him by the people of Nigeria. As a matter of fact, IBB quoted David Mark as boasting that “I’d shoot Chief Abiola the day NEC pronounces him the elected President”. Mark you, that is the same David Mark who is now a distinguished Senator! You can now figure out those running the ‘democratic show’ in Abuja and why things are not moving positively in the country in spite of all.

When former legislator, Nduka Irabor, then the press secretary to Vice-President Admiral Augustus Aikhomu, who from all indications, was kept out of the transactions leading to the annulment, came out with a ‘Press Release’ that was uncharacteristically unsigned, undated and issued by an unnamed person, announcing that the June 12 election had been annulled for some arcane reasons, it was clear that the battle line between the pro-democracy forces and the anti-democracy forces had been drawn, signaling a war that was not to abate until May 29, 1999!

I need not go into the history of the battle that ensued as a natural outcome of the annulment. Needless to say that while the annulists won on the day they announced it, those who consequently resisted the annulment won all the other consequential battles that followed thereafter. First, the evil genius IBB, had to ‘step aside’, the Shonekan contraption that was put up as a facade for the collapsing military oligarchy did not see the light of day; Abacha who thought that he was a natural heir to the blood-stained military throne found that he was to be holed in, isolated and pariahed inside Aso Rock for all the days of his rulership after all his tricks, lies and naked brutality failed to quench the fury that was unleashed on him by the pro-democracy forces. 

Unable to govern as he had envisaged, the late General Abacha became a total recluse, satisfying his frustration by recklessly stealing the nation's money and also got himself immersed in tasking sexual orgies, one of which he was reported to have finally died from. Till this day, the nation is still trying to clear the debris that was left behind by the Abacha oppressive regime.

Now, what is the connection between President Obasanjo and the story of June 12? It is an open secret that the President, even though he is an accidental beneficiary of the June 12 struggle, has refused to acknowledge the supremacy of that date over May 29 – the so-called “Democracy Day”, thereby committing the logical heresy of confusing cause with effect. It is true he never openly supported the June 12 struggle; he even made the famous statement that Abiola “was not the Messiah”. But now that he is the beneficiary of all that the same Abiola died for, the least we can expect from him is to openly acknowledge the fact. No more, no less!

But only the blind and the deaf would fail to recognize the fact that the only reason the north agreed to hand over power to President Obasanjo as the Bafarawas of the Arewa Consultative Forum continue to remind everyone, is that the June 12 battle was decisively won by the pro-democracy movements and there was no guarantee at that time that the nation was going to continue as one unified federation  if a Southerner, nay, a Yoruba man for that matter, did not get power after the June 12 struggle. And incidentally this was what Abacha said would only happen over his dead body. What a personal wish and the fulfillment! I don’t know how David Mark and others arch-annulists like him are taking the development because everything seems to be going the every opposite of their hitherto domino thesis of Nigeria politics.

Abiola is the Moses of Nigerian democratic struggle. Although he was not to get there himself, his spirit and philosophy did. So it is therefore time for all the human rights groups, CLO, CD, CDHR, DA, NADECO, ASUU, NANS and all those groups and individuals that fought for June 12 to step forward for recognition.

While Abiola was the rally point, the real foundation of the June 12 struggle, of course, its justification, was to, once and for all, make it a fundamental principle of Nigerian governance that the WILL of the electorate remain superior to that of a cabal of coupists, no matter how powerful they be. That is what June 12 was all about then, and will forever be: a national watershed, the people’s real Democracy Day.

It is true that the immediate but unintended outcome of the struggle for which much blood was spilled was the hijacking of the fruits of democracy by those who did not struggle for it. And that is the main reason why the ‘dividends of democracy’ have remained illusive to the majority of our people. It also means that the fundamentals of the June 12 struggle are not ended yet. It has only entered another tricky and decisive phase – the deepening of our inchoate democratic process and it is in that context that I am fully in support of the National Confab on political reforms which hopefully should be able to transform the wobbling federal structure into a system with a promise for the generality of Nigerians.

No one can deny the significance of May 29 in the annals of the nation but it pales into nothingness when compared with June 12. President Obasanjo must therefore dump his present pretense that June 12 does not matter or does not deserve proper recognition, personal and official. There is no doubt that the same interests that worked so hard to annul the election in 1993 are still very much around. It is quite possible that those who claim to have installed him there may not give him the liberty to join the rest of Nigeria in the celebration of June 12 because it signals the fall of the forces of oppression and dictatorship and victory for the forces of freedom, democracy and the Rule of Law

Even then, President Obasanjo must take a stand in the face of the reality of history because without June 12, there would have been no Abacha and without Abacha, there would have been no Obasanjo the second and third times. That to us is the connection between the President and June 12. And it is a very big issue at stake