20 Important facts about June 12 every Nigerian must never forget
It’s exactly 28 years since business mogul Moshood Abiola’s ‘Hope 93’ campaign full of promises to end poverty in Nigeria was dashed by former military head of state, Ibrahim Babangida, who annulled the June 12, 1993 election.
The hope of the 14 million voters and the 88 million population who had thought the nation would return to democratic government after a decade of military rule was also dashed.
For Babangida, he lost the opportunity to write his name in gold, despite advice from few of his allies like Col. Abubakar Umar (rtd), a former governor of Kaduna state, who claimed he advised Babangida to allow NEC declare the winner, according to his account in the “Vagabond in Power: The story of Abacha’s Coup against Babangida, Shonekan and Abiola” published in Tell Magazine on August 10, 1998.
While we continue to live with the memories, regrets and effects of June 12, 1993, here are 20 important facts every Nigerian must never forget:
1. The June 12 1993 election was the first presidential election held in Nigeria a decade after President Shehu Shagari’s second term election in 1983, the same year the military took over government.
2. MKO Abiola emerged the candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) after defeating Babagana Kingibe and Atiku Abubakar (former vice president), in the SDP presidential primary election in April 1993.
3. The June 12, 1993 election was not all about Abiola, there was another candidate – Bashir Tofa of the National Republican Convention (NRC) – a millionaire banker from Kano state.
4. Abiola picked Babagana Kingibe as his running mate. Kingibe was SDP’s National Chairman who resigned to contest in the primary. While Tofa’s running mate was Dr Sylvester Ugoh.
5. Abiola’s Social Democratic Party (SDP) and Tofa’s National Republican Convention (NRC) were the two parties created by Babangida in 1989 to participate in the election after he rejected 50 other parties.
6. Abiola ran a six-week-presidential campaign across the nation which ended on Tuesday June 8, 1993 in Minna, Niger state, the hometown of Babangida.
7. 14 million Nigerians voted in the election and from unofficial results released, Abiola polled 8,341,309 (58.36%) of the votes cast while Tofa polled 5,952,087 (41.64%).
8. A shadowy group Association for Better Nigeria (ABN) led by maverick politician Arthur Nzeribe, was behind the court cases that served as the springboard upon which the government nullified the election.
9. On June 10, 1993: ABN filed a suit to stop the election before an Abuja High Court. The Court presided over by Justice Bassey Ikpeme issued an order restraining the National Electoral Commission (NEC) from conducting the election on June 12.
10. NEC chaired by Prof Humphrey Nwosu insisted it would go ahead and the election was held on June 12.
11. On June 15, while results were trickling in, ABN approached an Abuja court again, asking it to stop NEC from further announcing the results. Chief Judge of Abuja, Dahiru Saleh gave the order restraining NEC from announcing the result.
12. According to the New York Times, the military government also barred news organizations from reporting results of the election.
13. NEC filed an appeal before the Court of Appeal on June 22, 1993 to challenge the order restraining it from announcing the result of the election.
14. A day after NEC filed the appeal, Babangida in an unsigned terse statement announced a decree that annulled the election and also suspended NEC.
15. Abiola and many other Nigerians as well as the international community kicked against this move.
16. According to the Washington Post, the United States, United Kingdom and International Monetary Fund (IMF) threatened to sever ties with Nigeria.
17. On Friday June 11, 1994, Abiola gathered his supporters at Epetedo in Lagos Island and declared himself winner of the election after a human rights group issued what it said were final results.
18. Abiola was arrested on June 24, 1994 on treason charges. He would later spend the last four years of his life in prison. He died in Abuja on July 7, 1998 at age 60, during a meeting with Nigerian and United States officials
19. While he was in prison, his wife, Kudirat, was assassinated in Ikeja, Lagos, on June 4, 1996, by state-sponsored gunmen. Many other pro-democracy campaigners, journalists, and others demanding Abiola’s release were arrested and killed by the Abacha regime.
20. The election has been adjudged by local and international observers as the most credible presidential election in Nigeria’s history. But unfortunately it didn’t produce a president as the people expected.
