By Tony Osakpamwan Agbons
The avalanche of commentaries, analysis and evaluations within the public space have hit the roof since the release of the memoir of former Nigeria’s Military President, General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida. Newspaper columnists, broadcasters and social media content creators have all been delving into it and pushing forth their prognosis on the period of our nationhood that will never be forgotten. Tabloids, blogs, traditional as well as social media has been agog with both protagonists and antagonists of the gap-toothed General flying at each other. IBB like the proverbial elephant means different things to different folks depending on which part of its gargantuan anatomy that is touched. The public space has been inundated with intricate, insider and external viewpoints. To his admirers, IBB has a larger than life persona, intelligentsia, suave and witty. To others he is a `Maradona` and the self-styled ‘Evil Genius’. To put it in perspective, General Ibrahim Babangida was Nigeria’s Military Head of State between August 1985 and August 1993. Despite not be elected democratically, he preferred to use the designation of President.
For the past 32 years after leaving office unceremoniously, the General has been under pressure to publish his memoir for history and posterity. Finally, he did! Considering my age, I had a direct experience of the IBB years. So, I am relating from a position of primary exposure and view point. The launch of his memoir was a gathering of the crème of political and business elites of the Nigerian state. The colossal funds raised – over N17 billion naira and counting at the event has expectedly not gone down well with many and rightly or wrongly so depending on your side of the divide. A major problem in Nigeria (most unfortunate) is that our last presidents are always better than the current. I wrote about this in my article titled, “The Pedagogy of the Last Presidents in Nigeria” about five years ago. Many that were eulogising the former military dictator, IBB at the book launch have said untoward things about his person in the past. The question then is what has changed? With what brush has IBB been painted and whitewashed after three decades? What is it about us as a people that makes us to act this way? On the flip side, is it a norm in our clime to easily ‘lucifer’ every President when in power and then ‘jesusify’ them as we begin to miss them once they are out of the saddle? What are the underlying factors that makes every former president or governor better than his successor? Why is it often the case that we are in reverse ‘osmosis’ in our leadership process and execution? These are copious questions begging for answers. They are thematic frames for future literary dissection. So, let`s zoom back to the nexus of this piece!
The annulled presidential election in 1993 won by Late business mogul, Chief MKO Abiola was the first election that I voted in. I was a young fiery undergraduate at the University of Benin, UNIBEN. We all had first-hand experience of what happened. To say that the June 12 episode is a dent on IBB’s legacy is like preaching to the choir. Going back memory lane, a number of issues stand out. The annulment of that election considered to be the freest and fairest in our nation’s history was always an accident waiting to happen. Recall IBB took over power in a coup detat in 1985. He immediately promised to handover power to a democratically elected government on 1st October 1990. Once 1990 came, the General shifted the goal post in a nationwide broadcast. He told Nigerians that his exit date would be January 1992. When that too came, the gap- toothed General, promised to leave on his anniversary in August 1993. We even had a diarchy from 1992 when the General had civilians as elected Governors in the states and there were legislators at both the federal, state and local government levels. Nigerians actually believed he would keep to his word come August 1993. It was wishful thinking!
Putting all the fine threads together, key actors in the MKO Abiola elections from Prof. Humphrey Nwosu (National Electoral Commission Chairman), Prof. Omo Omoruyi (Director General Centre for Democratic Studies), the political parties- Social Democratic Party, SDP and National Republican Convention, NRC, Civil Society Organisation, CSOs, Labour Unions, Students, Private Sector, the Military and other segments of the Nigerian society had their hands full pre and post the 1993 presidential elections. It was a case of Now or Never. Yes, as sitting President at the time, IBB may have been privy to some classified intel not in public view. However, as Head of State and Commander in Chief, the buck stops on his desk. With the privilege of office, comes huge responsibility. Juxtaposing IBB`s annulment broadcast he made on June 26, 1993 (two weeks after the elections) to facts in his book, there are seeming gaps in the gradient of history. The results of the election, which was and still is no rocket science, has been well known to Nigerians since 1993. Human rights activists – Femi Falana, Dr Beko Ransome-Kuti and Chief Gani Fawehinmi all had their sad days in solitary detention and prison purportedly on the orders of IBB for daring to publish or question those results, the announcement of which he stopped half way in 1993.
Fast forward thirty-two years later, those same results are indexed verbatim in IBB’s memoir. As President and Commander in Chief, IBB had imperial powers. If some of the top brass of the military were against MKO Abiola becoming President, IBB needed to tell Nigerians at that time especially in his annulment broadcast. Chief MKO Abiola was the overwhelming choice of Nigerians. IBB should not have allowed a handful of military officers to pressure him to overturn it under any guise. Even in advanced democracies, anywhere in the world, not everyone is satisfied after elections owing to the emotional intensity of political campaigns pre and during the process. The annulment broadcast by IBB on June 26, 1993 pointed to large scale corruption and electoral malpractices pre-elections (unsubstantiated). However, the election did not witness known incidence of voter intimidation/violence, vote buying or the likes. It was very peaceful and the Option A4 electoral system delivered. In his annulment speech, IBB gave numerous justifications for doing what he did in 1993. However, in hindsight even IBB would admit that his best simply was not good enough. He should have held his ground and not annul the election even at gun point. If he had doubts about some of his officers, he knew what to do; retired them, replace them and continue with the democratic transition for Abiola to become President simplicita. Late Prof. Humphrey Nwosu who midwifed the election as NEC Chairman revealed a lot in his 392-page book, Laying the Foundation for Nigeria’s Democracy: My Account of June 12, 1993, Presidential Election and Its Annulment, published in 2008. Prof. Nwosu also granted a bare-it-all interview with Sahara Reporters TV in 2015.
Dr Agbons is Lead, Institute of Good Governance and Leadership @www.twin2.or
