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It was somewhat surprising to me that last Friday was the 27th anniversary of June 12, 1993 presidential election. It seemed like only yesterday when that election took place and created many talking points. The June 12, 1993 election presented a wonderful opportunity for Nigeria to transit from uncertainty to certainty, disunity to unity, nepotism and tribalism to meritocracy, backwardness to progress. The only reason that transition would not have been sustained was if as President of Nigeria, Chief MKO Abiola had betrayed the trust reposed in him.
I was close to my 23rd birthday. I was in my final year at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. Suddenly, the Academic Staff Union of Universities went on strike. We left the campus for the longest stay-at-home of our era.
I had prayed and prayed that the military should not be in power by the time of my graduation. I wanted a sane environment. My prayer was about to be answered. After the election, General Ibrahim Babangida would end his “maradonic” moves of eight years and leave Nigeria to breathe again.
We argued ceaselessly about the candidates and parties. Who was the better candidate: Chief Abiola of the Social Democratic Party or Alhaji Bashir Tofa of the National Republican Convention? Abiola appealed to me better. He sounded more pragmatic and intelligent. He was a successful businessman, a chartered accountant, a long-time philanthropist, and seemed to understand the economy and leadership better than Tofa. I had never heard of Tofa before the election. And even though he chose an Igbo man, Dr Sylvester Ugoh (former Governor of Bank of Biafra) as his running mate, I was not convinced that Tofa had the capacity to turn things around. Furthermore, since Sir Tafawa Balewa, Alhaji Shehu Shagari (the only two civilian leaders) and all the military heads of state from the north had ruled Nigeria then for 32 and half years out of 33 years, I felt it was a simple case of fairness and justice for us to try someone from the southern part of Nigeria.
Then, Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, Senator Arthur Nzeribe and some other Igbo politicians in the SDP pulled out angrily and joined the NRC. It was alleged that Abiola was asked to commit to a concrete top position for the Igbo but he did not, and when they protested, he told them that he would win even without Igbo votes. That dampened my spirit. There were campaigns that Abiola would betray the Igbo once he was voted in; that it was better to vote for the NRC where an Igbo man was the running mate. Also, Abiola was a Muslim and his running mate, Babagana Kingibe, was a Muslim too.
But somehow, my analysis of issues told me that in spite of his shortcomings, Abiola would be a better president than Tofa, and that it was better to have a better Nigeria than to have a worse Nigeria with an Igbo man as vice president. In my teens, I had started reading magazines, books and newspapers on Nigeria and the world. Sometimes, I would use my pocket money to buy some. That helped me to have a more-rounded and wider view on Nigerian issues to take my own decisions. I was not convinced by Odumegwu-Ojukwu and some others that Tofa and the NRC were better options.
So Nigeria went to the polls. It was peaceful. We waited for the results. Soon, the Chairman of the National Electoral Commission, Professor Humphrey Nwosu, began to announce the results as they were collated in each state. Abiola was leading, and he was leading from different parts of Nigeria. I was elated. Finally, Nigeria would move away from stagnation and rot and join the progressive countries of the world. So, I thought.
The reason June 12 election was a watershed was because of the surprising way most Nigerians voted. Babangida had worsened the religious divide between Christians and Muslims in Nigeria through some actions of his, chief of which was his unilateral decision in 1986 to push Nigeria into the Organisation of Islamic Countries. All through his regime, his actions never failed to show his favouritism towards Muslims and northerners against Christians and southerners, even though he was more subtle than what we currently have. For example, in 1990, his four military service chiefs plus the Inspector-General of Police were all northern Muslims.
In spite of all this, Abiola, who was the presidential candidate of the SDP and a staunch Muslim, known for his support for Nigeria’s controversial registration with the OIC, decided to choose a fellow Muslim, Kingibe, as running mate. That Muslim-Muslim ticket did not look nice in a country that had faced decades of religious crises between Christians and Muslims.
However, most Nigerian voters chose to discountenance religion and ethnicity in the election. Many northerners chose to vote for Abiola, a Southerner, rather than their fellow Northerner, Tofa, with Abiola winning nine out of the 16 northern states. This was something that had never happened in any Nigerian election before. Abiola even defeated Tofa in Kano State, his home state. In the South-East, something interesting happened too. TheCable columnist, Simon Kolawole, captured it thus in a 2018 article: “In my opinion, Igbo pulled one hell of a surprise. Despite having virtually nothing to benefit from the SDP, despite the Muslim/Muslim ticket, despite the fact that an Igbo, Dr. Sylvester Ugoh, was the NRC vice-presidential candidate, despite the age-old animosity towards Yoruba over the civil war, south-easterners voted impressively for Abiola, giving him 49.45% of their votes. Tofa, with an Igbo son on his ticket, got just 50.54%. Remember, also, that the NRC controlled three of the four states in the South-East. This is the Nigeria that I love.”
Then, Babangida’s subterfuge reared its head. Announcement of results was suspended. Dubious and weird court injunctions – clearly masterminded by IBB – began to fly around. Then, the election was annulled – even before all the results were officially announced. It was terrible. Nigeria was plunged into a needless crisis that lasted for five years, claiming lives and causing deeper divisions.
Even if I had supported Tofa or did not support any of the two, I would have seen that annulment as callous. There was no cogent reason for it. Why not announce the results and then allow the aggrieved parties to go to court? Why start a match and continue to shift the goalpost whenever one side was about to score, or annul the match a few minutes to the end of the match when it was clear that one side had an unassailable lead?
Twenty seven years after the June 12 election, see where we are as a country. Have we learnt anything? Have we become more committed to Nigeria over our ethnicity, religion and self? You know the answer. That is why I feel angry whenever someone tells me about having hope that Nigeria will be better. Hope is good. Positivity is wonderful. But positivity should go hand-in-hand with reality.
For example, if a 40-year-old jalopy that does not go beyond 60 kmph takes off from Lagos for Maiduguri, one can hope that in a week or two, it will get to its destination. If the car leaves Ojota, Lagos by 6am and takes you to Ibadan by 6pm, one can conclude that it is making progress, albeit slowly. The next day, it gets to Ilorin and spends one day to rest and undergo check-up. No problem. Slow and steady wins the race. People like us are patient in life.
But if the car takes off from Oshodi in Lagos and faces Badagry, any sensible person inside that vehicle should be worried. Then, if from Badagry the driver crosses the border into Benin Republic and drives to Ghana, rests for a day and says he is planning to get to Senegal in a week’s time, and you ask the driver his final destination, but he tells you “Maiduguri”, and you believe him and continue to hope and pray that you will soon get to Maiduguri, it is hard for one to know what to tell you.
Nigeria is off-course. What it needs now is not hope. What it needs is to change course and face the right direction. And that direction can only be got through a national conference.
– Twitter @BrandAzuka
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