Niran Adedokun(nadedokun@gmail.com)
In addition to its revisionism, last week’s “revelation” by Ambassador Babagana Kingibe that former President Olusegun Obasanjo was instrumental to the annulment of the June 12, 1993 election is as deceptive as it is unhelpful.
Unhelpful, not just for Nigeria but also for the retired diplomat whose motive may have been one of maligning Obasanjo or diverting attention from himself. If anything, it shows the poverty of ideas that rules the hearts of many of Nigeria’s leaders and the volume of disrespect that they have for the people.
Kingibe was running mate to the late Chief Moshood Abiola, who flew the flag of the Social Democratic Party in that election, which they were believed to have won. But the military regime of Gen Ibrahim Babangida for reasons that are still unclear annulled the election, handed over to an Interim National Government headed by Chief Ernest Shonekan, who was edged out within weeks by General Sani Abacha and his military cohort.
Not too long after Abacha seized power, Kingibe, the one who was said to have been voted for as Vice President and whose mandate in company with Abiola was usurped by soldiers, took a ministerial post under the regime and remained in office until the untimely end of that administration.
Nigerians have now been told that there was a consensus between Abiola and some of his allies to join the Abacha government in the belief that the former military dictator was going to honour an alleged promise to cede power to Abiola a couple of months down the line.
That, according to this narrative, was how otherwise respected progressive politicians and activists like the first governor of Lagos State, Alhaji Lateef Jakande, a former Organising Secretary of the United Party of Nigeria, Mr Ebenezer Babatope and the late activist legal practitioner, Mr Olu Onagoruwa, found their way into Abacha’s cabinet.
When Abiola and his close supporters recovered from the naivety of giving legitimacy to Abacha’s usurpation, they had already danced into the lion’s den and all entreaties for these progressive politicians including Kingibe to quit fell on deaf ears! Most June 12 sympathisers have from then held most of these men in contempt.
Kingibe would a few days back explain his acceptance to serve under the Abacha administration away as sacrifice he had to make in the interest of the nation. The former Secretary to the Federal Government said this just after he accused Obasanjo of being complicit in the annulment of the June 12 elections!
There is a chance that Kingibe may be privy to some information that the average Nigerian does not have. And it would be surprising if he does not. Brilliant, urbane, cosmopolitan, astute and detribalised, this diplomat and politician is a classic example of a character naturally fitted to guide this potentially great country from which he has benefitted greatly out of the pit of under-development from which it wallows.
At age 15, Kingibe was in Hertfordshire, England as a student of the 151-year-old Bishop’s Stortford College where he attained his Ordinary and Advanced Level Certificates. He later proceeded to the University of Sussex for his first degree. All of this, courtesy of the Borno Native Authority Scholarship Scheme. This Native Authority is the equivalent of today’s Local Government administration which cannot maintain drainage within its jurisdiction let alone send citizens on training overseas.
So, just by the virtue of his exposure and experience, it would be surprising if Kingibe does not have insights not just into the June 12 debacle but reasons why Nigeria has become a non-responsive spectacle to its people!
But even then, he cannot tell that story in piecemeal without attempting to substantiate his claims. It is possible that those who think Kingibe did irredeemable damage to his political career by sitting on the same table with the same people that turned Nigeria’s 1993 dream into a nightmare may have misjudged him. The question however is why the talented politician has not documented his side of the story.
When would Kingibe and other Nigerian leaders including former Heads of State, Yakubu Gowon, Ibrahim Babangida and Abdulsalami Abubukar match up with the likes of Obasanjo and Goodluck Jonathan who have at least, presented their own viewpoints, (even if seemingly flawed) of their service to the nation? Such books will put Nigeria’s history in perspective and inspire nationwide discourses that will positively affect intellectual development nationally.
But there is one other very urgently important thing that Kingibe could do for Nigeria. There have been speculations that he is one of the most influential persons around President Muhammadu Buhari for years and twice this week, he has confirmed that he has the President’s ears.
The first was at the same place and venue where he insinuated that Obasanjo was complicit in the annulment of the June 12 election. Speaking about an intervention Obasanjo allegedly put together after the annulment, Kingibe said of Buhari: “And I think President Muhammadu Buhari did attend the meeting once, the inaugural meeting. I understood that when he (Buhari) saw the direction of the meeting, he decided not to attend again…every time the issue of the annulment came up over the years, his position was very clear; it was very firm that the election was free, and fair and there was a clear winner. And that the annulment was unjustified…”
A day or so later when he was visiting Governor Mai Mala Buni of Yobe State, Kingibe spoke about how much confidence President Buhari has in the governor’s ability to perform. So, if he is so close to Buhari such that he has heard him speak highly of Buni on so many occasions, it lends to reason that the former SGF could also advise the President to go further towards achieving some of the ideals that Abiola represented, ideals which earned him votes across all ethnic groups in the country.
One is the symbolism of the 1993 SDP presidential ticket itself. It was a Muslim-Muslim ticket, which defied all postulations. Some 26 years after those elections, religious leaders are still so suspicious of one another that they bicker over appointments. While one can attribute some of these agitations to the exuberant zeal of adherents of major faiths in the country, there is a sense of fairness that President Buhari could instil on the polity through the choices that he made.
Unlike all the elections in the Fourth Republic where candidates’ biggest votes came from their ethnic groups, Abiola remarkably defeated his opponent, Bashir Tofa, in his home state of Kano. Just as he had a good outing in the eastern part of the country despite the assumptions of enmity between the West and East of Nigeria. June12 was therefore not just about an election that was annulled, it was also an abortion of a token of hope for the unity of the country.
In Abiola and June 12, Nigerians also smelt hope for the emancipation of the common man. Not only was the SDP torchbearer born into well-told indigence, the story of his success in business and his philanthropy which knew no religion, tribe or colour bore incurable optimism, all over the country. Nigerians thought that an Abiola government would ensure that their children went to school, that they had access to quality and affordable healthcare, provide them with shelter and ultimately restore the dignity that years of bad governance had snatched from them!
Much has been seen of the letter of the June 12, Kingibe should remind President Buhari of its spirit, which was surmised in those few words that resonated across the country: “Farewell to poverty.”
Adedokun tweets@niranadedokun
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