It’s been 20 years now since the
freest and fairest election in Nigeria was truncated by the evil
genius, General IBB. We were on the path to great things in this country.
Majority of Nigerians along ethnic, geographical and religious lines had lined up
behind the figure of Chief MKO Abiola and decided he was the one to set us on
the path to greatness after 10 years of military misrule under IBB and his co-travelers
in jackboots. How could one forget June 12? I remember queuing at a voting
booth at the Ojabugbe-Eyesan intersection in Warri. We had no mobile phones in
those days. I cast my vote with an eerie feeling of being part of something
important and delicate at the same time. I felt I was about to change our world
with my one vote.
While standing in queue my mind kept going back to MKO's debate with Tofa. It was an amazing performance. Till date, no one has shown a greater desire to work for Nigeria or articulated such a simple and clear path forward to solving our problems like MKO did that night. He knew little things like the cost of petrol...this for a multi-millionaire who probably had not bought fuel by himself in ages. By the way, back then most Nigerians did not know the pump price of petrol like we do nowadays, because it was not such an issue.
See Links to the debate in the appendix.
See Links to the debate in the appendix.
There was no quick way of knowing
what was happening in other states or towns, since communication was slow in
those days. But we knew there was an air of calmness and oneness of purpose
that day in Warri. There were no stories of ballot boxes being stolen. The TV
and radio stations had reports of peaceful voting across the country. Prof.
Humphrey Nwosu’s option A4 ensured there was transparency even at the polling
stations. The votes were counted in front of everyone at our ward's polling booth
and MKO got over 98% of the votes there.
 |
| MKO's Election campaign poster |
The reason why this was a watershed
period in our lives was because we did not even care that the SDP ticket was a
Moslem/Moslem one with MKO and Babagana Kingibe. From the election results
released, they had won a landslide in almost every state announced, polling a total
of 8.4 million votes. Alas, the INEC chairman was abruptly prevented from
announcing the complete results and the rest is history.
Candidate
|
Party
|
Votes
|
%
|
8,357,246
|
58.71
|
||
5,878,685
|
41.29
|
||
Total
|
14,235,931
|
100
|
|
June 12
results
MKO was hounded into exile, he returned
and declared himself president, he was arrested and thrown in jail, and his
wife was assassinated by the Abacha killer squad, drank tea with Susan Rice and
William Pickering… and met his untimely death.
From the period of the June 12
election annulment till the death of MKO, some Nigerians under different
coalition umbrellas fought the government of IBB from home and overseas using
international relations and civil disturbance to try to force IBB’s arm into
recognizing the election outcome without success. Instead he handed over to
Abacha, who proceeded to take Nigeria on his own journey of terror until he
succumbed to an Indian apple.
Since then, we have had 3 PDP presidents, including Obasanjo, who was uncharitable enough to declare that Abiola was not the
Messiah Nigerians had been waiting for, became a beneficiary of a misplaced move
by the Oligarch using their new vehicle, the PDP, to appease the South West. Who
told them that June 12 was about the Yorubas? I’d better stop here.
The intent of this is not an
attempt to recant common history, but to honor MKO Abiola and the others who died
or risked life, limb and livelihood in trying to restore our mandate.
May their souls rest in peace and may
the families they left behind gain favor anywhere they go. Amen.
So how was your June 12, 1993? For
me it remains one of the best days of my Nigerian existence. A bittersweet memory.
Nigeria worked on that day. But…alas!
Appendix
Links to Abiola vs Tofa debate
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