June 12: Who Needs Ibb’s Confession?

By Bola BOLAWOLE
turnpot@gmail.com 0807 552 5533

Some broken hearts never mend/Some memories never end/Some tears will never dry/Our pains over June 12 will never die! (Adapted from Don Williams’ “Some Broken Hearts Never Mend”).

On the day former self-styled military President Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida (IBB) celebrated his 70th birthday, I was in Minna, the Niger State capital where the self-styled “evil genius” has his palatial home called the Hilltop villa. Self-styled Chief Servant, Aliyu Babangida Muazu (no relation of IBB) was the Niger state governor at the time. Towards mid-day, State Correspondents assigned to the Governor’s Office packed bags and baggage and were hurrying somewhere. SOJ, as my former staff at The WESTERNER newsmagazine was fondly called, hurried to me and said, “Oga, let us go. They are going to the Hilltop Villa. Today is IBB’s birthday”.

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We quickly followed. Getting there, we were ushered into a sitting room on the ground floor by some of IBB’s aides. He must have been expecting the journalists. Or did he send for them? It most likely was a ritual understood by both sides. Anyway, the birthday of a personality like IBB would be news any day, anywhere.

I surveyed the environment while we waited for him. I had noticed that the tar on the driveway had collapsed in a few places. Looking around the reception I also noticed that the window blinds had given way here and there. The place was not well kept as I would have expected. That, obviously, could not have been the room where IBB receives very important visitors. As we left the Governor’s Office to IBB’s Hilltop Villa, I asked questions about the relationship between the Chief Servant and the two former military Heads of State (IBB and Abdulsalami Abubakar) that he must play host to.

I was pointed in the direction of Abubakar’s own palatial building (as I was told) but we did not go there. Having two former Heads of State under one’s roof, as it were, was a privilege that also came with responsibilities which, I was told, was like walking a tightrope. Again, I heard that dealing with one was less demanding than dealing with the other.

I was still lost in my own thoughts when IBB stepped in. We all stood at attention as he made the rounds exchanging pleasantries and shaking hands. His trademark gap-toothed smile (with which he disarmed coup leader Buka Suka Dimka, as we learnt) was still with him. When it got to my turn and I introduced myself, he said, “Ah, my enemy!”. I replied: “I am not your enemy, Your Excellency, but the enemy of your obnoxious policies, especially the annulment of June 12!” He smiled and moved on.

That must have been on August 17, 2011. Nearly 14 years later, Babangida found it inescapable to return to the same June 12, 1993 presidential election annulment issue, which nothing anyone did was able to wish away. Better, then, to confront it headon than continue to play the ostrich! I had requested for an interview, which IBB agreed to grant. He handed me over to one of his aides, a retired military officer, but that one was another Maradona in his own right! June 12; Dele Giwa; Maryam, IBB’s late wife’s Better Life for Rural Women’s pet programme, which the wife of a military governor had told me was a cover to accumulate spiritual powers nationwide for the Babangidas to remain perpetually in power, were some of the questions I had wanted to ask him.

One of the big donors at last Thursday’s launching of IBB’s library project described the former military president as the father of the private sector in Nigeria; he may be right, but that is not the only offspring sired by IBB. He is also regarded as having fathered the “settlement syndrome” (euphemism for corruption) in Nigeria. If you hear them say that everyone has a price, it is said to have started with IBB’s regime. What of the ruination of seniority and esprit de corps in the military, when junior officers gained ascendancy over their superiors? That was when Majors, Lt.-Colonels and Colonels began to hold positions that trampled Generals.

Like the proverbial Adepele’s teeth, how many of the Ajantala offsprings of IBB can anyone count? Is it the Hercules air crash? The Gulf War oil windfall that vanished into thin air? The execution of Vatsa? The unending return to democracy rigmarole? The list is endless!

IBB’s confession on June 12 is worthless as it changes nothing. It came too late. Now, it is, quoting Shakespeare, all sound and fury, signifying nothing. The results of the June 12, 1993 presidential election that he now pretends to validate were not only known but were also widely disseminated even before the election was annulled. The results were already in the public domain before the annulment announcement was made by Nduka Irabor. I was the editor of The PUNCH/Saturday PUNCH newspapers at the time and we not only had the results but also declared them.

That was one of the many “sins” compelling the military dictators to shut down and proscribe the PUNCH newspapers many times while I as the editor tasted detention. That was also why the media at the time started addressing MKO Abiola as “the presumptive winner” of the election. Before then, we had been blunt in referring to Abiola as “winner of the June 12, 1993 presidential election” before we were advised to err on the side of caution. I remember we had to seek legal opinion before we now settled for the phrase “presumptive winner” So, IBB’s confession on June 12 brought nothing new to the table.

What Professor Humphrey Nwosu, chairman of the National Electoral Commission that conducted the watershed election, shied away from doing in his book “Laying the foundation for Nigeria’s democracy: My account of June 12, 1993 presidential election”, the immediate past president, Muhammadu Buhari, achieved in 2018 when he not only declared MKO Abiola as the winner of the June 12, 1993 presidential election but also posthumously awarded him the highest national honour of Grand Commander of the Federal Republic (GCFR) as well as extended unto him all the benefits and privileges due to the president of the Federal Republic of NIgeria. This was something the three presidents before Buhari (Olusegun Obasanjo, Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, and Goodluck Ebele Jonathan) had failed to do.

So, of what use is Babangida’s belated confession that leaves nothing but sour taste in the mouth, and which is akin to surreptitiously dancing on MKO Abiola’s grave? Who needs IBB’s crocodile tears? The book launch ought to have been a very solemn occasion if IBB was truly penitent and remorseful! Not an occasion for all the wry jokes of the Master of Ceremonies! Not an occasion for the display of obscene wealth and vulgarity by the country’s ruling elite! Not an occasion for IBB to smile all his way to the bank with 17 billion Naira and even more! A minute silence for Abiola, his wife Kudirat, Pa Alfred Rewane, Dr. Omosola, Bagauda Kaltho and the countless other unheralded fallen heroes of June 12 would have been met and proper if they all meant well and were not just playing to the gallery.

Did IBB think we have forgotten his SAP without a human face? Nothing speaks better to the hypocrisy and chicanery of that gathering than that the same Obasanjo who had lambasted IBB and his SAP, was chairman of the cheerleaders at the book launch. IBB started the mindless devaluation of the Naira with SAP, which laid the foundations for today’s unthinkable hardship. The real target of the book launch was to launder his image and deodorise a name that never stops leaving a sour taste in the mouth. What is needed, if perchance that task would be achieved, is not the construction of an IBB presidential library but the tearing down of all the ignoble legacies of the IBB years that still hang around our neck like an albatross!

MKO Abiola in his end-years and IBB represent different tendencies. They stand on two opposing ideological pedestals. You cannot love one without hating the other!

June 12: The significance of IBB’s confession

The confession of IBB on the annulment of the June 12, 1993 presidential election is a significant revelation; indeed, it is heartbreaking to acknowledge that IBB’s admission of MKO’s win came decades late. The annulment was a classic case of power-hungry individuals prioritizing their interests over the well-being of Nigerians. To me, IBB’s confession seems belated, especially since the authentic results had already been published. It is likely that IBB wanted to make amends with his conscience, especially at this stage of his life. To honour Abiola’s legacy, I think it is essential for Nigerians to demand genuine electoral reforms. The country must learn from the June 12 experience and ensure that future elections are free, fair, and credible. This includes implementing measures to prevent electoral malpractice, promote transparency, and safeguard the people’s votes. Ultimately, Nigerians must rise up and speak with one voice, demanding a better electoral system that truly represents their will. By doing so, they will be upholding the principles of democracy and justice that Abiola fought for. – Professor (Retd. Justice) Alaba Omolaye-Ajileye.

*Former Editor of PUNCH newspapers, Chairman its Editorial Board and Deputy Editor-in-Chief, BOLAWOLE was also the Managing Director/Editor-in-Chief of The Westerner newsmagazine. He writes the ON THE LORD’S DAY column in the Sunday Tribune and TREASURES column in the New Telegraph newspaper on Wednesdays. He is also a public affairs analyst on radio and television.