Abiola won June 12 election, Babangida confesses in new book.
FORMER military president, Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida (IBB), has publicly admitted for the first time that the late Moshood Kashimawo Olawale (MKO) Abiola won the June 12, 1993, presidential election.
This revelation is contained in his new autobiography, ‘A Journey in Service’, launched in Abuja on Thursday, February 20.
The book, reviewed by former Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, said Babangida dedicated a full chapter to the transition to military rule and the annulment of the June 12 election, widely believed as the most credible, freest and fairest in Nigeria’s democratic history.
Osinbajo described the annulment as a decision with ‘cataclysmic consequences’ that led to a ‘military interregnum’ considered one of the most vicious in Nigeria’s nationhood.
In the book, Babangida was said to have acknowledged that Abiola, the candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), met all constitutional requirements to be declared Nigeria’s president.
He wrote: “Although I am on record to have stated after the elections that Abiola may not have won, upon deeper reflection and a closer examination of all available facts, particularly the detailed election results published as an appendix to this book, there was no doubt that M.K.O. Abiola won the June 12 elections.”
Babangida further noted that Abiola secured the mandatory one-third of the votes cast in 28 states, including Abuja, thereby fulfilling the constitutional requirement for victory.
“Upon closer examination of the original collated figures from the 110 polling booths nationwide, it was clear that he satisfied the two main constitutional requirements for winning the presidential elections, namely majority votes and geographical spread,” he added.
Babangida had in 2018 said there could have been consequences if he had allowed the election results to stand. He refused to say what those consequences could have been, saying rather that they would be contained in his memoir.
The former leader, however, refused to admit that Abiola won the poll (in 2018), saying, rather that “he was on the verge of winning the election.
“By the time it was assumed that he (Abiola) won, officially, the official thing was not done. Results were still coming in, and they weren’t declared. So, I think I would be deceiving myself if I say he has won.”
For decades, Babangida has faced criticism for annulling the poll. His military government, which ruled from 1985 to 1993, never officially declared a winner before cancelling the process, citing national security concerns.
Annulling the poll outcomes triggered nationwide unrest, leading to the brutal military regime of the late Sani Abacha.
Abiola was later arrested in 1994 while trying to reclaim his mandate and died in detention in 1998 under unclear circumstances. His wife, Kudirat Abiola, was also assassinated in her struggle to reclaim her husband’s mandate.
Osinbajo, in his review, noted that Babangida “answers these questions fully” for the first time, including disclosing his reasons for doing so.
However, he urged readers to get the book for the full details.
The ICIR reported that Babangida’s admission came seven years after President Muhammadu Buhari posthumously recognised Abiola as a Grand Commander of the Federal Republic (GCFR), the highest national honour in Nigeria, customarily awarded to sitting or former Presidents, or Heads of State.
Buhari also declared June 12 as the country’s official Democracy Day, changing from the traditional May 29, the day Nigeria’s Fourth Republic was birthed in 1999.