•NADECO logo and General Abdulsalami Abubakar (rtd)
Former Head of State, Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar (rtd), has revealed that some leaders of the pro-democracy movement, including members of the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO), privately urged him to extend military rule after becoming convinced that he genuinely intended to hand over power to a civilian government in 1999.
He also explained that he abandoned the late Gen. Sani Abacha’s transition programme because it lacked credibility.
In a striking twist to Nigeria’s democratic transition story, Abubakar said the same coalition that fiercely opposed military rule under Abacha later sought additional time for the transition process after realising they were politically unprepared for the return to democratic governance, reports The Guardian.
The former military ruler disclosed this in his autobiography, Call of Duty, unveiled on Saturday during activities marking his 84th birthday at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
According to him, many NADECO leaders were initially sceptical of his transition programme, having witnessed repeated broken promises by previous military administrations.
However, once they became convinced that his government was committed to relinquishing power on schedule, some of them approached him seeking an extension.
“Two to three months into my administration, some NADECO members realised that I was sincere about the handover date,” Abubakar recalled. “They felt they had missed the train and wanted more time to organise themselves politically. They came to me as a group and requested that the transition programme be extended.”
Abubakar said he turned down the request, insisting that he had already made a commitment to Nigerians and the international community to return the country to democratic rule within the stipulated timeframe.
To test the sincerity of their demand, he challenged the NADECO leaders to publicly own it.
“I told them that if they wrote to me and publicly announced that they had requested an extension, I would grant it. But they never did. I knew they would not,” he said.
The former Head of State disclosed that pressure to prolong military rule also came from some foreign leaders who believed his administration had restored stability following Abacha’s death and the easing of political tensions and international sanctions. But he maintained that he never considered extending his stay in office because Nigeria had reached a critical point where a return to democratic rule had become inevitable.
Abubakar, who took over government after the death of Abacha, also said military officers were against ceding power to civilians.
“Before his death, Abacha had announced that Nigeria was going to transition from military rule to democracy by October 1, 1998. Legislative elections had been held and the winners announced. There were no governorship elections yet. Nobody was clear about the presidential elections.
“All five political parties had adopted Abacha as their joint presidential candidate, though he was not a member of any of them and had not openly declared his intentions. It was generally believed that he was going to transmute from Head of State to civilian President,” he said.
