•Babangida and late MKO Abiola
The June 12 Democracy Movement has called on the Tinubu-led federal government to establish the Commission for National Recognition and Healing.
This follows the admission in Abuja on Thursday last week by former military president, Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida that the annulled presidential election of 1993 was actually won by the late Chief Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola.
The Movement, in a statement issued yesterday, signed by it National Convener, Olawale Okunniyi, and made available to The Frontier, said while it has been vindicated for its call over the years for the revalidation of the June 12 electoral mandate of MKO Abiola, it is now pertinent for the federal government to act fast “to initiate an urgent a national commission and process for national reconciliation and healing, similar to the Oputa Panel, which can ultimately convene a major national conference of all Nigerian stakeholders to move the country forward from its animosities and mistrust and in undoing all the ills of the past, while agreeing on compensations and reparations among Nigerian stakeholders, especially among those unjustly and unfairly treated by successive governments in Nigeria.”
According to the Movement, establishing the said Commission “will help us start afresh as a people and create a new Nigeria that works for all”.
READ THE FULL STATEMENT BELOW:
PRESS RELEASE
Sunday, 23rd February, 2025
IBB CONFESSION VALIDATES STRUGGLE FOR THE RESTORATION OF JUNE 12 MANDATE OF MKO ABIOLA
….. Federal Government Should Immediately Set up Commission For National Reconciliation & Healing
The June 12 Democracy Movement of Nigeria, having carefully studied the new Book of former military president, Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, IBB titled “A journey in service” launched on Thursday, is compelled once again to state that our struggle with others for the revalidation of the June 12 electoral mandate of Chief MKO Abiola and towards the restoration Nigeria’s current democratic rule has been further validated and vindicated by the main actor in the unjust and unwarranted annulment of the June 12, 1993 Presidential elections won by MKO Abiola, GCFR.
Although, IBB in his memoir, launched in Abuja, tried to shift the blame of the annulment on General Sani Abacha, claiming he was his “biggest headache” and the mastermind behind the annulment” because he was ambivalent about return to civil rule at that time thereby leading forces that annulled the election without his authority while he was in Katsina, we make bold to say that Babangida was only being escapist and mercurial in that regard as he was the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces and “Kaabiyesi” of the then military regime, as metaphorically asserted by Justice Moshood Olugbani of blessed memory in one of his rulings.
For IBB in the said Book was quoted as claiming ignorance of the annulment, stating that the press secretary to his second-in-command, Admiral Augustus Aikhomu, announced the annulment without his permission as follows; “To suddenly have an announcement made without my authority was, to put it mildly, alarming. I remember saying: ‘These nefarious “inside” forces opposed to the elections have outflanked me!’ I would later find out that the ‘forces’ led by General Sani Abacha annulled the elections.”
This statement itself by IBB, we found ambivalent.
The above assertions by IBB that Abacha became “a dominant force in a factionalised military” under his command is an indictment to his military leadership or an attempt to somehow dodge responsibility rather than being an excuse or vindication for him in the foisting of a needless political crisis on the country by the annulment of the June 12 election, which he conceded to be “credible, free, and fair,” but was annulled under his watch. For IBB himself, on June 24, 1993, in a national broadcast, formally announced the annulment as the Head of State.
No doubt, Abacha was antagonistic to civil democratic rule at that time because of his inordinate personal ambition to rule Nigeria after Babangida, as it was clearly revealed by his terror reign afterwards, especially his ruthlessness against democratic voices, however, IBB being a political ‘Maradona’ could have done better to check Abacha and his power drunk cohorts.
To us the poor handling of Abacha and his clique was a clear leadership failure on the part of IBB in spite of his absolute power.
In the light of the confession and revelation made by IBB in his book, we wish to affirm that a very clear basis has again been created for Nigeria to initiate an urgent National Commission and process for National Reconciliation and Healing, in the mode of the Oputa Panel, that can ultimately convene a major national conference of all Nigerian stakeholders to move the country forward from its animosities and mistrust and in undoing all the ills of the past, while agreeing on compensations and reparations among Nigerian stakeholders, especially among those unjustly and unfairly treated by successive governments in Nigeria; as this will help us start afresh as a people and create a new Nigeria that works for all.
For us in the June 12 Movement, some of those entitled to immediate compensations are members of the MKO Abiola family, relations of those who were killed, maimed or incarcerated in connection with their roles in the June 12 democratic struggles as well as families of those who suffered various political persecutions and undue deaths under various military regimes in Nigeria. To this end, The June 12 Democracy Movement of Nigeria shall be organising a major stakeholders’ roundtable soon to chart the way forward for the country, and recommendations therefrom shall be shared with various relevant authorities and stakeholders in Nigeria.
Signed
Olawale Okunniyi
National Convener,
June 12 Democracy Movement.
