Three decades after the controversial annulment of the June 12, 1993, presidential election, Ibrahim Babangida, the former military president, has opened up about the events that led to one of Nigeria’s most significant political crises.
In his highly anticipated memoir, ‘A Journey in Service’, launched in Abuja on Thursday, Babangida provides a detailed account of the annulment. He revealed that he was in Katsina when the announcement broke about the election being annulled — an election that had been won by MKO Abiola of the Social Democratic Party (SDP).
Babangida disclosed that the announcement was made by the press secretary of his deputy, without his approval or even prior knowledge.
As he pieced together the events, Babangida learned that Sani Abacha, his Chief of Defense Staff who would later become the country’s military head of state, played a central role in the opposition to the election results.
Amid the turmoil following the annulment, Babangida stepped down as president in August 1993, ushering in an interim government under Ernest Shonekan.
However, Abacha, who had already amassed considerable power within a factionalised military, would go on to seize control in November 1993, ultimately imprisoning Abiola for declaring himself president.
Reflecting on the events, Babangida noted the difficulty of removing Abacha, who had become a dominant figure in the military, especially when Babangida himself stepped down from power.
The journey to the annulment of the June 12 election began days earlier, when a judge granted an injunction stopping the electoral commission from proceeding with the election.
The injunction was filed by the Association to Better Nigeria (ABN), led by Arthur Nzeribe, a man with close ties to Babangida.
Despite this relationship, Babangida denies supporting ABN’s activities, further elaborating in his memoir, published by Bookcraft Ltd.
Babangida’s memoir now offers a rare and personal glimpse into one of the most pivotal moments in Nigeria’s political history, shedding light on the behind-the-scenes struggles and the figures who played crucial roles in shaping the nation’s fate.
“From out of nowhere, on June 10, two days before the presidential election, the same shadowy group, ABN, which had been campaigning for an extension of military rule, approached the Abuja High Court of Justice Bassey Ikpeme for an injunction to stop NEC (National Electoral Commission) from conducting the elections,” he said in his memoir.
“Unknown to me at the time, Justice Ikpeme, who was relatively young at the Bench, had worked in the chambers of the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Clement Akpamgbo. Strangely, Justice Ikpeme, in the dead of night, in clear violation of Decree 13, which barred any court from interfering with INEC’s conduct or scheduling of the elections, granted the ABN an injunction stopping NEC from conducting the June 12 elections. There was confusion everywhere.”
He stated that he promptly called an emergency meeting of the National Defence and Security Council (NDSC), the country’s top governing body, to deliberate on the next steps.
“On Friday, June 11, as the NDSC meeting was going on, I learned that a Lagos High Court had ruled that NEC should go ahead with the elections. The NDSC meeting on Friday, June 11, only hours before the scheduled elections, was one of the stormiest meetings I ever conducted as President. Strangely, the Attorney General and Justice Minister, Akpamgbo, who was the nation’s chief law officer and who ought to know that the Justice Ikpeme court order violated an extant law (and was tacitly supported, it turned out by some of my topmost military officers), advised that the elections be postponed in compliance with the Abuja court order. Professor (Humphrey) Nwosu (NEC chairman) insisted, to the dismay of my top military colleagues, that he had enough powers under the law to proceed with the elections.
“The arguments went on for hours in a tense atmosphere, peopled by some who wanted the elections postponed, among them the Chief of Defence Staff, General Sani Abacha, Lt-General Joshua Dogonyaro and a few Service Chiefs. But I had my views bottled inside me! Even before Professor Nwosu presented his compelling argument, I decided that the elections should proceed, backed firmly by the Chief of Army Staff, Lt-General Salihu Ibrahim.”
Babangida recalled looking across the room and telling Nwosu, “Proceed with the elections. Go to your office, hold a press conference, and announce that the elections will take place tomorrow as scheduled.”
However, he revealed that on June 16, despite the voting being peaceful and orderly, Nwosu unexpectedly halted the announcement of the election results.
“And then, on June 16, without my knowledge or prior approval, NEC Chairman, Professor Nwosu, announced the suspension of the June 12 election results ‘until further notice’. I knew instantly that certain fifth columnists were at work and that there was a need for extra care! And even after that suspension of the announcements of results, ABN obtained another ‘strange’ court order from Justice Saleh’s court in Abuja, stopping the release of the results of the elections,” he wrote.
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On June 23, Babangida traveled from Abuja to Katsina to offer his condolences to the Yar’Adua family following the death of their patriarch, Musa Yar’Adua, a former minister of Lagos affairs and the father of Umaru Yar’Adua, the late Nigerian president who passed away in office in 2007.
Babangida narrated: “The funeral had taken place, and as I got ready to leave, a report filtered to me that the June 12 elections had been annulled. Even more bizarre was the extent of the annulment because it terminated all court proceedings regarding the June 12 elections, repealed all the decrees governing the Transition and even suspended NEC! Equally weird was the shabby way the statement was couched and made. Admiral (Augustus) Aikhomu’s press secretary, Nduka Irabor, had read out a terse, poorly worded statement from a scrap of paper, which bore neither the presidential seal nor the official letterhead of the government, annulling the June 12 presidential elections. I was alarmed and horrified.
“Yes, during the stalemate that followed the termination of the results announcement, the possibility of annulment that could lead to fresh elections was loosely broached in passing. But annulment was only a component of a series of other options. But 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. There and then, I knew I was caught between ‘a devil and the deep blue sea’!! From then on, the June 12 elections took on a painful twist for which, as I will show later, I regrettably take responsibility.”
