MKO AND IBB

-IBB

MKO had a special place in my heart -IBB

Saturday, 12 June 2010 00:00 Nigerian Compass


“WE were friends. He knew deep in his mind (that) he had a special place in my heart.” With those words, former military ruler, General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida penultimate Tuesday spoke of

his close relationship with the winner of the June 12, 1993 Presidential election, the late Chief Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola.

General Babangida described the annulment of the election by his military junta as a painful decision to stave off coups by younger elements in the military.

He also, however, acknowledged that efforts by him and Abiola to resolve the logjam did not yield the desired results.

In a three-hour interview, Babangida opened his heart, and his much-talked about home in Minna, Niger State, to the Board of Editors of the Western Publishing Company Limited, publishers of the Nigerian Compass newspaper and the Westerner magazine.

He disclosed that in the heat of the crisis, his late wife, Maryam, and the slain wife of Abiola, Kudirat, once locked him and the billionaire businessman in a room and ordered them not to come out of the room until they resolved their differences.

Today marks the 17th year of that election that was adjudged Nigeria’s freest and fairest, and was won by Abiola of the then Social Democratic Party (SDP).

Abiola roundly defeated his opponent, Alhaji Bashir Tofa, of the National Republican Convention (NRC) up to the Kano State polling booth of the latter.

Explaining the factors behind the annulment, Babangida said: “There were three issues: the personality of Abiola, as seen by some Nigerians; the country, as seen by the military; and Abiola, as seen by other people.”

He continued: “All the noise, we knew they were not honest, they were not genuine, but it was not for me. We knew those who were shouting loudest about him, they were not honest, they didn’t like him. But those were not the issues as far as we were concerned as a government. The other issue was we wanted to stop military coup, which we wanted to avoid at all costs. They are encouraged by the people, by Nigerians, by democrats and by the civil society and so on. A soldier is a very intelligent man, not because I was, but because he will never attempt to undermine or overthrow the government unless he is sure there is frustration in the society itself. There were frustrations so if they struck, they would be most welcome.”

Babangida, a much-acknowledged friend of Abiola, was the leader of the junta.

When local and international uproar over the annulment was pushing the country to the brink, Babangida stepped aside and handed over power to Abiola’s fellow Egba man, Chief Ernest Ademulegun Shonekan.

That government was declared illegal by a Lagos High Court and the late General Sani Abacha, who was left behind by Babangida as Defence secretary to Shonekan, seized power 83 days after. When Abiola attempted to reclaim power, Abacha clamped him in detention from which the winner of the election never gained freedom until he died in the custody of the government of General Abdulsalami Abubakar that succeeded Abacha, the latter having died in mysterious circumstances.

When told that Nigerians were distrustful of the military organizing another election after cancelling the one that everybody had acknowledged as free and fair, the former ruler said: ‘The guarantee was simple. There are common factors: Moshood Abiola... Don’t forget that some of us were accused, especially myself of my relationship with him. But that didn’t bother me. They said I was a friend to Abiola and Tofa. In other words, either way, I was the beneficiary. So I saw that as a very big problem. Everything we did we had to consider peace and stability of the country. I knew, we talked during the crisis, I talked with him, we met not once, not twice; the one organised by the Emirs and the other one the late Kudirat and Hajia (the late Maryam Babangida), we sat together and they told us to go inside and kill ourselves, but we must resolve the problem. When we were talking, they were doing their own women thing.”

To a question about why he did not move against those he said his government suspected of plotting a coup should Abiola be sworn in, since he was the Commander in Chief of the armed Forces, the former military ruler said: “We would lose,” adding: “If you go to the military, they had not moved against him. So, I couldn’t deal with them or move against them. Their plan was, ‘let him (IBB) go and we would come back.’

Reminded that his government removed some senior military officers in circumstances that suggested a pre-emptive strike to prevent a coup, he said: “Yes. Because they were a potential threat, we quietly removed them. Because they were hot up politically, and what we could not afford was to allow the younger ones step in. They may not want to come and help and what happened in Ghana, you all know, it’s what everybody should try to avoid, maybe they will kill one section of the country without reflecting federal character, so what happens?”

Prodded to give particulars of the persons he said were a potential threat, more so that he was the Commander in Chief, Babangida said: “Yes, as a Commander-in-Chief. You are right. But don’t forget that the Commander-in-Chief is up there, while the younger ones had the rifles and ammunition. We had to find a balance. I was sleeping one day in Dodan Barracks when they (Gideon Orkar and co.) raided and shot everything.”