Twenty three years after, former Head of State, retired Gen Abdulsalami Abubakar has broken his silence on how the presumed winner of the June 12, 1993 presidential election, Chief Moshood Kashimawo Abiola died while in detention.
That election, Nigeria’s freest and fairest ever, was annulled by the regime of military President Ibrahim Babangida.
Abubakar, who was in power when Abiola died on July 7, 1998, denied insinuations that the late business mogul, who who was massively voted across the country irrespective of ethnic, religious or whatever differences, was poisoned.
He ruled from 1998, when his predecessor Gen Sani Abacha died, to 1999, when he handed over to a democratically-elected former President Olusegun Obasanjo.
He said that Abiola was not killed but died after falling ill, contrary to the popular story that Abiola took poisoned tea.
Rather, he said that Abiola died after falling ill while receiving a delegation from the United States of America.
He spoke in an interview with Trust TV.
According to him: “Well, I smile because there were lots of allegations here and there that we killed Abiola. As always when I am talking about late Abiola, I still thank God for directing me on things to do when He gave me the leadership of this country.
“On the day Moshood Abiola passed away, may he rest in peace, two to three things make me always say I thank my God for the guidance He gave me.
“One was I received a delegation from America headed by Pickering who was then, I think, the secretary of state or so. In his team I remember very well, was Susan Rice. I remember her very well because of the role she played later.
“So after the normal courtesy and discussion we had, when they were leaving my office, Pickering said “Your Excellency we made a request to see Moshood Abiola but we were denied”, so I said “Why were you denied? who denied you?” There and then I made a decision, I said “Look, you will see Moshood definitely, I overruled whoever said you cannot see him”. So I now called my chief security officer, I said “Please make arrangement for this team to see Abiola,” that is one point.”
“Now during the incarceration of Moshood Abiola, except his personal doctor, to my knowledge, no member of his family saw him. So when I became head of state, based on consultation and interaction together with Ambassador Babagana Kingibe, I gave the family a date that they could come and see him.”
Recalling the incidents on the day MKO died, Abubakar said: “So a day before he died, his family came to Abuja to see him. For one reason or the other, the whole family could not see him at the same time, so it was agreed that when this group of his family will see him today, tomorrow the next team will see him.
“So they saw him like yesterday, now this team from US came to see me and I said they could see him. Normally it was in the evenings the family go and see him. So because I had authorized the American team to see him, so the other part of the family were waiting to see him.
“So, it was at this meeting when the American team was meeting Abiola he fell sick and suddenly the security officers called the medical team to come and attend to him, and when they saw the situation they said it was severe and they needed to take him to the medical centre. So it was the medical team plus the American team that took him to the medical centre, unfortunately at the medical centre he gave up.
“Then my security chief called and said “I have bad news for you”, I asked what it was, he said “Abiola is dead”. I was shocked. He told me he was there with the American team, at that time I was staying in the barracks, I had not moved to the villa, so I said okay, let him take the American team to my house, I will meet them at the house; so I closed from the office, and went there.
“The issue now was how do I break the news to Abiola’s family and how do we tell the world Abiola had passed on. I must be thankful to God and again to Ambassador Kingibe because we called on him and asked him to bring the family of Abiola. So when they came I broke the news, that unfortunately this is what has happened.”
“As you would expect, the family broke down and they started crying, I can’t remember which of the ladies, I held her, she was crying, sobbing, it was then Susan Rice, that is why I always remember her, said “Mr President that is not your job, let me do it”, so she now held this lady until she settled down and she calmed down a little bit.
“Then we had to summon my second in command and other people and then strategised on how to break the news.”
“That is why I always say I thank my God for guiding me, if I hadn’t said the American team should go and meet Abiola certainly I don’t know how I would explain to the world that Abiola had died, and the American team will they believe me that we had not killed Abiola at that time when they were requesting to see him?”.
The annulment of Abiola’s election by Babangida threw Nigeria into a deep social crisis, with pro-democracy activists spearheaded by the National Democratic Coalition, NADECO, Campaign for Democracy and others campaigning for the revalidation of the election and swearing-in of Abiola as the President. That crisis consumed Babangida himself who had to hurriedly “step aside” from power.
MKO, a Yoruba from the South-west had thrown his hat into the ring in 1993 when he contested for the presidency during the regime of Ibrahim Babangida.
Expectedly, MKO’s cultivation of friendship from various parts of the nation would prove beneficial for his aspirations and subsequent trials.
At that period, the Babangida regime, under its ‘stabilisation programme’ had inaugurated the Transitional Council and the National Defence and Security Council (NDSC) to govern until presidential elections could be held.
By January 5, 1993, over 250 presidential candidates, including MKO, had been screened by the electoral umpire, NEC. The NEC had earlier banned many candidates and parties from campaigning.
By June 12, after a lengthy process filled with controversies, MKO chosen by the Social Democratic Party (SDP) contested against the National Republican Convention (NRC) candidate, Bashir Tofa.
He had another Muslim, Babagana Kingibe, as running mate.
Abiola won by a landslide in the elections widely reported as free and fair but was denied his mandate by Babangida who wanted to extend his rule.
Babangida, wishing to truncate the process, subsequently petitioned the High Court to halt the process. On June 16, the announcement of the results was postponed.
But a group, Campaign for Democracy in defiance, released the ‘election results’, declaring Abiola as the winner, with 19 of 30 states ‘in his kitty’.
Government voided the election, saying it wanted to “protect the legal system and the judiciary from being ridiculed both nationally and internationally”.
From this point, Abiola’s tortuous journey to regain his mandate thus began.
A few nations, including the U.S. and Great Britain, reacted to the development by withdrawing aid from the Nigerian regime.
Buoyed by the show of support locally and globally, Abiola called for voters to embark on civil disobedience in an attempt to force the hand of the regime.
Undeterred, Babangida banned Abiola and Tofa from participating in future elections.
The political unrest and street protests that erupted in the aftermath of the annulment of the June 12 polls filtered into 1994. Resentment built against military rule both locally and internationally.
Pressure mounted on the Babangida regime to leave power.
Earlier on July 31, a rattled Babangida announced that an interim government would take over August 27.
He, however, ‘stepped aside’ a day before the new government, headed by his loyalist, Ernest Shonekan, an Egba chief from Abeokuta in Ogun State like Abiola, assumed power.
All through the latter part of 1993, Nigeria witnessed massive unrest, especially in the South-west. Meanwhile, Abiola remained abroad, rallying international support.
In November 1993, Shoneken was unceremoniously sacked by another military general, Sani Abacha.
On June 11, 1994, after months of waiting endlessly for his mandate to be actualised from an unimpressed Abacha, Abiola returned to Nigeria.
He declared himself president before a massive crowd during the famous Epetedo Declaration. He also called for an ‘uprising’ to pressurise the military to hand over power.
Abacha, who himself was mulling a transition from military to civilian president, immediately clamped him into jail charging him with treason.
Hundreds of demonstrators thronged the streets of Lagos to demand Abiola’s release.
Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka and many other activists, who spearheaded the protests, fled the country after subsequent clampdown on dissent by the regime.
Despite the bloody protests that erupted across the South-west, and swathes of the east and north, including a 10-day crippling strike by oil workers, Abacha refused to budge.
However, Nigeria remained a pariah in the global community.
Abiola remained in jail for four years. During that period, his wife, Kudirat, was assasinated while campaigning for his release.
Mr Abiola eventually died under controversial circumstances.
On July 7, 1998, just a few days before his planned release from prison by the new Abdulsalami Abubakar regime, Abiola collapsed and died from alleged heart failure during a visit from a U.S. delegation.
Abacha had died in office about a month earlier, also under controversial circumstances and had been replaced by another general, Abdulsalami Abubakar.
The new general, Abubakar had promised to return Nigeria to a democratic path.
The country soon returned to democracy on May 29, 1999 after a short stint under Abubakar, who handed over to another general-turned-democrat, Olusegun Obasanjo, who was also earlier clamped in jail by Abacha.
