A former Head of State, Ibrahim Babangida, has revealed what transpired between him and former President, Olusegun Obasanjo regarding the annulment of the June 12, 1993, presidential election.
Babangida also lamented the fact that Nigerians don’t give him enough credit for the electoral process during the annulled election.
However, on June 12, 2018, the former General apologized to the family of Moshood Abiola, the reported winner of the 1993 elections.
Babangida gave his reasons on why he refused to support the 1993 democratic process saying, “Everybody said so. I agree. Even my boss, OBJ, told me that.
“He said you had an opportunity and if that had gone through properly, history would have recorded it as your greatest achievement.
“But then, we discussed at length what could have transpired. Again this: I will always talk about the Nigerian mentality. I think we are always anxious. We are always in a hurry.
“We want things to get done in the fastest time possible. I tried to go out and talk to the public on why we had to do this but we were overwhelmed with criticisms. Nobody wanted to listen.”
He continued, “I think people who said that have not been fair to me because when we started the transition programme, I was in the media; I said we will be doing it step by step, by learning. Wherever we met a hiccup, we will stop, change it and move again.”
Speaking further on why he decided on the annulment, Babangida continued, “I have a conviction that if I get involved in building this environment, I wouldn’t like to be seen as having the environment destroyed.
“That’s number one. I wouldn’t be part of the destruction. So, I either make sure I remain with it, and belong there, or a circumstance will come and, eventually, I will leave. When I leave, if it gets destroyed, nobody will blame me.
“He (Abiola) was on the verge of winning that election. From what I saw, he was on the verge of winning that election, because by the time it was assumed that he won, officially, the official thing was not done.
“Results were still coming in, and it wasn’t declared. So, I think I would be deceiving myself if I say he has won.
“The credit of not getting it right? You wouldn’t give me; so, I accepted that I will not be given that credit no matter what I say.”
