Former military Head of State, General Ibrahim Babangida, has revealed reasons he annulled the June 12, 1993 Presidential election which Bashorun MKO Abiola, was adjudged the winner.
Speaking with Premium Times, Babangida said he was compelled to nullify the election because the situation of the country at that time was not ripe to hand over power to the democratic government.
Babangida, who described the annulment as “unfortunate” revealed that he would launch a book on the saga next year.
He also said that having been in government at the time, he and the Armed Forces Ruling Council, AFRC, knew that the new democratic government to be installed would sooner than later be toppled through another military coup deta’t, which he said his government wanted to avoid.
He said his regime had decided that it would be the last administration that would ascend the seat of power through coup, adding that it would make no sense to install a democratic government that would be truncated within another six months.
He, however, admitted that the June 12 presidential election was free and fair and also the best of all elections ever conducted in Nigeria’s history.
He said, “June 12 was accepted by Nigerians as the best of elections in Nigeria. It was free and fair. But unfortunately, we cancelled that election. I used the word unfortunately, for the first time.
“We were in government at the time and we knew the possible consequences of handing over to a democratic government.
“We did well that we wanted ours to be the last military coup deta’t. To be honest with you, the situation was not ripe to hand over at the time. Forget about the wrong things that happened in politics.
“The issue of security of the nation was a threat and we would have considered ourselves to have failed, if six months after handover, there was another coup. I went through coup deta’t and I survived it. “We knew that there would be another coup deta’t.
"There was the security problem. It was very dicey, and the only people who will tell you what could happen were those of us in government. Those of us the practitioners of violence by our profession. We knew the nation was becoming more, eh eh.. There was frustration in society. And once this exists within society, it provides a very fertile ground for either a coup d’etat or whatever.
"I always say a coup will only succeed if there is frustration in society. And that frustration was seen, which was orchestrated. At that time if you will remember, you hear statements like, coming from very prominent people, that its a contraption, that is the interim government. That the worst civilian government is better than this contraption….
"We lived in this country where there were speculations by prominent people, the media that the the worst civilian government is better than this contraption. Nigerians said all that sort of things. That gave confidence to whoever wanted to take over government.
