Femi Falana and Babangida’s Journey in Service

Today is June 12, a day set aside by the Federal Government to commemorate the annulment of June 12, 1993 Presidential election, won by the late Chief MKO Abiola, but annulled by the then Military President, General Ibrahim Babangida. However, early this year, Babangida came out with his autobiography, Journey in Service through which he tries to rationalize his action, a subterfuge that smacks of revisionism. Apart from the above, IBB tries to explain away the deaths of Dele Giwa, Maman Vatsa harassment of pro-democracy groups, and others

Thus, in this interview, Mr Femi Falana,a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, human rights and pro-democracy activist, who was one of the squadron leaders of the struggle to enthrone democracy in the land, would not stand by while a former leader gives Nigeria’s political history a savage twist! Falana tears Babangida’s logic into shreds.

Now, the interview:

The book, indeed, was much awaited. People wanted to know what IBB would say about the annulment of June 12, 1993 election. And he admitted that MKO Abiola won the election. What is your reaction to this?

The book is a package of lies. It is also full of careless contradictions. It was an attempt to rewrite history. But history has already documented the atrocities of the Ibrahim Babangida military junta for posterity. The book has been discredited by the author who had set out to distort recorded historical accounts. In the book, General Babangida expressed regrets over the fact that he failed to retire General Sani Abacha. But in his interview with Tell Magazine editors in 1995 which is reproduced in the book, General Babangida said that the reason for not retiring Abacha was “correct up till today” and that the policy to retire his service chiefs did not apply to Abacha because he was a political office holder.

When asked why his regime seized over half a million copies of TELL Magazine and arrested its editors, General Babangida claimed that as the military prefect, he did not know about the confiscation and the arrest of the editors. But General Babangida must have forgotten that he signed a decree to ban the publication and circulation of the Tell Magazine in 1993. General Babangida also said that his professional background, upbringing and religion would never allow him to indict his subordinates. But in his book, he decided to indict General Sani Abacha and his other subordinates and lieutenants.  In order to justify the ban of the winners of the primaries of the SDP and NRC in 1992, General Babangida claimed that the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo had criticised him for imposing a 10-year blanket ban on all politicians who held offices between 1960 and 1983. General Babangida forgot that the Political Transition Program Decree  was enacted on September 23 1987, whereas Chief Awolowo had passed away in May  1987.

He adopted General Murtala Mohammed as his hero and devoted a whole chapter to him in the book. But unlike General Mohammed, who waged an anti-graft crusade, General Babangida institutionalised corruption and made it the directive principle of state policy under his watch. Again, unlike General Mohammed who did not detain any critic or engage in the extrajudicial killing of citizens, the Babangida military junta engaged in reckless arrest and detention of critics, ban on politicians, proscription of newspapers and magazines, and extrajudicial killing of unarmed citizens.

General Babangida denied the involvement of his regime in the assassination of the frontline journalist, Dele Giwa. He however blamed the media and Chief Gani Fawehinmi for politicising the dastardly act. What is your reaction to the statement?

The gruesome murder of the prominent journalist and editor-in-chief of the Newswatch magazine, Mr. Dele Giwa by a parcel bomb took place on October 19, 1986. Without any prompting whatsoever, the junta’s information Minister, Mr. Tony Momoh announced that the bomb attack would be investigated by the government. He said that the regime would conduct a public enquiry. But a few days later, the junta reneged on the investigation.

In his book, General Babangida attempted but failed woefully to discredit the claim of Chief Gani Fawehinmi SAN that Dele Giwa was killed by the junta. First, he said that Gani lost the legal battle to prosecute the suspected killers of Dele Giwa at the Supreme Court. Contrary to the false claim of the author, the full court of 7 Justices of the apex court unanimously ruled in 1987 that Gani had the locus standi to ask for a writ of mandamus to institute the criminal action as a private prosecutor. Thereafter, he commenced the battle at the High Court, but the junta hurriedly amended the Lagos State Criminal Code to limit private prosecution of criminal offences to perjury. Since it did not extend to murder, Gani’s case was struck out for want of jurisdiction by the Lagos State High Court.

The second false claim is that even though the Dele Giwa case was reopened at the Oputa Panel, there was no fresh evidence in support of Gani’s evidence. Contrary to such distortion, a former Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Abubakar Tsav testified and said that the Babangida regime was implicated in the investigation and that he submitted his report to the police authorities. When invited to defend the allegation of alleged involvement in the cold murder of Dele Giwa, General Babangida rushed to the Federal High Court and obtained an order to restrain the Oputa Panel from summoning him in any manner. If the regime did not kill Dele Giwa, why was the public inquiry promised by the government not conducted? Why was the law on private prosecution suddenly amended to prevent Gani from conducting a private prosecution? Why was the law office of Gani attacked by gun men? And why was Gani charged with criminal defamation over the case? These questions and many more were not addressed in the book.

General Babangida said that he had General Mamman executed in spite of their close relationship.  Was the execution justified?

In the book, General Babangida alleged that General Abacha planned a coup, polarised the armed forces, and spearheaded the annulment of the presidential election won by Chief Abiola. He also revealed that  General Abacha and his group had planned a coup that would lead to  his assassination and that of Abiola. Yet, IBB spared Abacha and his group of coup plotters. But his childhood friend, General Mamman Vatsa was arrested, tried and executed on the basis of a rumoured coup. Thus, the treatment of Vatsa and Abacha, his two very close friends exposed General Babangida’s double standard and inconsistency.

Having regard to the facts and circumstances of the tragic execution of Vatsa, it was a case of premeditated murder in every material particular. Vatsa and other officers were arrested in December 1985 for allegedly planning a coup. Under the Criminal Code Act, the penalty for treasonable felony is life imprisonment. As a conviction and death sentence could not be secured under the Criminal Code Act, General Babangida hurriedly promulgated the  new Treason Decree no 1 of January 6, 1986, for the trial of Vatsa and other detained coup suspects. So, they were tried under a decree that was promulgated when they were in detention. Apart from manipulation of the law, the facts of the coup were hazy. Hence, the trio of Professors Wole Soyinka, Chinua Achebe and Pepper Clark appealed to General Babangida to spare the lives of General Vats and other alleged coup plotters. They were assured by the military president that the request  of the renown authors and poets that their request had been granted. But in less than one hour later, Vatsa and others were executed.  In one of his interviews after the dastardly act, the then Chief of Defence Staff, General Domkat Bali, admitted that the evidence adduced in the case was not sufficient to nail Vatsa for the planned coup but that what was revealed in the episode was a case of age long rivalry between both Generals Babangida and Vatsa.

Members of the human rights community were not you contesting elections. Why did General Babangida subject you and your colleagues to intimidation and harassment?

As far back as 1989, the then President of the Nigerian Bar Association, Mr. Alao Aka-Bashorun had alerted  Nigerians that General Babangida was nursing a hidden agenda. As soon as Mr. Aka-Bashorun completed his tenure as NBA president, he set the engine in motion for the convocation of a national conference. Worried that the national conference might lead to the termination of military rule in Nigeria, General Babangida asked a group of retired technocrats led by Chief Phillip Asiodu to link up with the Aka-Bashorun group. The Asiodu group suggested that the national conference be postponed to avoid a political crisis in the country. As the suggestion was rejected, the regime declared the national conference illegal. The threat was ignored by the organised groups and credible civil society bodies that promised to participate at the national conference. Since the threats did not stop the plans for the national conference, the regime dispatched security forces which took over the National Theatre, the venue of the conference and chased away the participants. Aka-Bashorun intensified the campaign for the termination of military rule. He was later chased out of the country as the junta had concluded plans to eliminate him.

Following the postponement of the political transition programme from 1990 to 1992, the Campaign for Democracy led by Dr. Beko Ransome Kuti printed thousands of posters with inscription, “Babangida Must Go”. The CD chairman, Dr. Ransome Kuti was arrested, I was arrested as the legal advisor of the CD. Baba Omojola was arrested for his donation towards the publication of the posters. Chief Fawehinmi was arrested for challenging our detention in the Lagos high court. The 4 of us were detained in Kuje prison. Together with the then President of the National Association of Nigerian Student (NANS), Olusegun Maiyegun who was brought from another detention centre, we were charged with treasonable felony at Gwagwalada in May 1992.

We had no access to our lawyers as we were held incommunicado in Kuje prison. Hence, Chief Fawehinmi and I appeared for ourselves and our comrades. Of course, we turned our arraignment into the trial of General Babangida and his fellow coup plotters who had sacked the civilian administration headed by President Shehu Shagari on December 31, 1983. We were granted bail in very liberal terms by Chief Magistrate Bulama, a man of courage. Just one surety and N20, 000 in like sum. We met the bail conditions and returned to Lagos the same day. Unlike today, our sureties were not asked to produce evidence of ownership of properties in highbrow areas in Abuja. Neither were we asked to deposit our passports.  The case was later dismissed for want of diligent prosecution. In order to prevent further embarrassment, General Babangida promulgated the Treason and Other Treasonable Offences Decree No 29 of 1993, which specifically provided for the trial of coup plotters by special military tribunals and ousted the jurisdiction of regular courts.

You and some human rights activists were arrested and detained by the Babangida regime for allegedly breaching the political transition programme. Is it true that you and your colleagues derailed the political transition programme?

Ab initio, General Ibrahim Babangida wanted to metamorphose from a military dictator to a civilian president. Hence, he called himself the ‘president’ instead of a military head of state like other coup  plotters. To achieve his dubious objective, he changed the terminal date of military rule from October 1990 to October 1992, from October 1992 to January 1993 and then to August 1993. He banned and unbanned politicians. He proscribed political parties and created two new ones by a decree. He wrote the constitutions of the parties and built secretariats for them in the FCT, state capitals and all the 774 local government areas. He ensured that governorship and national assembly elections were held in 1991 and 1992 respectively. He was then experimenting with the idea of a diarchy as the military president of elected local, state and national democratic structures. But upon the rejection of the diarchic arrangement by the Nigerian people, IBB deliberately delayed the presidential election until the system produced two of his friends- Ibrahim Tofa and MKO Abiola.

An illegal campaign for extension of military rule under IBB was launched and coordinated by Mr. Arthur Nzeribe and Abimbola Davies of the Association for Better Nigeria. It was sponsored and funded by the junta. Because the body was set up to derail the transition programme the Campaign for Democracy dragged it to court. The Lagos high court restrained the body from derailing the political transition programme by campaigning for extension of military rule. While Nzeribe and Abimbola Davies were not prosecuted, Comrade Alao Aka-Bashorun was harassed for saying that General Babangida was nursing a hidden agenda which was later popularised by the media. Chief Gani Fawehinmi was arrested in Lagos, detained in Gashua prison and charged with sabotaging the political transition programme for hosting an Alternative to SAP symposium in Lagos. Former Kaduna State Governor, Balarabe Musa was charged for sabotaging the political transition programme for insisting that his political party, Peoples Redemption Party was not banned.

IBB claimed that on the morning of June 23, 1993, he left Abuja for Katsina to commiserate with the Yar’Adua family over the death of their patriarch, Alhaji Musa Yar’Adua. “The funeral had taken place, and as I got ready to leave, a report filtered to him that the June 12 elections had been annulled.” That is, in his absence. In other words, he claims that he did not annul the election. What is your reaction on this?

General Babangida has forgotten that not all the dramatis personae have passed away. Happily, those of us who are still alive are coming out to challenge General Babangida’s jaded narrative. It is on record that on June 22, 1993, General Babangida annulled the June 12 election by promulgating 4 decrees. They were Decree 39 of 1993 which repealed the Presidential Election (Basic Constitutional and Transitional Provisions); Decree 40 which deleted the entire programme in the 2nd quarter of 1983, Decree 41 which nullified all court orders relating to the June 12 election and banned the Court of Appeal from exercising jurisdiction in respect of the election and Decree 42 which lifted the ban on all politicians who had been disqualified. This was to enable them to participate in a fresh presidential election scheduled for April 1994.

It was on the basis of the annulment decrees signed by General Babangida that the announcement of Nduka Irabor was made on June 23. So, General Babangida, who had signed the 4 annulment decrees on June 22, could not have turned around to disown the announcement of the annulment. In fact, General Babangida promulgated other decrees which banned newspapers and magazines to prevent them from demanding the actualization of the June 12 mandate. Consequently, the Punch, National Concord, The News, Tempo, Daily Sketch, Tell and Nigerian Observer were proscribed to stop them from advocating for the June 12 mandate. He dissolved the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal headed by Justice Bola Babalakin constituted by the then Chief Justice Mohammed Bello.

Indeed, on June 26, General Babangida addressed the nation and attempted but failed to justify the annulment. He set up the Justice Nasir Panel to conduct another presidential election in April 1994. The plan was rejected by Nigerians. From August 23 to August 26, 1993, General Babangida promulgated 7 more decrees to consolidate the annulment and pave the way for the Interim National Government. Then, he set up the Interim National Government and appointed the members of the cabinet. It was headed by Chief Ernest Shonekan while General Abacha was made the Defence Secretary. At the time he signed Decree No 61 which set up the Interim National Government, General Babangida forgot that he had lost the legal authority to issue decrees. That was why the Interim National Government was declared illegal by the Lagos High Court. Having been well positioned to take over power, General Abacha struck following the judgment of the Lagos High Court which declared the ING illegal on November 10, 1993.

By the way, in his TELL magazine interview, General Babangida categorically stated that “we annulled the June 12 elections on June 23, 1993”. He granted the interview in 1995 when General Abacha was alive. At that time Abiola was charged for treason for insisting that he won the June 12, 1993 election. Why did General Babangida not state publicly then that Abiola won the election?

Are you satisfied with the admission of the retired general that Abiola won the election?

General Babangida engaged in the reckless criminal prosecution of those of us who insisted that Abiola won the election. He charged us with grave criminal offences. In July 1993, the FCT High Court granted us bail but General Babangida frustrated our release by causing us to be detained under the State Detention of Persons Decree No 2 of 1984. When he was leaving office, he left us in prison custody to prevent us from organising protests against the illegal Interim National Government installed by him and imposed on the Nigerian people. Thus, General Babangida kept us in custody from July 10 to August 30 when he knew that the annulment of the election was a ruse. In my own case, he released me from detention on August 30, 1985 when he seized power from general Buhari but left me in detention when he was forced out of office on August  26, 1993.

Therefore, I have decided to sue General Babangida for the atrocious infringements of my fundamental rights to personal liberty, fair hearing, freedom of expression, freedom of assembly, freedom of movement and freedom to be ruled by a democratically elected government guaranteed by the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights (Ratification and Enforcement) Act.

Do you agree with IBB that the result of the June 12, 1993 was annulled by the late General Sani Abacha and other anti- democratic officers in the army.

The General should be advised to tell that story to the marines. No doubt, Abacha was opposed to the June 12 election because he wanted to rule the country. Meanwhile, General Babangida was plotting to hand over to himself. It was the ambition of both of them to rule the country that led to the annulment. Even though he thought that he was clever, Abacha outsmarted him. It is on record that the factions led by both of them were opposed to the Abiola presidency. The General begged Abiola to head an interim government while he would remain the military president. Of course, the senseless proposition was rejected by Abiola.

If General Babangida had wanted to hand over power to Abiola, why did he not work with military officers like General Femi Williams and Col Dangiwa Umar who demanded the inauguration of the elected President? Was General Babangida not aware that Abiola defeated his opponent in all the military barracks in the country? Why did he sign the annulment decrees if he wanted to end military rule? Why did he not announce the retirement of Abacha? Instead of flushing Abacha out of the army, he left him behind and positioned him to sack the Ernest Shonekan-led Interim National Government. Assuming that Abacha was opposed to Abiola’s presidency, why did Babangida not prevail on his childhood friend and Abacha’s successor, General Abdulsalami Abubakar to recognise the mandate of Abiola after the death of Abacha? Why did General Babangida not visit Abiola in detention and apologise to him after the death of Abacha? Is it not on record that while Abiola was kept in custody, General Babangida visited Ota to persuade General Olusegun Obasanjo to run for the post of the president?

IBB claims in the book that he admired Chief Gani Fawehinmi, Professor Ayodele Awojobi, and Bala Usman. Do you agree with him?

IBB hated the three patriots mentioned by him. Professor Ayodele Awojobi died in questionable circumstances. Gani Fawehinmi was arrested, detained and charged with assorted criminal offences. He was almost physically eliminated by the killer squad of the junta. He was not a smoker of cigarette or drugs. But he died of cancer of the lung. Under his watch, Bala Usman of Ahmadu Bello University was sacked. It was the Kaduna state high court that ordered his reinstatement.

The Babangida regime invited many intellectuals who served his regime. Are you saying that he was opposed to radical lecturers and students?

On many occasions, IBB said that the junta led by him had no room for radicals and political extremists. He waged a war against radical lecturers and students.  IBB deported Dr. Patrick Wilmot from Nigeria. Professors Toye Olorode, Idowu Awopetu of Obafemi Awolowo University and Obaro Ikime of the University of Ibadan were arrested and detained over the Gideon Okar coup without any basis whatsoever. He latter attempted but failed to sack Professors Toye Olorode and  Idowu Awopetu. At the University of Benin, IBB sacked Professors Itsejuwa Sagay, Festus Iyayi and student leaders like Chima Ubani, Opeyemi Bamidele, Ogaga Ifowodo, Yinka Odumakin, Ebun Adegboruwa and scores of others who were either rusticated or expelled from the universities. Of course, we ensured that they were all reinstated through the courts. IBB detained Professor Attahiru Jega when he was the national President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, he proscribed the ASUU and made strike in tertiary institutions a treasonable offence.

What are your comments about the crowd attracted by Ibrahim Babangida’s book launch in Abuja on February 20, 2025?

It was not an unusual crowd. IBB had banned politics of ideas and ideology. He banned principled politicians like Balarabe Musa and replaced them with the so called new breed politicians without principles. President Bola Tinubu thanked General Babangida on behalf of the new breed politicians. The President neither  committed himself to ensure that the 2027 general election would be fair and free, like the June 12 election nor undertake to adopt the farewell to poverty manifesto of the late Abiola.  A leading member  of the comprador bourgeoisie thanked the general for giving him and other rent seekers  the oil blocks belonging to the people of Nigeria. Another one said that without the general he would have been a dead man. So, the general assembled the politicians and business tycoons who had profited from his politics of opportunism and his neoliberal economic policies which left Nigerians in poverty and want. The guys who spoke at the event did not thank him for bequeathing any worthy legacy or for finding solutions to any of the problems plaguing the country.

The rally held at Abuja was a rehabilitation of a general who had power but misused it to subvert democracy and promote the underdevelopment of the country. Contrary to the impression that General Bbangida remains a popular political leader, he had wanted to contest for the office of the President on two occasions. On both occasions, he was rejected by the People’s Democratic Party on the ground that he is a political liability on account of his gross misrule and grand corruption. It is interesting to note that the leaders and representatives of the academic community, students, workers, traders, journalists and other victims of the illegal arrest, detention and other repressive tactics that characterized the Ibrahim Babangida military junta were absent in the very large hall at Transcorp hotel, Abuja.

Let’s come vback to IBB’s admission that Abiola won the election and ABN’s court order on June 10, 1993 to stop the election…

 Section 19 of the Political Transition Programme Decree had provided that the issuance of interim or interlocutory orders by any court could not stop any of the elections. But the ABN obtained an order on June 10, 1993 to stop the election. The junta wanted to stop the election but counter orders were issued by courts in Lagos, Edo and Plateau on June 11, 1993 directing the National Electoral Commission to holds the presidential election. Armed with those orders, the NEC Chairman insisted on proceeding with the election. The junta allowed the election because the United States Government issued a strong warning against the postponement of the election. Hence the election was held peacefully on June 12, 1993. General Babangida was not happy that Abiola won the election. He pleaded with him to head an interim government while he remained the President. Abiola told him an elected President could not head an interim regime under an unelected president.

General Babangida tried to scare Abiola by telling him that both of them would be killed if he inaugurated him. Abiola said that he was not afraid to be assassinated as an elected president and that the general soldier should not be afraid of death. It was at that stage that ABN obtained another order from Justice Dahiru Saleh, Chief Judge of the Federal Capital Territory to stop the announcement of the results of 16 states as only 14 states had been announced. Once again, there were counter orders issued by other high courts directing the NEC to release the results. To prevent the NEC from releasing all the results, General Babangida enacted a decree which criminalized the publication of the results and banned courts from hearing any case pertaining to the election. Another decree signed by him stopped the Court of Appeal sitting in Kaduna from hearing the appeal against the interim order of Justice Bassey Ikpeme and interlocutory order of Justice Dahiru Saleh. So it is bunkum to claim that it was General Sani Abacha that annulled the election.

In saying that Abiola won the election after 32 years of the annulment of the democratic exercise, General Babangida confessed that he committed a grave offence by breaching several provisions of the Political Transition Programme 1987. The annulment led to street protests. Over 200 protesters were massacred by a killer squad led by General Sani Abacha on the instructions of General Babangida. The annulment berthed the Interim National Government and the Sani Abacha junta which assassinated some leaders of the pro-democracy movement and other citizens. It also led to the emergence of the Abdulsalami Abubakar regime under whose watch  Abiola was killed by an American delegation that served him a cup of tea. The African Commission on Human and Peoples Rights sitting in Banjul, in The Gambia had indicted the Babangida military junta for violating the human rights of Nigerians to elect their President pursuant to article 13 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights.

Still on ABN and the court order. By calling ABN a shadowy group, IBB makes it appear that he did not know anything about the group. What do you have to say about that?

  An illegal campaign for extension of military rule spearheaded by Arthur Nzeribe of the Association for Better Nigeria had begun in 1990. It was sponsored by the junta. Because the body was set up to derail the transition programme the Campaign for Democracy dragged it to court. The Lagos high court restrained the body from campaigning for tenure extension for Babangida.  Abimbola Davies who deposed to the affidavit filed to stop the election later addressed the press and revealed that it was the IBB junta that set up, funded, and directed the ABN. He fled the country after the press conference for fear of his life.

You and your colleagues in the pro-democracy movement suffered the indignity of detention. Kindly go down memory lane.

Following the criminal annulment of the June 12 election, we organised huge protests in several cities in July 1993. General Babangida ordered the arrest of the leaders of the Campaign for Democracy. Dr. Beko Ransome Kuti and I were arrested. Our lawyer, Chief Fawehinmi was equally arrested. We were taken to Abuja and charged with conspiracy, unlawful assembly and sedition before a Chief Magistrate Court. The junta had foolishly thought that our detention would end the protests. But in our absence, more successful protests were held. And when General Babangida ordered General Abacha Abacha to stop the protests, scores of protesters were killed. So the hands of General Babangida are soaked in the blood of the unarmed protesters that were annihilated for demanding the reversal of the annulment of a fair and free election. Our comrades, led by the secretary of the CD, the late Chima Ubani, took the protests to a higher level. When the junta killed scores of unarmed protesters the CD asked people to leave the streets and protest in their homes. Again, the resort to civil disobedience succeeded to the eternal shame of the dictators.

In a recent interview in the Channels Television, you threatened to sue IBB for gross human rights and malicious prosecution of pro-democracy and human rights activists. What will that achieve?

The purpose of the planned litigation is to promote public accountability. Let retired soldiers with blood-stained hands stop dancing on the graves of the citizens that were killed by them. Let them learn from the fate that has befallen fellow dictators in Africa. Charles Taylor of Liberia is serving a 50 year jail term in a prison in Europe. In Burkina Faso, Campaore and his cohorts who killed Thomas Sankara have been convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment. Hisne Habre of Chad was tried in Senegal for crimes against humanity. He was jailed. A special tribunal is going to be set up in The Gambia to try former President Yahya Jammeh for crimes against humanity. Former dictators in Nigeria should expect their own trial, sooner or later. So, the surviving dictators in Nigeria should be warned that the day of reckoning is around the corner. I have set up a team of lawyers to explore the possibility of charging IBB with the sabotage of the political transition programme and crimes against humanity.

Convinced that he was an intelligent military ruler who toyed withn the destiny of the nation, the media called General Babangida the evil genius. He was also nicknamed Maradona by Nigerians because of his dribbling political tactics. At the end of the day, he dribbled himself and allowed history to indict him. The belated and cheap attempt to blame Abacha for the criminal annulment of the June 12 election has boomeranged. IBB has refused to apologise to the Nigerian people for imposing the IMF- inspired Structural Adjustment Programme which led to the ruination of the economy. General Babangida has failed to explain the criminal diversion of the sum of $12.4 billion from two dedicated accounts in the Central Bank of Nigeria. General Babangida has failed to explain the ban of the Academic Staff Union of Universities and National Association of Nigerian Students. General Babangida has failed to justify the proscription of newspapers and magazines. General Babangida has failed to apologise for the criminal annulment of the June 12, 1993 presidential election.

Are there other aspects of the book that you want to comment on?

It has to be realized that the book is not about June 12 alone. The book contains information about all the unconstitutional changes of government in Nigeria. The aspect of coup de’tat ought to be discussed as the West African sub-region of 15 member states is having a resurgence of military dictatorship and civilian autocracy. While 4 countries are under military rule others are headed by civilian presidents who are spending the third, fourth or fifth terms in power. One of the civilian rulers suspended the national parliament since December 2023. Some rulers are working hard to turn multi party democracy to a one party state.

The book also contains information on the consolidation of the peripheral capitalist system via the Structural Adjustment Programme. The programme was imposed on Nigeria after the rejection of the dangerous IMF loans. In the implementation of SAP the regime embarked on privatization or sale of public assets, retrenchment of workers, withdrawal of subsidies from education, health and other social services. As the regime was pauperizing the masses it was enriching a few people. They were given oil blocks  and import licences. Public assets including the shares of the government in banks were transferred to them via privatization.

President Bola Tinubu attended the programme and commended General Babangida for admitting that Abiola won the election annulled by him. But there was no official commitment that Nigeria would conduct fair and free elections like the June 12 election. Abiola championed the reparation campaign. The African Union has just launched a campaign for reparation. There was no reference to the campaign in any of the speeches. Abiola’s manifesto of ‘farewell to poverty’ was a critique of SAP. That was not mentioned by any member of the audience.

The implementation of neo-liberal policies have continued under successive regimes as they are beholding to the IMF and World Bank. It is undoubtedly clear that the Bola Tinubu administration is religiously pursuing the capitalist economic policies of devaluation and floating of the Naira as well as removal of fuel subsidies from fuel and electricity. The rising cost of electricity has had adverse effect on social services. Schools, courts, hospitals etc can no longer pay electricity bills with dire consequences on the national economy. In the process, poverty is on the ascendancy. A number of multinational companies have relocated to other countries while others have folded up. This has led to loss of hundreds of thousands of jobs. However, the government has continued to give oil blocks and licences for solid minerals to a few rent seekers.