The decision of the Armed Forces Ruling Council led by Gen.
Ibrahim Babangida (Rtd.) to annul the June 12, 1993 election will
go down as a watershed in the annals of our history.
For the first time after independence, the word UNITY had a
meaning to Nigerians. We saw the Igbos across the nation closed
their shops, the Yorubas dumped their farms and shut down their
businesses. The Fulanis abandoned their cows and the Hausas
thronged polling stations in their numbers. The great people of the
Niger Delta were not left out as they took time off from their
crude oil locations, and together from all regions, Nigerians
recorded their footprints and fingerprints on the pad of
history.
Of note is the fact that Nigerians did not care that both
candidates on the ballots were Muslims. At the end of the day,
Abiola received over 8 million votes winning in 20 states while
Bashir Tofa received a little above 6 million votes and won 10
states.
The events that led to the annulment of the June 12 1993
election threw the nation in anarchy and led to the death of the
presumed winner of the election.
Since the death of Abiola, democracy has reeled in the throes of
mourning and pain. Abiola’s name was gradually fading off in
history, and from the minds of many who were too young to remember
the sacrifices made by many for the blossoming and entrenchment of
democratic rule in Nigeria.
Elder statesmen in any society are regarded as mighty men behind
the scenes, not cupbearers and rabble rousers in the frontline.
Unfortunately, events preceding the annulment of June 12
election saw presumed elder statesmen running for their dear
lives.
President Buhari took a very tough decision last year to
recognize Abiola as the winner of the June 12 election and also set
aside June 12 of every year as democracy day.
As laudable as this appears, so many questions arising from the
outcome of the June 12 election is begging for answers and these
include:
THE POPULATION QUESTION
Over the years, we have been wired to believe that the North is
by far more populated than the South. In fact, this theory has been
well entrenched to the extent that 4 states in the North have the
potency to determine where the pendulum of victory in any election
will go to (as evident in the 2015 and 2019 elections).
President Buhari and indeed the Federal Government have
officially recognized Chief Abiola as the winner of the 1993
elections and have even gone further to pass a law recognizing June
12 as Democracy Day in place of May 29th. However, what the
government have failed to do (which is deliberate) is to make
official the result of the elections.
Truth is, Gen. Babangida as a person had no issues with Abiola
being the President of Nigeria, rather, why the election of June 12
was annulled was as a result of the outcome of the result and what
the voting pattern revealed.
The 1993 election, adjudge to be the freest and fairest election
in Nigerian history was annulled primarily because it provided an
answer to the population question in Nigeria. The military junta
did not want Nigerians to know the truth that the South is more
populated than the North. In the said election, the North provided
roughly 40% of the votes while the South provided 60% of the
votes.
Abiola’s victory revealed this hard truth and it was a bitter
pill that Gen. Babangida and his cohorts couldn’t swallow.
Even though Bashir Tofa was from the North (Kano state at that)
no more than 5, 962,085 (Five Million Nine Hundred and Sixty Two
Thousand and Eighty Five) persons voted in the North while 8,
243,209 (Eight Million Two Hundred and Forty Three Thousand Two
Hundred and Nine) persons voted in the South. (These figures are
verifiable).
In today’s Nigeria, we are meant to believe that the most
populous state in Nigeria is Kano therefore Kano delivers the
highest number of votes in elections in Nigeria( in fact in the
2019 election, votes from Kano and Katsina alone outnumbered the
entire votes from the South South region) notwithstanding that
Jigawa state, created in 1991 was carved out from Kano.
In the 1993 elections, with a son of the soil on the ballot,
Kano could only deliver a total of 442,176 votes as against
1,011,397 votes from Lagos State. It then stand to believe that the
large number of votes attributable to Kano states during elections
is not just fictitious but also a mirage.
With the margin between Lagos and Kano state in the June 12 1993
election, it is only a sorcerer that can conjure the figures
attributable to the North particularly Kano, Katsina, Kaduna and
Jigawa states during elections. It is instructive to note that as
at 1993, the 4 largest states by votes were all based in the South,
within a twinkle of an eye, the Northern states have overtaken the
Southern states.
In 1993, states like Rivers State, Anambra State and Oyo State
provided more votes than Kano notwithstanding the fact that an
indigene of Kano was on the ballot, today, votes from Kano can
conveniently cancel the votes coming from Rivers, Oyo and Anambra
put together. This is indeed the 8th wonder of the world.
THE WAY FORWARD
Not until the population question is properly determined, our
elections will continue to be a farce and anti-people. The first
way to begin is to recognize the result of the 1993 election as
even a census cannot determine this already flawed population
data.
Prince Azubuike Esq, Writes from Port
Harcourt.