Abdul Abiola, a son of the acclaimed winner of the June 12,
1993, presidential election, Chief Moshood Abiola, said Ibrahim Badamasi
Babangida annulled the election because he was scared to lose power.
Abdul made this known in an interview with Punch while
reacting to the claims by Babangida that his annulment of the historic poll
prevented a violent coup.
Abdul Abiola said:
“It’s a kind of funny claim since after the annulment, there
was still a coup. So, I don’t understand what he is talking about when the same
thing that he was supposedly worried would happen still happened. It’s very
funny. Anyway, let me start by saying this: most people might not know, but my
name is Abdul Abiola and when I was born on December 18, 1984, my godfather
happened to be Babangida himself. Apparently, when I was born, there was a big
party at the house (in Lagos); we had about three bands. Even when he spoke
about the ideal candidate, he was basically talking about Abiola. I just find
it very odd that a person knows that the country needs somebody who is accepted
across the country, and yet, this person found it hard to hand over to my
father because my father was accepted across the nation. That is my take on the
aspect of who should be the next president.
“I also want to say that I do not believe that the people
who put us in the present situation we are in today in Nigeria should even be
providing any solutions. The fact that he is not languishing in prison for the
damage he has caused to the nation should be enough for him to just be quiet,
as far as I’m concerned. What we lost in 1993 was the basis of a nation, that
was the breaking point. When you want to create something that is beyond ethnic
and religious divisions, that was the birth of the nation that he destroyed.
So, for him to now say there would have been a coup if he didn’t do what he
did, I would say for a fact that there wouldn’t have been a coup, what would
have happened is he would have lost his own power and hold on the nation as we
have it today. And I think that was what was scaring him, that he would lose
power.
“They say power corrupts, and everybody knows that. He never
wanted to lose power. He never expected Abiola to win, and the fact that Abiola
did win, he then thought that his legacy would be that he handed over to a
Yoruba person, so he, as far as I’m concerned, is the one who is ethnically
biased because Abiola did not care if he was Yoruba or Igbo, he didn’t even
think about such things. He was Nigerian first.”
Abiola was further asked if he thinks Babangida still has
political influence today. He said:
“I will tell you for a fact that, ever since he left power,
he has remained in the corridors (of power), tweaking and moving things around.
I don’t understand why people just think that when you do the same thing over
and over again, you will get a different result. That is the recipe for
madness. So, in my submission, I will say this: Like I said, he was my
godfather and I give him all the respect because even when my father was being
herded to jail, he said, ‘Babangida is my friend,’ because my father knew that
‘what you’re doing is not going to end well.’ And I think people are seeing the
lies in what he is saying now.
“He talked about the Structural Adjustment Programme,
everybody knows that it was a strategic programme by the International Monetary
Fund and the World Bank to subjugate Africa. But maybe when you are at the top
of the pyramid, you don’t see all these things. Remember that before SAP, we
had the Import Substitution Strategy, where we would stop importing certain
goods because we could make them here, indirectly creating our own industries
and that was going to build our own capacity. That, I believe, was even a
better way because Nigeria was moving up during that time.
“When he talks about corruption during his time when he got
in, it was N1 to $1. If you’re talking about corruption, stealing is stealing.
These people want to destroy this country. I would urge my Nigerian people
because we’re the youths; this man is talking about a time that has passed. As
a matter of fact, if COVID-19 will do something good for us, it would be to
address some of the issues we are facing in Nigeria.”
Babangida had on Friday disclosed that some unnamed 2023
presidential contenders were on his radar.
However, Abdul Abiola believes men like Babangida should
never be trusted again.
He said:
“Let me tell you this for a fact if we allow them (political
elite) to decide who will become president in 2023, we are going to be in the
same position, if not worse. As a matter of fact, there might be no country to
talk about anymore. When I watched his programme, first of all, I was amazed
that this is the person that we are calling Maradona. He even used his own
mouth to say he had to do a ‘Maradonic handling of society.’ This is why we are
in the position we are today. People that should not be listened to at all are
the ones making decisions for us, it’s a big problem. I believe the Nigerian
people are smarter now than they were in 1993, they will not be bamboozled by
any Maradona that doesn’t understand what being a Maradona is.
“I believe that if he had taken a stance in 1993, when he
was being approached by some of our so-called elite, to annul the election and
forego this democratic idea; if he could have just captured those dissenting
voices that did not want problems for the Nigerian people and just wanted their
own personal progress, his name would have been written in gold.
“But for as long as I am alive, I will make sure that enough
people understand that the greatest problem we have in this country is the five
babas that are on hilltops. We know where the hilltops are. Anybody that I see
that goes to meet them on any of those hilltops for their permission to be
president, I have already written those people off because those people have
shown that they are not with the Nigerian masses, but they are with a select
few who have ruined the nation and they feel they have the right to continue to
ruin what we are trying to build.
“The Nigeria of today is not the Nigeria of 1993. We are not
doing well, but you can see that we are using 97 percent of our income to
service debts. We cannot continue this way. For the past 30 years, we listened
to them diligently when they came to us to request our votes, but nothing came
out of it. I urge Nigerians if it’s only this one time you take my advice, to
shun anything you hear from these five babas. Enough is enough!
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