Irreversible colossal damage as Babangida owns up on Abiola’s victory

A child born 32 years ago is definitely an adult, and most probably, a father or mother today. That points to how long 32 years is and how sad it is for many Nigerians that it took this long for Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, former Nigerian military head of state, to own up that the June 12, 1993 presidential election, which he annulled, was indeed won by MKO Abiola, the candidate of the Social Democratic Party.

Many argued what the point of the very late confession is as the action of the retired army general, who is popularly called IBB, remains an irreversible colossal damage to Nigeria as a country and its people in general.

They also noted that the saying that ‘better late than never’ does not apply here because the damage has long been done and the country is still reaping the consequences 32 years after and even more years to come.

Although IBB, who is often tagged ‘the evil genius’ by some people, made his confession, rather very late, in his autobiography, which was launched on February 20, 2025, the question by many is how his owning up will reverse the bad situation and the current reality of Nigeria.

Looking back, many people, especially rioters, were killed by soldiers across south-western states, some people fleeing the crisis, particularly from the south-eastern states, lost their lives and looters broke into dozens of stores across Lagos, as major markets, shops, banks and businesses were closed during the crisis.

The loss to the nation in terms of lives and properties was huge, including suppressed freedom of expression, morale and values.

But democracy seemed to have received the worst hit, as the negative impact is still being felt today.

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Considering the above, Preye Ebitimi, a lawyer and human right activist, thinks that the annulment of June 12, 1993 presidential election is an irreversible colossal damage to democracy and Nigerians at large.

The Port Harcourt-based lawyer, activist and hotelier, who was 21 years old then, decried that IBB’s action laid the foundation of bad leadership the country is experiencing now because it was still his ‘boys’ who clutched power in 1999, hailing him, instead of calling for his trial in a law court.

“From James Ibori, Orji Uzo Kalu to many other governors and political office holders then, you will feel the ‘IBB factor’ and that was why it was difficult to probe his regime that annulled the very first free and fair election in Nigeria and also couldn’t account for how they spent the money from the then crude oil windfall, which Sani Abacha later looted, with recoveries still trickling in from foreign banks till date. It is a shame,” Ebitimi lamented.

Toeing the same lane, Olakunle Idaye, a merchant banker, recalled how his mother’s thriving restaurant at Obalende, Lagos crumbled as rioters looted and burnt many shops along the street, to cover up their crime.

“Like my mother’s restaurant, many burnt or looted shops did not open again after the riots because their owners couldn’t rent new shops in vantage places; some landlords couldn’t rebuild their houses and shops, some relocated to their villages and hardship set in for many. Some of my Igbo classmates did not return to school after the riot. It was a bad, shameful and helpless situation for all of us then,” he said.

Read also: June 12: Anger, resentment in Nigeria as Babangida heaps blame on the dead

The merchant banker, who runs two homes in Nigeria and Canada, noted that it was his near-death experience during the riot, as he was in the restaurant then serving customers, that made him relocate his family abroad despite struggling hard to maintain them with the weak Naira.

“If you are a keen observer, most politicians fly their children, who reside here, abroad during elections because of uncertainties like the June 12 crisis. It is always the poor that suffer in any crisis in Nigeria; political, economic, religious or tribal and that is why crime is on the rise because the poor want to escape poverty at all cost,” he noted.

For him, IBB should have kept quiet on the issue as he has for 32 years because his action is irreversible, the damages are colossal, MKO Abiola died because of it, alongside many innocent Nigerians.

Why now? Adisa Lukmon, a road transport worker, asked as he recalled the colossal loss his members suffered with regret as rioters burnt many commuter buses and used many of them as shields against soldiers’ free-flying bullets at the peak of the crisis.

Lukmon, who now drives a school bus, thinks that IBB should be tried in a law court, even if he is 100 years to serve as a deterrent to other autocratic leaders, especially today’s politicians, who he said, are not different from IBB, considering their anti-people policies. For him, MKO Abiola’s victory was a people’s mandate, yet denied.

“Today’s politicians are doing the same thing IBB did but in different style. They cannot annul election result because we are in democracy, but they can buy votes, use thugs to stop people from voting, use Dollar to influence their emergence at primary elections, buy INEC and forget the people when they are sworn in. There is no difference,” he noted.

Reviewing Nigeria’s democracy since 1999, Onyewuchi Akagbule, a senior university lecturer, traced the origin of many inconsistencies and irregularities in our elections today and poor governance to the IBB’s regime.

“They call him evil genius and he is. So, his protégés learnt from him, very fast and well. For me, that is why INEC will say an election is inconclusive after spending billions of Naira to conduct it and nothing happens. We need to step on some toes, touch some untouchables for the country to move forward, or else many with evil intentions will be citing IBB and others with bad political influence as their mentors,” Akagbule said.

Samuel Onikoyi, a Nigerian academic researcher in Brussels, thinks that justice should prevail in the June 12 case now that IBB has owned up.

“We should start cleaning our system by setting some good examples like trying IBB in the law court, alongside his collaborators. If found guilty, they should be jailed. Some past presidents in Europe and America have gone to jail for their actions and inactions while power. Let’s do that in Africa, it is possible,” he noted.

As much as he desires cleanup in the system, Onikoyi’s biggest fear is that the politicians in power today seem worse than the past military leaders, and will frustrate such efforts because it will checkmate them from corruption, especially electoral fraud.

Reacting to the above, Lukmon doubted if there is a politician or lawmaker in the National Assembly that has guts to raise a motion for IBB’s probe.

“They are all the same and pursuing same selfish interest. If they do that haven will not fall, but sanity will come and looting will stop. They don’t want that yet, maybe, another generation will do that,” he said.

For Onikoyi, justice for Abiola, the innocent victims and businesses lost, is the way forward.

“Nigeria should not sweep this under the carpet. Let IBB face the law, if possible, let one of his boys go to jail on his behalf, if he is convicted. Everybody will adjust afterwards including present leaders,” Onikoyi concluded.