How annulment of June 12 election prevented second civil war – IBB

Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida (IBB), Nigeria’s military president between 1985 and 1993, said MKO Abiola, who is believed to be the winner of the June 12, 1993 presidential election, would have been quickly killed if he became president and that would ignite a second civil war in the country.

IBB, who annulled the election, admitted in his autobiography titled ‘A Journey in Service’ launched on Thursday that Abiola won the poll adjudged to be the most free and fairest election in Nigeria’s history.

The former military dictator published the result of the election, showing that Abiola of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) defeated his contender, Bashir Tofa of the National Republican Convention (NRC).

According to IBB, late Abiola, who was later imprisoned by Sani Abacha for declaring himself the president, “obtained 8,128,720 votes against Tofa’s 5,848,247 votes and securing the mandatory one-third of the votes cast in 28 states of the federation, including Abuja.”

Babangida noted that Abiola who have been quickly eliminated by forces against him if he attained the presidency at the time.

“Unfortunately, the forces gathered against him after the June 12 elections were so formidable that I was convinced that if he became President, he would be quickly eliminated by the same very forces who pretended to be his friends,” he stated in the book.

June 12 election: What Abiola polled in each state – IBB

While he accepted that the “unfortunate denial of his mandate amounted to a subversion of the will of the Nigerian people”, he believed that the elimination of Abiola could lead to a civil war.

“Having participated in one civil war, with all its horrors, pains and devastation, I wasn’t prepared to see another,” the retired general said.

“I am gratified that the Buhari administration finally recognised MKO Abiola as a ‘former head of state.’”