At the first attempt to inaugurate the National Assembly of the aborted Nigeria’s Third Republic in 1992, then Lagos West Senator Ahmed Bola Tinubu, and now a presidential candidate for the All Progressives Congress, revealed why former Head of State, General Ibrahim Babangida (rtd.) singled him out for a handshake after the Presidential address to the assembly despite Tinubu’s frontal address that day on why Nigeria must return to democracy.
In the interview section of the book, Nigeria’s Aborted 3rd Republic and the June 12 Debacle: Reporters’ Account, which will be formally presented to the public on Tuesday, 30 September at the Radio House in Abuja, Tinubu narrated his encounter with Babangida and other key players in that Republic, and the role he played after the annulled 12 June 1993 presidential election.
“General Babangida did one thing that impressed me. As critical as I was, when the President finished his remarks, nobody talked. He came down from the podium and gave me a handshake, which is uncommon with military personnel, and said, ‘I like your courage and boldness. We will definitely inaugurate you but it’s not today'”, he said.
“Babangida (a military General) was to inaugurate the National Assembly. The media referred to the situation as diarchy. They didn’t want some of us in the Social Democratic Party (SDP) to go to the inauguration. Then I cited one word from late Chief Obafemi Awolowo that, ‘a boycotter is a loser’. If we didn’t go to respond to Babangida’s inauguration when the media was calling it diarchy, then we might be the loser to the other party, the National Republican Convention (NRC), headed by Chief Tom Ikimi”.
He further narrated: “We were interested, so we went. We were in the majority, and I was very vocal that the majority party must have the leadership of the Senate and we must be inaugurated. The military postponed the inauguration. I was chosen to speak for SDP, while another elected Senator was picked from the East to represent NRC.
“I was frontal with the military government, that they have a great opportunity to return Nigeria to democracy. We have been elected and there is nothing you can do about it; you have to find a way to inaugurate us and then plan your exit. We ended that discussion, but we were not inaugurated”.
Other key players whose stories are told in the book include Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, Comrade Frank Kokori and Late Major General Shehu Musa Yar’Adua.
How Atiku stepped down for MKO at SDP primary in 1993 – Oladosu Oladipo
Five major players and members of the SDP in the aborted Third Republic, Atiku , who was running for the presidential ticket of the party’s second ballot primary, and now presidential candidate for the People’s Democratic Patty; late Chief Moshood Abiola, also in the run for the party’s presidential ticket; late Shehu Yar’Adua; late Lamidi Adedibu; and Chief Oladosu Oladipo converged in a room in Ambassador Yaya Kwande’s house in Jos, Plateau State to persuade Atiku to step down for Abiola.
Revealing what transpired in the room in the interview section of the about-to-be-launched book, one of the five men, Oladipo said General Yar’Adua told Atiku that “the arrangement in Kaduna should be honoured; that MKO Abiola should be the flagbearer of SDP in the election. And he spoke to Atiku not in Hausa but Fulfulde.
“Having spoken to him in Fulfulde for about five minutes, tears started coming down from the eyes of Atiku. We don’t know what they discussed that moved the psyche of Atiku to tears”.
“Immediately late MKO Abiola saw him shedding tears, he moved around him, hugged him, and used his babariga, to wipe tears off his face. They hugged themselves again and Abiola said, ‘this Nigeria, we will run it together’”.
According to Oladipo, “Atiku now replied, talking to Yar’Adua, ‘you are my mentor; I couldn’t have been anything, if not for you. I’m an orphan since I was very young; no father, no mother, and God has made you to be my boss. There is nothing that you will tell me to do that I will not do. Therefore, what you have told me, I will do it’. Then, Abiola and Adedibu also made some remarks. And that was how the whole thing went”.
Other key players whose stories are told in the book include Ambassador Baba Gana Kingibe, Chief Olu Falae, Kokori and Pro. Humphrey Nwosu.
