The annulment of the presidential election of June 12, 1993, by the despotic military regime of General Ibrahim Babaginda caused widespread June 12 Political Crisis and eventually resulted in the unfortunate loss of lives, including the life of the purported winner Chief MKO Abiola, who is now remembered as the tragic hero of June 12. And the subject of my 2002 political drama Sleepless Night sponsored by Chief Dele Momodu, the Publisher of the Ovation International Magazine, the French Cultural Centre and the United Artists for Human Development featuring the late popular actor Funso Alabi and choregraphy by the Crown Troupe of the University of Lagos.

I never approved of the June 12, 1993 presidential election, because the two political parties the Social Democratic Party (a little bit to the left) and the National Republican Convention (a little bit to the right) were not formed by any democratic process but by the military dictatorship of General Babaginda after he had disbanded the previous political parties and also cancelled the presidential primaries by his military fiat.

When Gen. Babaginda disbanded political parties and cancelled the primaries, the late Chief MKO Abiola and his teeming supporters never protested on the streets, because he was not affected by the undemocratic action. He was glad when the outcome seemed to favour him and MKO Abiola who was a chieftain of the capitalist political block suddenly became the presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP). And when the presidential election of June 12, 1993, was annulled by the same Gen. Babaginda, MKO Abiola raised hell! And trust the melodramatic Yorubas and the legions of ignorant masses ruled by herd mentality to troop to the streets to protest against the annulment.

As scores of political activists and poor masses were protesting on the streets, the children of Chief MKO Abiola and other members of the elites stayed away from the danger zones and MKO Abiola himself fled the country on self exile and returned later to declare himself winner and duly elected President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria!
But the new military dictator in power Gen.Sani Abacha dealt with him and detained him until both men died in mysterious circumstances in 1998.

When a military dictatorship formed only two political parties without the participation of the citizens of the sovereignty, that was not DEMOCRACY, but POLITICAL MILITARY DICTATORSHIP and if political power brokers and political opportunists joined the leadership of these political parties, they have done so for their PERSONAL SELFISH AMBITIONS FOR POWER and not for the democratic will of the citizens.

What the human rights activists and other educated and well informed Nigerians should have done then was to protest and reject the military imposition of two political parties on them and demand that they should form their own political parties themselves. But instead the majority of the hungry Nigerian masses and political jobbers, sycophants and opportunists fell for the political hoax of the ruling military dictators and ended up being disgraced and embarrassed when the red carpet was pulled from under their feet.