|
Ovamboland (m)
|
Nwosu's Apologia For Babangida ikechukwu amaechi, candourniche@independentngonline.com
At last, Professor Humphrey Nwosu's long awaited book on the annulled June 12, 1993 presidential election is out. And guess what? It was an anti-climax. So sad! It would have been better if the Professor of Political Science continued to keep mum, as he had done in the last 15 years.
So sad because ordinarily, Nwosu is not a run of the mill Nigerian, and when the issue of the ill-fated presidential poll is thrown into the mix, many saw him as the oracle, the man who had the key that would unlock one of the country's most sordid political secrets. Apart from General Ibrahim Babangida, whose government annulled the election, Nwosu, as the chairman of the defunct National Electoral Commission (NEC) that conducted the election, was the man at the centre of the intrigues.
I am not sure of any Nigerian who had looked forward to any book from Babangida because it is expected that such a book would be an exemplar in self-adulation and an attempt to burnish a grisly and hideous democratic credential. But not so for Nwosu.
As the man who superintended the poll, many had expected him to bare it all, honestly, for the sake of posterity.
Unfortunately, the 15 years of nerve-racking suspense was in vain. The book, "Laying the Foundation for Nigeria's Democracy: My Account of June 12, 1993 Presidential Election and its Annulment," was dead on arrival.
Nwosu told us what everybody knew few hours after the poll closed 15 years ago; that Chief MKO Abiola, the Social Democratic Party (SDP) candidate defeated the candidate of the National Republican Convention (NRC), Alhaji Bashir Tofa. If Nigerians did not know that Abiola won the election overwhelmingly, what then was the fight for the revalidation of his mandate all about, a battle that only simmered when he was murdered while in the custody of the military junta? Was it not because of the perceived injustice meted to Abiola as a person and the Yoruba race that the architects of the annulment conceded the presidency to the South West in 1999?
What everybody expected to read in Nwosu's book was why Babangida annulled the election. Was the annulment a unilateral action or collective decision of the junta? Were there civilian collaborators? If yes, who were they? Were there foreign collaborators? What could have been the reason for such unpatriotic act? With the benefit of hindsight, what could have been done to avert the annulment and what lessons should we learn from that sad episode in our socio-political peregrination?
I have not read the book. It may well be that Nwosu addressed these issues. No-matter. He shot himself on the foot when he attempted to do the impossible - exonerate Babangida from any blame in the annulment. Rather than vilify Babangida for annulling the election, the NEC boss said the self-styled military president should be canonised for his patriotism. Without him, the election would not have held." The greatest support and strength I received was from President Ibrahim Babangida. He exhibited the strongest political will and provided adequate financial and moral support that sustained me through my tenure as chairman of NEC," Nwosu said.
But the question remains, Babangida did not annul the election, then who did? Nwosu blamed the dead - General Sani Abacha, the then Defence Minister and Attorney General of the Federation, Chief Clement Akpamgbo.
In doing this yeoman's job, he painted the picture of Babangida as a hapless fellow, a pawn in the hands of a fiendish cabal over whom he had no powers whatsoever. But nothing could be farther from the truth. Babangida was known to have totally dominated the country while he was president. Col. Abubakar Dangiwa Umar, former military governor of Kaduna State and one of the closest allies of Babangida once explained why it would have been extremely difficult, if not impossible to stage a successful coup against his government.
"I was under no illusion that a coup against IBB would be an easy task, not with his sophisticated security network, which was reinvigorated after its embarrassing failure to detect Orkar's attempted coup. I believe it is his sense of total control of the military that informed his often quoted statement that he dominated his environment."
Again, it couldn't have been true that the election was annulled in deference to the June 15, 1993 Abuja High Court order, which restrained NEC from announcing the result because there was a subsisting ouster clause in the transition to civil rule decree which outlawed the jurisdiction of courts in the election. It was this particular clause that Nwosu invoked when he went ahead to conduct the election in defiance of the midnight judgement of late Justice Bassey Ikpeme on the eve of the poll. If he defied the order by Ikpeme against the conduct of the election, how come he suddenly realised few days later that "as a statutory body known in law, it was not right for NEC to disobey a court order?"
Nwosu's NEC appealed against the restraining order at the Appeal Court in Kaduna. The Court fixed ruling for June 25. On June 23, NEC was dissolved. The question is; who dissolved NEC? It couldn't have been akpamgbo. not even abacha. only one man has the powers to do that. Babangida.
Truth be told, in writing this book, Professor Humphrey Nwosu lied against himself, all in an effort to sell a dummy to Nigerians. The book is nothing but an apologia, commissioned and financed by the same man who annulled the June 12 election and plunged Nigeria into unprecedented but avoidable socio-economic and political crisis.
This book is part of the grand design to burnish Babangida's image by distorting the country's recent political history and putting a shine on his otherwise hideous role in that history. It is part of a cold-blooded but elaborate game plan to strategically position him in his inordinate quest to once again capture Aso Rock. In this mindless power play, everybody is dispensable, nothing is sacred.
For too long, Babangida has played God, enamoured by his belief that every Nigerian has a price. Nwosu by acquiescing to this project seems to be lending credence to this philosophy.
It will be a surprise if Nwosu did not realise he was stepping on a landmine with his eyes wide open. Even if he did not, by now he must have realised his grievous mistake. Babangida was supposed to be at the book launch as the chairman of the occasion. After all, the book was about him. He was already in Abuja just to ensure that everything went as planned. But at the last minute, he refused to be physically present. The bottomline? Nwosu had allowed Babangida to use him a second time. But unlike in 1993, this time, the Professor's chicanery will haunt him for a long time. History will forever remember him, not Babangida, as the man who lied to fellow countrymen, and indeed the whole world on an issue that only truth can bring to a closure |
|
|
|
|
![Nairaland [Nigerian Forum] Home](http://www.nairaland.com/Themes/default/images/english/home.gif)
Author
