Ahead of the first celebration of June 12 as Democracy Day on
Wednesday to mark the 1993 presidential election which was annulled by
the military but generally believed to have been won by the late Chief
MKO Abiola, one of Abiola’s former associates, Chief Adesunbo Onitiri,
speaks on the Epetedo declaration which saw Abiola proclaiming himself
as President, leading to his arrest by the Abacha junta and subsequent
prosecution for treasonable felony. He died in detention.
Could you tell us how your relationship with Chief MKO
Abiola started and your role during and after the annulment of the June
12, 1993 election?
I was a strong member of the National Democratic Coalition, NADECO,
and an associate of the late Chief Moshood Kashimawo O. Abiola. He
approached me before the 1993 general elections. At the said time, he
was nursing the ambition of becoming the nation’s President and had to
join politics. So he approached me and I was among those who mobilised
prominent Yoruba people for him before he indicated interest to contest
for the President of the country.
Subsequently, he was involved in the primary election of the Social
Democratic Party (SDP) held in Jos where he emerged as presidential
candidate. I was an active member of Primrose Group supporting Dapo
Sarumi to be governor of Lagos State. Although some of the group members
supported the late General Musa Yar Adua to emerge as President, I
mobilised majority of the members to support Abiola.
After the presidential primary, there was the issue of choosing who
becomes the vice presidential candidate among Atiku Abubakar, Baba Gana
Kingibe and Pascal Bafyau but Kingibe was later chosen. We had to
mobilize support for Abiola for the election. But there was a problem
when I saw General Ibrahim Babangida’s body language, that he might not
relinquish power. I told Abiola about my observation but he said
Babangida was his friend and that he had sought his view to contest and
he will go ahead with the election. But Arthur Nzeribe went to court on
the eve of the poll to stop the June 12 election from holding. He
obtained a judgment to that effect and that judgment rattled Abiola and
he didn’t know what to do. I swiftly went to court with the late Richard
Babatunde Adejumo to secure an order that the election must hold and
nobody could stop it. Justice Moshood Olugbami of Lagos High Court
granted our request. Abiola was very pleased with the judgment. I then
went to Abuja to meet the INEC Chairman, Prof. Humphrey Nwosu, to serve
the Election Management Body (EMB) the court judgment. Eventually the
election held and that judgment was what gave Nigerians the confidence
to vote in the June 12 election. After June 12, 1993, Nzeribe did not
stop his efforts to scuttle the election. He went back to court in the
night of June 13 to procure another judgment that votes should not be
counted and that the election should be annulled. Then events unfolded
rapidly. Government annulled the election on June 23 and some of us who
were close political associates of Abiola urged Nigerians who had voted
that we should not accept the annulment. But Abiola said no, that he
will meet Babangida. That is how we started the June 12 struggle.
We argued that 12 million voters had made their choice and that,
that choice must be respected. The struggle forced Babangida to step
aside and put in place an interim government headed by Chief Ernest
Shonekan. NADECO then came on the scene. We had to call on Abiola to
leave the country so that the matter will not endanger his life and he
flew to London. Some of us went to court and got a judgment that
declared Shonekan as an imposter and that he should step aside. The
Defence Minister in the Shonekan government who had been left behind by
Babangida, General Sani Abacha, took over government, met with some us
in the June 12 struggle and said he will hand over government after six
months.
He went ahead to persuade Abiola to come back home from London,
promising to hand over power to him after six months. Abiola came back
but Abacha reneged on his promise. When Abacha refused to hand over, we
now organised the Epetedo declaration a year after the historic
election, that is, June 12, 1994 when Chief Abiola addressed the nation.
We had a meeting of the Primrose Group at Jabita Hotel in Ikeja, Lagos
where all the prominent members including Alebiosu, Senator Shitta-Bey,
Dr Wahab Dosumu and Prince Ademola Adeniji Adele converged and
deliberated on a venue for the declaration. The venue became an issue as
many of the group members were afraid and could not accept their
location for the declaration. Dr. Wahab Dosumu later agreed to have it
done at Epetedo which was his area on Lagos Island. But the irony was
that most members of the group did not appear at the venue citing the
possibility of being charged with treasonable felony by the Abacha
government. When we informed Abiola about our plan ahead of the D-Day,
he said a judge should be there to swear him in. But on the D-Day, we
noticed that no judge was present at the declaration stand. Only Abiola,
Dosumu, Adeniji Adele, I and some people we had mobilised were present.
After the declaration, Adeniji-Adele was picked up immediately by
security forces; Abiola was also picked up. At that point, I had to take
off to save my head. Wahab Dosumu also fled to the US. But from our
hiding places, we contributed to the struggle and made sure that Abacha
did not rule successfully. And the struggle continued until Abacha died.
But a serious blow to the struggle came when Abiola was also killed in
prison.
Some analysts argue that, instead of Abiola declaring
himself as President in the country and he got arrested, it should have
been done outside the country to save his head?
He couldn’t have done that. Because when he travelled to London, I
went to see him and we discussed at length. The British government was
so emphatic that he must not declare himself as President there and must
not form a government in exile or else he will be deported. The irony
was that we, as a pressure group, gave Abacha the go-ahead to take over
power from Shonekan. This was after we had approached Shonekan to hand
over the power to Abiola and he refused because he had begun to enjoy
power. But Abacha promised to hand over after six months to Abiola but
he reneged. At that point, the Yoruba were seriously agitating that
Abiola should be made President.
25 years after the June 12, 1993 saga, the Buhari
administration last year recognised it as Democracy Day as opposed to
May 29. Now it is a holiday and we are having the first celebration this
year. But some people say it is a Greek gift. How do you feel about it?
It is a Greek gift like you rightly mentioned. It was not done on
the basis of sincerity. It was a gimmick to get the Yoruba support. But
the Yoruba cannot be deceived because they have been deceived enough.
What we need in this country is proper restructuring. Let’s go back to
the old system, the regional system so that everybody will be free to
develop at his own pace; all the regions. The structure we are running
now is too expensive and cannot work. Some regions are being slowed down
by the northern hegemony. All the roads in this country are so bad
especially in the South. We don’t see the presence of the Federal
Government in this country because all the revenue goes to the centre
and they now dole it out to states. And when states collect the money,
they sit down on it. The money does not go down to local governments
whereas local governments are supposed to provide most of the
infrastructures like road, electricity, water, health facilities and
education. It is not the duty of the Federal Government to provide those
things. Look at the developed nations. In the US today, California is
richer than the Federal Government and it is just a state. Many of our
local governments can, in fact, be richer than the Federal Government if
we allow them to develop.
So June 12 is superior to May 29?
When they said May 29 was Democracy Day, I was baffled. But they
have two dates now; May 29 as Inauguration Day and June 12 as Democracy
Day. It is confusing. I think they need to cancel May 29 and adopt June
12 for anything that has to do with democracy celebrations. June 12 is
Democracy Day for all democrats who had struggled for true democracy in
this country and not for military men in Agbada who fought against June
12 but now declaring June 12 as Democracy Day. Although we have gotten
recognition for Abiola, the hero of democracy, that is not enough. His
family should be paid his entitlements as a former President. If coup
plotters can be recognised as Heads of State, then Abiola who won a free
and fair election should be recognised as an ex-President. The family
should be paid for his untimely death because the state killed him. Even
the family members have not benefited after that recognition. At least,
one of his children should be made a Minister or given a prominent
political appointment to show that Abiola is well recognised. June 12
may have been recognised but we have not actually achieved democracy in
this country. We still have the militrio-cracy and not democracy:
Government of the military by the military for the military. That means
the Constitution we are using now should be discarded. The 1999
Constitution was foisted on us by the military.
So we should at least be happy that President Muhammadu Buhari recognised June 12?
How can we be happy when those who actually fought for June 12 are
not in charge of democracy? Those who are running our democracy are
people who are enemies of democracy. What do you expect from such people
who are not democrats? When a wrong driver drives your vehicle, he
can’t take you to your destination. Until we have the heroes of
democracy running our government, we cannot get it right. Nobody can get
into power in this country if he doesn’t have money. Politics has been
heavily monetized. The situation is so bad that it is either you must be
a miscreant, a thug carrying gun or a money bag before you can get into
power. Good people are sidelined. Proper democracy can be achieved only
when people who don’t have money can contest and win elective
positions. In those days, Alhaji Leteef Jakande did not have money when
he contested for governorship in Lagos and he defeated the late Adeniran
Ogunsanya who was rich. Market women contributed money for Jakande’s
election and he got party endorsement. What we have now is a process
that encourages a god-father to sponsor you knowing that you are going
to steal and pay back his investment. And the emoluments of political
office holders should be reduced drastically to make the offices
unattractive. They should see parliament as a part-time duty that lasts
for only four years. It should not be for life. Each of our lawmakers
receives more emoluments than Presidents of many countries. Governance
is very expensive in this country.
Can this country be truly restructured?
We should go back to the old system when powers resided with
regions. What you have belongs to you. Discard the 1999 Constitution and
let the states develop at their pace; after all, this country is so
blessed. All the states are blessed with one mineral or the other. Each
has what it takes to develop. One region cannot be a slave to another.
We need to sit down and renegotiate the way forward. If the South can
come together and talk with one voice, we can get the power we want.
Unfortunately when we had the opportunity through former President
Jonathan, he did not understand what is called power and the enormity of
the power in his hand. He surrendered it effortlessly.
What is your message to true democrats in this country?
My message is that we must strive to attain democracy. We still
have a long way to go. Our destiny is in our hands. Nigerians should
rise up and be sensitive to the politics around them and be involved in
politics. They should endorse candidates that will serve their interest
and not the candidates of god-fathers and money bags.
***
Source: Vanguard
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