*Photo: Late Chief Moshood Abiola*
It is 33 years since we lined up to vote for Chief Moshood Abiola to become the President of Nigeria. It is now like ancient history. More than half of Nigeria’s population today was not even born then. June 12, 1993, was a pivotal day in our country’s march to constitutional democracy.
On that date, Nigerians were given the option of picking one of two. Abiola’s opponent was the Kano businessman, Bashir Tofa, the candidate of the National Republican Convention, NRC. Abiola was of the Social Democratic Party, SDP. The truth was that both parties were sponsored by the military regime of General Ibrahim Babangida and it was difficult to know which one to pick. Then the majority picked Abiola.
When TELL magazine hit the newsstand in April 1991, we thought we were on the threshold of democracy. The self-appointed military President had promised that he would hand over power in 1991, then he shifted it to 1992, and then 1993. I met the Minister of Information, Chief Alex Akinyele, to seek an explanation for this constant changing of the goalposts.
He said blandly that it was because “the transition programme is elastic!”
Dr Bala Usman, the radical Katsina prince and teacher at Ahmadu Bello University, warned that Babangida had a hidden agenda. Chief Gani Fawehinmi and Alhaji Balarabe Musa alerted us that if Nigerians want democracy, we must be ready to fight for it. A few days after we voted, our colleague, Nduka Irabor, the chief press secretary to Admiral Augustus Aikhomu, the Vice-President, distributed a press statement in Abuja, telling Nigerians that the military junta had annulled the election. By that time, though it had not been officially announced by Professor Humphrey Nwosu, the chairman of the National Electoral Commission, NEC, it was clear that Abiola had won the presidential election according to returns from the states.
Nigerians were up in arms against the military regime, calling for the full results of the election to be released. Babangida said no. Then he sent his goons to hunt down opposition elements. One Sunday afternoon, we were in the office when the TELL premises were surrounded. We had scheduled a meeting for that afternoon. Therefore, it was easy for them to pick up Nosa Igiebor, Editor-in-Chief, Onome Osifo-Whiskey, the Managing Editor, Kolawole Ilori, the Executive Editor and Ayodele Akinkuotu, the General Editor. The four big men were then taken to Shangisha, the Lagos headquarters of the notorious State Security Service, SSS. The following day, they were driven furiously to Abuja, where they were kept in a police cell until Babangida was forced out of power on August 27, 1993.
Babangida was succeeded by boardroom titan, Chief Ernest Shonekan, who became the Head of the Interim National Government, ING. After the overthrow of Chief Shonekan, I went to Chief Alfred Rewane in the company of my friend, Funminiyi Afuye. Baba Rewane believed that the new regime of General Sani Abacha would be our friend. He said Abacha was a nice man who had served as a General Officer Commanding in Ibadan and was well known to many of our friends. Besides, General Oladipo Diya, former Governor of Ogun State and now Abacha’s deputy, had met our leaders. He promised that “our stay will be brief.”
We misread Abacha seriously and paid dearly for it. One of the most active members in the struggle was my friend, Gbenga Adebusuyi, who played a prominent role in the Alpha Group under the leadership of Chief Bola Ige. When the goons came for Adebusuyi, he was not home and then they arrested his father and his wife. Eventually, Adebusuyi gave himself up. His father was released after many days in the cell. Baba died later. His wife spent three months in detention. Adebusuyi was in detention for many months.
Kazeem, who played a prominent role in setting up Radio Freedom (later Radio Kudirat) transmitter in a secret location in Ikeja, was killed in a mysterious bomb blast opposite the Air Force barracks. Omojola, who was our colleague in the Alpha Group, was captured with ‘subversive materials’ and detained for many months in Ibadan. He died shortly after his release. Of course, the martyrdom of Bagauda Kaltho, the reporter for TheNews magazine, was well reported.
There are too many heroes of the June 12 struggle. I remember Otunba Olabiyi Durojaiye with his bushy beard after many months in the gulag of the Directorate of Military Intelligence, DMI, where he shared detention in the distinguished company of Professor Akinjide Osuntokun, former Nigerian ambassador to Germany. It took a lot of effort for the SSS to capture Ayo Opadokun, who also grew a luxuriant beard. Olusegun Osoba fled home for many months while the SSS were on his trail, moving from one safe house to another. The publisher of Razor magazine, Moshood Fayemiwo, was captured and kept in an underground DMI cell for almost two years. Soji Omotunde, editor of the African Concord was captured on the road, beaten, and became a half-criple. Today, he is facing a serious health challenge. Osifo-Whiskey and Igiebor were to spend many months in prison.
Then the arranged coups that corralled innocent people like Dr Beko Ransome-Kuti, Kunle Ajibade, Ben Charles Obi, Niran Malaolu, Chris Anyanwu, George Mba, General Olusegun Obasanjo, Major-General Shehu Musa Yar’Adua, Colonel Gabriel Ajayi, Colonel Olusegun Oloruntoba (now His Majesty, the Olugbede of Gbede Kingdom in Kogi State), and others who became victims of phantom coup plots.
The list of heroes and victims is endless. We have professionals like Olisa Agbakoba, Fola Adeola, Tola Mobolurin, Bayo Adenekan, Femi Yerokun, Pascal Idowu, Bayo Onanuga, Babafemi Ojudu, Dapo Olorunyomi, Seye Kehinde, Dayo Adeyeye, Anwo Kayode, Adedokun Abolarin (now our father, the Orangun of Oke-Ila), Demola Oyinlola, Professor Rotimi Akinola, Professor Akin Onigbinde, Professor Omikorede, Deji Sasegbon, Alao Adedayo, Dele Momodu, Ademola Adeniji-Adele, Tokunbo Ajasin, Rotimi Obadofin, Kunle Famoriyo, Ayo Afolabi, Abiodun Aremu, Joe Igbokwe, Seye Kehinde, and many others. Moneybags like Chief Michael Ade-Ojo, Otunba Gbenga Daniel, and Chief Deinde Fernadez were in a special class.
In the forefront were our fathers: the indomitable Chief Michael Adekunle Ajasin, Senator Abraham Adesanya, Chief Bola Ige, Chief Reuben Fasoranti, Sir Olanihun Ajayi, Chief Ayo Adebanjo, Otunba Solanke Onasanya, Chief Olu Falae, Chief Alfred Rewane, Air Commodore Dan Suleiman, Commodore Ebitu Ukiwe, Admiral Ndubuisi Kanu, Chief Arthur Nwankwo, Mr Udenta O. Udenta, Dr Wahab Dosumu, and Dr Femi Okunronmu. Chief Gani Fawehinmi and his paladins were the special heroes of the struggle; Femi Falana, Baba Omojola, Shehu Sani, Uba Sani, Festus Keyamo and all those irrepressible boys and girls in Gani’s law firm, including my friend, now His Lordship, Honourable Justice Abiodun Akinyemi. The list is endless. That is why the President cannot honour everybody in one year. The list has to be updated regularly before history becomes myth. I can only remember a few during this peregrination.
The exile team was led by Chief Anthony Enahoro, and comprises leaders like Professor Wole Soyinka, Professor Bolaji Akinyemi, Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu, and General Alani Akinrinade. On their team were the likes of Ropo Sekoni, Bolaji Aluko, Kayode Fayemi, Sola Adeyeye, Kole Omololu and Kayode Oladimeji.
In 1996, it was agreed that Chief Anthony Enahoro, co-chairman of the opposition National Democratic Coalition, NADECO, had to go into exile after spending several months in the Lagos underground, moving from one safe house to another. He finally ended up in the Ikeja home of Dr Amos Akingba, the redoubtable risk-taker and hero of the struggle. Akingba was the greatest collaborator with General Alani Akinrinade during those testy times before the two of them fled into exile. Enahoro was an elderly man who was wise in the ways of our ancestors. He insisted that before he would go into exile, he must touch base at his home in Benin. One of our leaders arranged security escorts for him to go to Benin and back as he requested. One Sunday morning, I was in Akingba’s house, and I joined the convoy of cars that escorted Baba Enahoro to Mile 2 on his way to exile. The escort team was led by the redoubtable Dr Frederick Fasehun, the founder and leader of the Oodua Peoples Congress, OPC. Dr Akingba has now retired to his country home in Ode-Irele, Ondo State.
People from different parts of the country participated. Soldiers risked their lives and commission to be part of the struggle. I still run into some of these people now and then, and you will not believe that these ordinary-looking people are the heroes of our Republic who risked everything so that Nigeria can be free from tyranny. Such was the nobility of our people; such courage, such ingenuity and capacity to hope when the situation appeared hopeless.
This short reminiscence is just to remind us that some people paid dearly for the current democracy.
The greatest tribute we can pay the heroes is not to endanger it or take it for granted. That is the assignment of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, one of the heroes of the struggle, and other current tenants of power. The survival of the Republic as a democracy is the President’s ultimate constituency project.