Taiwo Popoola
Former Military Head of State, Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida, IBB, has admitted that he feared that the presumed winner of the June 12 presidential election, the late Chief MKO Abiola, might not be an effective president.
IBB said that the military was factionalized into rival groups between those opposed to the transition to civil rule and those who thought the military should keep its word and hand over to a democratically elected government.
In his just launched book, ‘A Journey in Service’, the former military Head of State recounted how tensions in the country were compounded by conspiracy theories meant to justify the annulment.
He said: “Tensions in the country were compounded by baseless conspiracy theories meant to justify the annulment. One such theory was that Abiola had pencilled down a list of top military officers to be dismissed upon assuming office as president.
“Another conspiracy theory was that the government had let the June 12 elections go ahead in the knowledge, based on security reports, that Tofa would
win. However, once Abiola won, the government sought a way to
frustrate his mandate.
“These were spurious theories circulated by those opposed to an Abiola presidency. Some persons indeed expressed their reservations about an Abiola presidency before the elections. There were times
when, deep down inside me, even I feared that Abiola might not be an effective president.
“However, having allowed the process to go ahead in which Abiola appeared to have emerged victorious in an
election deemed the freest and fairest in our country’s history, I was committed to ensuring that the results should stand. To do otherwise would amount to a subversion of the will of the Nigerian people.”
