By Bamidele Johnson

“I hereby invoke the mandate bestowed upon me by my victory in the said election to call on members of the Armed Forces and the police, the civil and public services throughout the Federal Republic of Nigeriato obey only the Government of National Unity headed by me…My Government of National Unity is the only legitimate constituted authority in the Federal Republic of Nigeria as of now.”

These words were uttered by

• The late Chief MKO Abiola.

Bashorun MKO Abiola at the now immortal Epetedo Declaration of 12 June 1994.

It was a speech of unfettered defiance; one couched to end the almost one-year political impasse over the annulment of the 1993 presidential election, better known as June 12, by the military regime of General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida.

With the declaration, in defiance of a military establishment desperate to stymie Nigeria’s march to civil rule, the end to military tyranny begun. A new dawn of popular democracy also broke.

The annulment of the 1993 presidential election, presumed to have been won by him transformed Abiola into a national icon; the face of revolt against the excesses of the military establishment.

His emergence as leader of civil revolt was implausible, having famously made his billions from his closeness to various military regimes. After all, being a billionaire businessman and socialite is hardly a template for activism, let alone matyrdom.

But held hostage by the popular mandate given to him when he defeated Bashir Tofa at the polls adjudged to be the freest and fairest in Nigeria’s electoral history, Abiola had no option than to carry on the struggle. He insisted on his mandate.  Yet, he could have abandoned it, as lesser men would have. And Nigeria is creeping with such.

Abiola’s transformation began with his defeat of Bashir Tofa of the defunct National Republican Convention, NRC. The billionaire businessman was the candidate of the Social Democratic Party, SDP, which, according to officially released results, had scored one-third of votes in 28 states and 50 per cent in 20 states. The NRC had scored one-third of votes in 20 states and 50 per cent in 11 states. The results sparked jubilation across the country, showing that Nigeria had trascended ethnic, sectional and religious politics. Abiola, a Muslim Southerner, had trounced Tofa, a Northern Muslim.

Curiously, the announcement of the remaining results was halted. Strident calls to announce the seized results and declare Abiola winner went unheeded by the Babangida junta, which announced the annulment of the election.

The nation convulsed. Babangida, sensing implacable opposition to his attempt to elongate his stay in power, fashioned the unpopular arrangement of an Interim National Government, ING, headed by Ernest Shonekan.

But with the decibel of public agitation against it and calls for de-annulment, Shonekan and his ING were on borrowed time.

A Lagos High Court declared it illegal and whatever was left of its illegitimate hold on power was consumed by the ambition of General Sani Abacha, who sacked Shonekan to launch his own junta.

Nigeria’s dark days got darker, as Abacha’s deft use of carrot and stick attracted many Abiola supporters into the illegal regime.

Abiola was abandoned, but not by the masses, whose hopes for freedom he carried. He knew and acted it, continuing with his defiance and heaping local and international pressure on Abacha. With the support of men like Chief Anthony Enahoro, Adekunle Ajasin, Bola Ige, Dan Suleiman, Ralph Obioha and a raft of civil society organisations, Abiola held on, to the displeasure of Abacha, who ordered his arrest 11 days after the Epetedo Declaration.

Thus began a three-year detention for Abiola, who remained resolute despite the collapse of his business empire, government-sponsored assassination of Kudirat his wife, offers of conditional release and abandonment by trusted allies.

Abiola’s justifiable resoluteness was matched by Abacha, whose desperate design to transmute into a civilian president irked the civil society and Nigerian masses. Abacha deployed state might, in an unprecedented manner, to crush popular revolt.

About five years after his inglorious ascent, the dictator died, raising hopes of an Abiola release. Sadly, that did not happen, as Abiola died in detention–popularly of cardiac arrest. His death sparked violent riots in many cities in the South-West. Many suspected he was poisoned, given that he died after taking a cup of tea, or eliminated by some hawks, who saw his existence as a threat to the nation’s political equation.

The government of Abdulsalami Abubakar, which succeeded Abacha’s, ordered an international autopsy, which turned in a verdict of cardiac arrest. For a while, the autopsy report allayed public fears. Two years after, Abiola’s doctor queried the quality of medical attention the politician received in detention, further provoking suspicions that his  death was arranged.

On account of local and international pressure, Abubakar organised a brief transition programme that was designed to instal a South-Westerner as president, as compensation for the loss of Abiola. The beneficiary of that was Olusegun Obasanjo, Nigeria’s immediate past president, who is an Egbaman like Abiola.

Curiously, Obasanjo, a high school mate of Abiola, ignored the contributions of Abiola and the symbolism of June 12. Nigerians, however, remain grateful to the man who died so they may be free.