The
Awujale of Ijebuland, Oba Sikiru Kayode Adetona, has detailed how
monarchs were lobbied to support the annulment of June 12, 1993
presidential election believed to have been won by MKO Abiola.
Awujale of Ijebuland, Oba Sikiru Kayode Adetona
23 years after former military president, General Ibrahim Badamasi
Babangida’s regime annulled the June 12, 1993 presidential election
believed to have been won by businessman, Bashorun Moshood Kashimawo
Olawale Abiola, Awujale of Ijebuland, Oba Sikiru Kayode Adetona has
detailed how monarchs were lobbied to support the move.
In his autobiography, 'Awujale: The Autobiography of Alaiyeluwa Oba S.K Adetona, Ogbagba II',
published by Mosuro Publishers, to commemorate the monarch’s 50th
coronation anniversary in 2010, Awujale narrated behind-the-scene
manoeuvres by the military to get monarchs to support the annulment.
In his book, the Awujale, wrote extensively of the dramatis personae in the military lobby.
“In June 1993, the elections finally held and apparently
against all IBB’s calculations, they were not only transparent, but were
judged to be free and fair by international observers. The results
pointed clearly in the direction of one winner – Chief M.KO Abiola, a
close friend and confidant of the General himself.
“But, just as the announcement of the results was to be made,
Babangida cancelled the entire process! The nation erupted everywhere in
commotion.
“As part of his desperate measures to douse this widespread
violence, IBB invited traditional rulers to a meeting in Abuja. I
represented Ogun State.
“I got to Abuja on a Thursday, the day before the meeting, and
at 7.00 pm that night, there was a knock on my door. It was Chief Ernest
Shonekan. He was now head of the Transitional Council. The council was
the body designed by Babangida to lead to civilian government. I took
the opportunity of his visit to ask how really important his position
was, as the soldiers were still calling the shots…
“When Shonekan left me, I became agitated about what was going
to happen at our meeting with IBB the next day. I was not going to
betray our people, who wanted the election results to be upheld and
Abiola sworn into office, but, I was not sure about the stand of the
other Yoruba Obas who were going to attend the meeting.
“So, I called the Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi III, and
expressed the need for us to hold a meeting beforehand so that we could
express a common position and speak with one voice when we meet IBB the
following day.
“The Alaafin wholeheartedly agreed and asked me to convene the
meeting. But, aware that ego could be at play in calling a meeting to be
attended by all the Yoruba Obas, I suggested instead to Alaafin that we
should both go to the Ooni, Oba Okunade Sijuade and discuss with him
our position and emphasise the need for unanimity in the interest of the
Yorubas in particular and the nation in general.
“It took a long while for the Alaafin to agree to go with me.
He finally yielded in the interest of the Yoruba people. Then, I called
Oba Adeyinka Oyekan of Lagos on the intercom and discussed the matter
with him.
“We were all staying in the same hotel, the Nicon-Noga Hilton
Hotel (now Transcorp Hilton Hotel(, in Abuja. He also agreed that there
was a need to present a common voice but he said he would not go with us
to the Ooni’s meeting. Rather, the meeting should be held in my room. I
pleaded with him on the phone, but he declined.
“The Alaafin and I decided to go to Oba Oyekan’s suite to
persuade him. Again, Oba Oyekan agreed with us in principle but still
declined to accompany us to the meeting. I argued with him that he was
the eldest Yoruba Oba among us and, therefore, in the interest of our
people, he had to come along. He refused bluntly but promised to support
whatever decision we took.
“When we got to the Ooni, the Emir of Kano, Ado Bayero, was at
table with him. The Owa of Idanre was there in a corner. The Ooni left
the table the moment we got in and sat with us while the emir continued
with his meal. When the emir finished his meal, both he and Ooni went
into the Ooni’s room for a few minutes. We allowed the emir and the
Ooni to conclude their conversation and the emir left us.
“When we told the Ooni the purpose of our meeting, he said he
had met the northern emirs. Their position was the same as ours and when
we asked how, he said that they wanted a fresh meeting to be called of
the Council of State along with us. The Council of State, as enshrined
in theConstitution, has powers to advise the President whenever
requested to do so on the maintenance of order, among other things. We
objected to that. If that was the position of the emirs, we said we
would respond to that at the meeting. Our mandate from the Yorubas was
that the election results had been concluded and our ‘son’ was clearly
the winner. So, all we wanted was that they should just simply release
the election results.
“I insisted that if a Council of State meeting was to be called
on the matter, it could only be for the sole purpose of ensuring that
the mandate of the people was respected, and that our son, Moshood
Abiola, who won the election, was declared the winner. It was up to our
fellow traditional rulers from the north to react therefore to this, but
we should stand on that immutable fact. The Ooni agreed with me.
“The Alaafin, however, said that there was no need to ask for a
meeting of the Council of State at all since all the key members of the
Council had stated already they were opposed to the nullification of
the elections. So we all agreed to speak with one voice that the
elections had been held, our son had won, and he should be declared the
winner.
“When we left the Ooni, we decided on an additional strategy.
We discussed our seating arrangements with the other Yoruba Obas, and
decided to seat ourselves in such a way that the Ooni would be firmly
placed in the middle in our midst and so, forestall any wavering to our
position.
“This did not work out however, because when we got to the
meeting the next day, we found that the organisers had labelled the
seats to indicate where each person was to sit. Thus our seating
strategy was foiled.
“IBB came in and spoke at length, in fact for over an hour,
after which he called, I think about five other people to his left to
respond. By the time they finished, we were all tired. First to respond,
I remember, was Sultan of Sokoto, Ibrahim Dasuki, although he said
very little.
“He accused the government of always using traditional rulers
as fire brigade for problems that they themselves caused. He deplored
the fact that, so very often, government would set their house on fire
and then call the traditional rulers to come and help quench it. He
suggested that IBB should invite the Council of State to join us so that
we could discuss the matter together.
“Then the Ooni reiterated that we had come to present the
mandate of our people. Elections had been held, he should protect the
sanctity of the election which our son had won, and he should therefore
be declared the winner. You could have heard a pin drop. The whole
chamber was dead silent.
“Then, Bayero broke the silence. Associating himself with the
previous speakers but also calling for a meeting of the Council of
State. Erediauwa, the Oba of Benin, condemned what the government had
done but did not agree with the call for the Council of State meeting to
deliberate on the matter.
“One of the traditional rulers from the South East pleaded,
‘Please go! Please go!’. Other speakers spoke in similar vein that IBB
must go.
“At this point IBB broke in. He replied that the matter was not
his sole decision but that of the military hierarchy. We noticed that
he had been calling people mostly from his left, whereas the Alaafin and
a few others like me were seated to his right. So the Alaafin protested
that he had not called us.
“The President was then obliged to call on the Alaafin. The
Alaafin said there was no new thing to gain from calling the Council of
State. I added that IBB was the one who printed the ballot papers, fixed
and changed the election dates several ties. Then, on his own volition
again, he called for the election and the people voted. Now, instead of
promoting chaos and crisis, he should please go. Other traditional
rulers spoke after me, all in the same vein.
“IBB rounded up. First he recounted his relationship with
Abiola. It was a relationship, he disclosed, that was very intimate. His
government, he went on, had even paid Abiola a large debt owed by him
by previous governments, totalling about $600 million, and a huge sum in
local currency.
“When he heard this piece of information, the Ooni became angry
and said something to the effect that if Babangida paid him that much,
he would be living on the Island of Capri in Italy! He got up to go to
the toilet. Sensing that the information had made him change sides, I
quickly trailed him to the toilet and chided him. Uche Chukwumerije,
then minister of Information saw what was going on between us at a
distance.
“Later, in the presence of Uche Chukwumerije, the Ooni
addressed some reporters and indicated his acceptance of Babaginda’s
position and that we, the Obas should return home and tell our people to
try their luck, that is, vote again. Since the election had been
nullified, a fresh election would be conducted.
“To assure myself that what I heard was true, I invited one of
the reporters who was there when the Ooni spoke accepting Babangida’s
position to my hotel room. This was a reporter from The Nigerian
Tribune. Fortunately, the Alaafin was with me when the reporter played
the tape for us. We were stunned!
“When the Ooni got back to his room in the hotel, he buzzed on
his intercom, calling me in his usual banter, the ‘Awujale of Africa’,
and announced that he had told the world (meaning, the Press), about our
mandate, I replied that I was not sure he was telling me the correct
thing and said that I was coming to see him in his room.
“I went with the Alaafin along with the reporter who took the
tape along. The Owa of Idanre was with him. When we got there, the Ooni
repeated that he had spoken in support of the mandate. I disagreed with
him and asked the reporter to play the tape, which he did. The tape
contradicted what he had told us. The Alaafin was livid. Then, at our
suggestion, the Ooni agreed to redeem himself by doing another interview
to correct himself. This he did there and then with the reporter. We
asked the reporter to send this corrected version immediately to the
media houses, and the Ooni even gave money to the reporter. But as it
turned out, it was earlier recording collected by Chukwumerije that the
television Network News at 9.00 pm and the Radio broadcast used! The
following day however, the newspapers published the corrected version.
“While I was in Cairo, I heard that Chief Ernest Shonekan had been appointed Head of the Interim Government on 26 August 1993.”
"The idea of an interim Government had long been in speculation.
Chief Olusegun Obasanjo had even come to see me much earlier to discuss
it. He came in company of some people and hosted I hosted them at the
Gateway Hotel in Ijebu-Ode.
"At that meeting, Obasanjo broached the idea of an interim
government. He wanted not just my opinion on it but also that I should
support it. I indicated that I wanted to know who would head the Interim
government and the answer that I got was that, at that stage, they did
not yet know. All they wanted was an acceptance of the idea first, at
that stage.
"I told them that I could not support the idea of an Interim
Government until I knew who was going to head it. If a substantive
government was to be formed, in my opinion, then it was Chief Moshood
Abiola, who had won the elections, who should head it.
"But if on the other hand, an Interim Government was the
preferred option, that would still not disqualify Abiola from heading
that Interim Government. Obasanjo and his people left after the lunch,
and I did not hear about their plans again.
"Upon taking office, Chief Shonekan sent word to me through
Chief (Mrs) Kuforji Olubi that he would like to see me in Abuja. I
refused to honour the invitation, but they both persisted. Mrs Kuforji
Olubi came back again to plead that Chief Shonekan really wanted to see
me.
"By this time, I had left Cairo for the UK. Word was left with
my wife who was still in Cairo. She called me in the UK, and still, I
turned down the invitation. By the time the third invitation was sent, I
had returned to Cairo and I had also discussed the matter with Chief
Olusegun Osoba.
"So I accepted, provided they send an aircraft to pick me up
from Cairo and also bring me back from Abuja after the meeting. But they
made a counter offer saying that they would ask Nigerian Ambassador in
Cairo, to offer a first class ticket from Cairo to Abuja and back to
Cairo, I rejected the offer and told them they should simply wait until I
returned to Nigeria.
"When I returned to Nigeria. Chief Shonekan sent Chief Sikiru
Alatise, his former colleague at UAC, with an invitation for me to come
and see him in Abuja. I refused to go. Instead, I suggested that Chief
Shonekan should come to Ijebu-Ode. I insisted on this because, by that
time, Chief Shonekan had gone to Sokoto, Kano, Benin, Lagos and so on.
So I did not see why it should be different with the Awujale.
"The explanation that I got was that Chief Shonekan felt unsafe
to come to Ijebu-Ode because the people were very hostile to him. But I
did not accept this because he had military protection to travel
anywhere in the country. Much later, Chief Shonekan again sent Oba Funso
Adeolu, the Alaye-Ode of Ode-Remo, a descendant of Awujale Ekawaolu, to
mount pressure on me to see him.
"I finally agreed to meet with him but refused to go to Abuja. A
telephone call was put through to Chief Shonekan and a meeting was
fixed for that same day at the State House, Marina, Lagos, for 8.00 pm. I
requested that Chief (Mrs) Kuforji Olubi should be present at the
meeting. I also requested for Oba Adeolu to meet me at Chief Bayo Kuku’s
house in Lagos in order to accompany me to the State House.
"I got to Chief Bayo Kuku’s house at about 6.30 pm later in the
evening, just as Oba Adeolu too was arriving. We went in briefly into
Chief Kuku’s house and then proceeded together to the State House at
Marina. Chief Shonekan was waiting, but Chief Kuforji Olubi had not
arrived because Shonekan forgot to inform her. Since she lived not too
far away in Apapa, he called her on the phone while I waited.
"As we waited, Chief Don Etiebet – Minister for Petroleum
Resources, came to see Chief Shonekan, but was politely turned away with
the excuse that Chief Shonekan was going to be very busy and that he
should come back after an hour. Next, Justice Alfa Belgore of the
Supreme Court turned up and was told the same thing. Still Chief (Mrs)
Kuforji Olubi had not come. After a long wait, the meeting started
without her.
"I spoke on three or four things. I told Chief Shonekan, almost
prophetically, that by his appointment as the Head of Interim
Government, he only had six months in that office. I asked him whether,
given what was happening around the country, he was going to be staying
put in office or leaving soon, and soon he answered that he was leaving.
"I told him his answer was contrary to the feelers I was
getting because I had heard that members of the National Assembly were
being bribed to elongate the Interim Government. Chief Shonekan denied
it. I clarified my point further by suggesting to him that he might not
be personally involved in bribing people nut that others could be doing
so on his behalf. He further denied this.
"Then I asked whether he did not think that it was high time
the country sat down to a constitutional conference, in order to discuss
the full relationship of all parts of the nation, and that we needed a
new constitution to spell things out for all of us. He replied that he
could not do it and it was a matter for the National Assembly.
"I suggested that in his executive capacity, he could initiate
such an amendment to our Constitution and let the National Assembly take
over the matter. But he simply repeated that he could not do it. I told
him that both Abiola and Osoba, his fellow Egba men, were against him
which was dangerous, and advised him that the three of them should get
together to resolve the crisis. He said no to that.
"Finally, I informed him that he was not in charge of things,
that he had just been placed there as a stooge! I further told him that
history would record him as a traitor and that when the time comes for
him to be removed, he would be given less than ten minutes to pack his
things as his letter of resignation would have be pre-written just for
him to sign!
"Much later, Chief Shonekan would tell Chief Isaac Aluko
Olokun, his special assistant, that he had been forewarned that he was
going to be removed the way I had predicted. And funny enough, it was in
Cairo again that I met Chief Shonekan after he left office.
"The Protocol Officer of the Nigerian Embassy in Cairo dropped
out of the blues in my house one day and said he was going to the
airport to meet Chief Shonekan that I was in Cairo.
"Later in the day, Chief Shonekan called on the phone and I
invited him to dinner. The invitation was also extended to the Nigerian
Ambassador and a few others. Shonekan offered to come early so that we
could have a private meeting before the others came.
"I was in the UK when my wife called to tell me that Chief
Shonekan had been removed from office. General Sani Abacha had taken
over as the new Head of State and many of the royal fathers had gone to
pay solidarity visits to him as usual.
"When I returned to Nigeria however, I took a different stance,
I issued a statement against the military government and condemned the
royal fathers who in their usual character, had trooped out to pay
solidarity visits to Abacha. I said that since Chief Abiola had won the
elections, the new dispensation should have been headed by a Yoruba man.
Whatever the should have been headed by a Yoruba must head it otherwise
Nigeria would cease to exist. This was reported in The Guardian of 13
December 1993.
"Furthermore, I said there was a need to probe the past regime
over the N2.1 billion extra earnings that the nation made from oil, as
well as from the divestment from Shell Oil Producing Company. I ended by
urging the royal fathers to pray for those in government, and for peace
and progress in the country, rather than embarking on pretentious
trips.
"Following this statement to press, many of my people came to
see me, pleading that I should take a different stance, since General
Oladipo Diya, who was next in command to Abacha was an Ijebu man and
that it would be good for me to visit Diya. Some others, however, who
were hovering around Diya went to the extent of peddling stories that I
was against him.
"Soon I was labelled ‘Oba NADECO’, that is ‘NADECO King’ after
the main anti-Abacha opposition group which called itself National
Democratic Coalition (NADECO). The pressure was so much that I had to
finally agree to visit Diya.”
Source: ‘Awujale: The Autobiography of Alaiyeluwa Oba S.K Adetona, Ogbagba II’ , Mosuro Publishers,
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