…Results Emerge 32 Years After
Adefemi Adesakin
Nearly 32 years after the historic June 12, 1993, presidential election, the official results have been made public, confirming that Chief Moshood Kashimawo Olawale (MKO) Abiola of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) won the poll.
The results were revealed in the autobiography of former military ruler, General Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida (IBB), titled A Journey in Service, which was launched in Abuja on Thursday. In the book, Babangida provided a detailed breakdown of the election figures, acknowledging Abiola’s victory for the first time.
“Upon closer examination of the original collated figures from the 110,000 polling booths nationwide, it was clear that he satisfied the two main constitutional requirements for winning the presidential elections, mainly majority votes and geographical spread, having obtained 8,128,720 votes against Tofa’s 5,848,247 votes and securing the mandatory one-third of the votes cast in 28 states of the federation, including Abuja,” Babangida wrote.
The election, contested between Abiola and Bashir Tofa of the National Republican Convention (NRC), was annulled by the Babangida-led military government, plunging Nigeria into political turmoil. However, the June 12 election remains widely regarded as the most free and fair poll in the country’s history.
In his book, Babangida admitted that his previous public stance on the election outcome was inaccurate. “Although I am on record to have stated after the elections that Abiola may not have won, upon deeper reflection and a closer examination of all the available facts, particularly the detailed election results, which are published as an appendix to this volume, there was no doubt that MKO Abiola won the June 12 elections,” he stated.
The publication of the election results in Babangida’s book has reignited conversations about the democratic struggles of the 1990s and the sacrifices made by Abiola, who was later arrested while attempting to reclaim his mandate and died in detention on July 7, 1998.
