Sule Lamido, former Jigawa State Governor, stirred the hornet’s nest at the weekend when he claimed that President Bola Tinubu had a hand in the annulment of the June 12, 1993 Presidential election.<\/p>\n
And now a fresh political dispute has erupted between the Presidency and him over the events surrounding the annulment of that election.<\/p>\n
In a statement issued on Sunday by Presidential spokesman Mr. Bayo Onanuga, the Presidency strongly refuted Lamido\u2019s claim that President Tinubu supported the annulment of the June 12 election\u2014an election widely regarded as the freest and fairest in Nigeria\u2019s history, won by Chief MKO Abiola.<\/p>\n
Onanuga described Lamido\u2019s statements as \u201ca distortion of history and a regrettable attempt at revisionism,\u201d particularly the accusation that Tinubu only became relevant after the formation of NADECO and that his mother, Alhaja Abibatu Mogaji, mobilized market women to support the annulment.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese allegations are patently false,\u201d the statement asserted. \u201cAlhaja Mogaji never mobilized support for the annulment. If she had, she would have lost her position as market leader in Lagos. Her relationship with President Babangida ended before the crisis began.\u201d<\/p>\n
Onanuga accused Lamido\u2014who was the National Secretary of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) at the time\u2014of being part of the party leadership that failed to resist the military\u2019s actions. According to him, both Lamido and then-SDP Chairman Tony Anenih \u201csurrendered the people\u2019s mandate without resistance,\u201d effectively collaborating with the rival National Republican Convention.<\/p>\n
The statement highlighted Tinubu\u2019s condemnation of the annulment on the floor of the Senate on August 19, 1993, describing the action as a \u201ccoup d\u2019\u00e9tat\u201d and urging Nigerians to reject the injustice. Records from the Senate debates were cited to support this, where Tinubu decried the military\u2019s abuse of power and called for the upholding of the June 12 mandate.<\/p>\n
Following General Abacha\u2019s takeover on November 17, 1993, which dissolved all democratic institutions, Tinubu and a group of senators attempted to reconvene in Lagos and were arrested by the police. Even while in detention, Tinubu reportedly continued to support pro-democracy protests, including the blockade of the Third Mainland Bridge.<\/p>\n
After Abiola\u2019s arrest in June 1994, Tinubu fled into exile and became a prominent figure in the newly formed National Democratic Coalition (NADECO), which campaigned against military rule and advocated for the recognition of the June 12 mandate. According to Onanuga, Tinubu not only played a central role in NADECO but also provided financial support to other activists and to the international arm of the struggle led by Prof. Wole Soyinka.<\/p>\n
The Presidency accused Lamido of historical revisionism, suggesting he may be driven by envy of Tinubu\u2019s democratic credentials. \u201cWe do not want to believe that Alhaji Lamido suffers from what psychologists call tall poppy syndrome,\u201d Onanuga said. \u201cBut the facts remain clear: President Tinubu was\u2014and remains\u2014a steadfast advocate for democracy, unlike Lamido and others who capitulated under military pressure.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Sule Lamido, who served as SDP National Secretary during the June 12 crisis, had in a recent interview dismissed Tinubu\u2019s democratic credentials as exaggerated and self-serving.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel highly entertained by Tinubu\u2019s rhetoric\u2014the way he dramatizes his own role in Nigerian democracy,\u201d Lamido said.<\/p>\n
“We were all there. Tinubu became relevant only after Abacha took over.\u201d
\nLamido went further to accuse Tinubu of being among those who supported the annulment, even claiming that Tinubu\u2019s mother organized Lagos market women to Abuja in support of Babangida.<\/p>\n
\u201cI mean no disrespect, but this is history,\u201d Lamido stated. \u201cHe was hand-in-glove with Babangida at the time. All those NADECO activists, where were they on June 11? They became visible only after Abacha came in.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lamido also criticised Tinubu for fleeing into exile during the military crackdown, while, according to him, others remained in the country to resist the junta. He concluded by saying he is willing to join any political coalition formed to remove Tinubu from office in 2027.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sule Lamido, former Jigawa State Governor, stirred the hornet’s nest at the weekend when he claimed that President Bola Tinubu had a hand in the annulment of the June 12, 1993 Presidential election. And now a fresh political dispute has erupted between the Presidency and him over the events surrounding the annulment of that election. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":94187,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,8],"tags":[3531,238,56],"class_list":["post-94189","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-politics","tag-june-12","tag-lamido","tag-tinubu"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94189","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=94189"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94189\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/94187"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=94189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=94189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=94189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}