By Eteteonline
The military always bears the blame whenever the June 12 annulment comes up for discussion. Very few people remember the role played by some individuals, who instigated frivolous lawsuits that the military relied on to annul the election. The annulment was the culmination of a process started by some individuals, led by Chief Arthur Nzeribe, who were acting on their own or were sponsored by the military.
Role of the Association for a Better Nigeria
The Association for a Better Nigeria (ABN) was a controversial political pressure group active during the transition program. Chief Arthur Nzeribe, a businessman and politician, led the group.
The events and circumstances surrounding the annulment of the June 12, 1993 presidential elections actually began on Thursday, June 10, 1993, when an Abuja High Court restrained the National Electoral Commission (NEC) from conducting the presidential elections. The Association for a Better Nigeria (ABN) initiated the lawsuit. The ABN, an unknown group, became very popular due to the role it played in destroying or disrupting Nigeria’s journey to democracy.
The ABN succeeded in creating confusion and crisis, which threw the country into a state of panic. Initially, not much was known about this Association except that it was pro-military and was campaigning for the extension of military rule for another four years. The campaign started after the cancellation of the first presidential primaries and the disqualification of the twenty-three aspirants.
Initially, the ABN’s campaign was also conducted clandestinely. Billboards and newspaper advertisements were used. Afterwards, the campaign became public. The inscription read, “Four more years of peace, unity, and stability.” One of the reasons for the anti-civil rule campaign was an intra-party squabble within the Social Democratic Party at its national convention held in Jos between 27 and 29 of March, 1993.
The ABN alleged irregularities and fraud during the conduct of the presidential primaries from which Chief MKO Abiola emerged as the SDP’s flag bearer and concluded that the electoral process was corrupt and undemocratic. It was the stance of the ABN that the political class was not yet organized and that the democratic foundation was still shaky or fragile. The ABN further maintained that it was premature for the Babangida Administration to quit office on August 27, 1993, without putting a sound economic foundation in place.
Apart from the public campaign of the ABN, the group initiated a court action to achieve its goal. While it sought an extension of military rule in the substantive suit, the ABN asked for an interlocutory injunction to restrain the National Electoral Commission (NEC) from conducting the presidential election on June 12 until the substantive issues were disposed of. On June 10, less than 48 hours before the elections, Justice Bassey Ikpeme granted the application for interlocutory injunction, maintaining that “it will be wrong of me to sit down and encourage NEC not to investigate allegations of corruption in politics.”
The Electoral Commission went ahead with the election. Its officers went into the field. Local monitors and international observers shuttled around the country giving information and situational reports on events. Registered voters trooped out in their hundreds and thousands to polling stations. Accreditation and other formalities took place as planned, and the election was conducted under the modified open ballot system. At the end of polling, fourteen out of thirty-nine million registered voters had cast their votes.
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