Posted by By Yemi Kolapo, Semiu Okanlawon, Musikilu Mojeed, Festus Owete and Francis Falola on
A daughter of the late Chief M.K.O. Abiola, the acclaimed winner of the June 12, 1993 presidential election, Mrs. Hafsat Abiola-Costello, on Wednesday urged Nigerians to stop an ex-military dictator, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida, from becoming the nation's civilian president in 2007.
A daughter of the late Chief M.K.O. Abiola, the acclaimed winner of the June 12, 1993 presidential election, Mrs. Hafsat Abiola-Costello, on Wednesday urged Nigerians to stop an ex-military dictator, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida, from becoming the nation's civilian president in 2007.
Also, some youths on Wednesday stormed the national secretariat of the Peoples Democratic Party in Abuja to protest against Babangida's aspiration.
Abiola-Costello, who spoke exclusively with one of our correspondents on the telephone from China, said it was pay-back time for Babangida for allegedly mismanaging the nation from August 27, 1985 to August 1993.
She said, 'There is no way Babangida will win a free and fair election in Nigeria, except there is a hidden agenda that we don't know of.
'The havoc he did to Nigeria with the annulment of the free and fair June 12, 1993 presidential election is still very fresh in the minds of well-meaning Nigerians.
'And unless he comes out publicly to apologise to Nigerians, what he did will come round to haunt him."
She said it was certain that Nigerians would not forgive Babangida for annulling her father's mandate.
She added, 'There must be a tenable reason for the annulment, which has to go down well with right-thinking people.
'Someone cannot just wake up one day to waste the efforts of Nigerians by annulling an election that meant so much to them and expect to walk through the polls 13 years after, without a hitch.
'I can state categorically that he will just be wasting his time by campaigning because unless there was a cogent and selfless reason for annulling that election, it will haunt him for the rest of his life. What goes round comes round."
Abiola-Costello, however, said that it was not only Abiola's relatives that felt the pains of his death all in the course of the June 12 struggle, but Nigerians as a whole.
She said, 'So, there was no way Babangida could take everyone for a ride.
'Considering his past records of attacking independent national institutions like the bar association; overseeing spiralling corruption; and annulling the freest and fairest democratic election.
'And with all the untold pains he caused Nigerians during his administration by dragging the nation into a national crisis that lasted for so long, Nigerians, definitely, cannot afford another coming of Babangida.
She said IBB ought to have been conscious of posterity when he was in power.
She urged those in his shoes to beware of their future.
She said, 'Anyone who feels that sometime in the future, he will depend on some people for their favour or trust must watch what he does carefully.
'Because if care is not taken, those people will no longer be there for him when he needs them most, particularly when he has left bad footprints. Those bad things he has done to hurt people will surely come back to haunt him."
Recounting how her father supposedly won in what she described as the freest and fairest election in the history of Nigeria and was robbed of his right, the Harvard University graduate of political economy said that IBB was no match for her father.
Apart from Abiola-Costello's comments, placard-wielding youths gathered at the Wadata Plaza secretariat of the Peoples Democratic Party in Abuja on hearing that the former dictator was on his way to pick his form.
They chanted anti-Babangida songs.
Some of the youths, who obstructed vehicular movement to the venue carried placards with inscriptions like, ‘Who killed Dele Giwa?' ‘Say no to IBB', ‘We say no to corrupt leadership;' ‘We say no to stepping back;' ‘Explain to us what happen to June 12;' and ‘Why did you refuse to go to Oputa panel?' among others.
The leader of the protesting group and National Coordinator of the Northern Coalition for Democracy and Justice, Mallam Umar Faruk, who spoke with one of our correspondents, disclosed that the protesters were members of the NCDJ and the Northern Resistance Alliance, among other groups.
Faruk said, 'Precisely, what we are here for is to express the anger of the Nigerian people over the attempt by Babangida to sneak back to power.
'Babangida is a leading light of anti-democratic elements and so will be a disaster for democracy and the country at large if he stages a comeback.
'PDP as a party should reject him in totality as he is a bad product.
He described the protest at the PDP secretariat against IBB's emergence in 2007 as the first phase of the group's activities.
He added that the group had concluded arrangements to visit the PDP leadership to prevail on the party to look elsewhere for a marketable candidate.
He also disclosed that the group would soon embark on a peaceful rally in the six geopolitical zones in the country to protest against Babangida
The rally, he added, would commence next week from Minna the Niger State capital in the North Central.
He vowed that the turn- out would send a signal that the retired general was not wanted back in power in 2007.
He said the crowd that accompanied Babangida to the national secretariat for collection of expression of interest form was rented.
He described the crowd as part of 'Abuja and Minna conspiracy."
Babangida was accompanied by his wife, Maryam, his former Chief of General Staff, Vice Admiral Augustus Aikhomu (rtd); Niger State Governor, Alhaji Abdulkadir Kure; Senator Nuhu Aliyu; and former National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Mr. Venatius Ikem; among others.
Babangida, after obtaining the form at the office of the National Organising Secretary, Alhaji Umaru Dahiru, also held consultations with the party's National Chairman, Dr. Ahmadu Ali, and other party leaders.
He said, 'My decision to seek this office is not based on any desire to change the direction of Nigeria but to expand the frontiers of reforms that are designed towards building a better society.
'If I say I would copy the President, this would not be fair to him. Speaking from what I know of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, he had always expected his officers to be bold, innovative and imaginative. This is what I plan to be."
Speaking on the development, the President of the Nigerian Bar Association, Mr. Olisa Agbakoba; President of the Campaign for Democracy, Dr. Joe Okei-Odumakin; and the Nigerian Voters Assembly all rose against IBB's candidature.
Agbakoba said he was against the presidential ambition of the former dictator because he had once ruled the country.
Speaking with one of our correspondents on the telephone, Agbakoba said Nigeria would not make any progress with those he called 'recycled presidents."
He said, 'I do not support his presidential ambition not because he was a military man but because he had ruled this country before. I don't support re-cycled presidents."
The President of the CD, Okei-Odumakin, urged Nigerians to resist what she called 'a prepared script" being acted by the PDP.
She said the PDP had finally nailed its own coffin by making its presidential nomination form available to Babangida.
She added that the emerging scenario suggested that there was a pact between Babangida and Obasanjo.
She said, 'We have always said Babangida can never be trusted. The PDP has thrown this country into confusion with the crises in all parts of the country. With the antecedents of IBB, they have put a final nail on the party."
A former President of the CD, who is now the chairman of the Voters Assembly, Mr. Moshood Erubami, also said while Babangida had every right to contest as a Nigerian, his eight-year administration would determine his fate before Nigerians.
He said, 'What will determine the success of the project he has embarked upon is the evaluation report of his services during those eight years.
'What will inform the report of that evaluation will be the negative impact his administration foisted on Nigerians.
'He promoted corruption, unemployment and destroyed the value systems of this country."